The second day of the Dutch GP began with eventful free practice, interrupted for several minutes at the red flag after the big falls of Marco Bezzecchi and Raúl Fernández at turn 7, both of whom got up shaken but visibly uninjured.
After a new best time from Pecco Bagnaia, above the rest since the start of the weekend, the qualifications then only confirmed the Ducati rider’s stranglehold on the hierarchy. The one that Marc Márquez and Jorge Martín described yesterday as being “two notches above everyone else” continued to give the lesson to go and get his 19th pole position in MotoGP.
Q1 – Acosta best time before crashing
Among the 13 drivers forced to compete in Q1 after missing direct qualifying on Friday were Pedro Acosta, the VR46 team duo and the two Frenchmen in the field. The first reference time came from Fabio Di Giannantonio on his Ducati GP23. Challenged by Acosta, the Italian driver further improved the score on the following lap, asserting himself as the man to beat in this quarter of an hour.
When everyone pitted for a rear tyre change, the two men were separated by just 34 thousandths, with Fabio Quartararo in third place, almost a tenth and a half further back. Traffic and a few mistakes made the short session somewhat sluggish before the favourites put in a string of good laps in the money time.
Quartararo then took the lead but only held the position briefly before seeing Acosta respond and take first place in 1’31″372. One last attempt and it was Di Giannantonio’s turn to recover second position and push Quartararo back to third: the Frenchman’s qualifications ended there.
While Di Giannantonio only missed Acosta’s time by 18 thousandths, the latter crashed a few moments later. A fall without physical damage for the Tech3 rider, but which forced his team to make emergency repairs when he returned to his pits with a damaged RC16 as Q2 was about to start.
For Bezzecchi, this already bad day continued in the same vein, with a fall at turn 5 just as the times were starting to fall. The VR46 driver got off to a good start, having nevertheless saved the fifth fastest time of this session behind Jack Miller, which will place him in the fifth row on the starting grid.
Dutch GP MotoGP – Q1
Q2 – Duel at the top between Bagnaia and Martín
Acosta had come very close to the record in Q1, but Bagnaia wasted no time in showing the pace at which pole was going to be decided by immediately beating this new benchmark that he himself had established yesterday. From his first flying lap, the Ducati rider completed the lap in 1’31″048! Barely time to realize… that Jorge Martín was doing better! Installed in the wheel of bike #1, the Spaniard had for the first time once posted a time lower than 1’31 with a time of 1’30″877.
Bagnaia, however, adopted an offbeat strategy and returned to the track before his opponents. Great good for him since he once again pushed the limits with an incredible time of 1’30″540! This represented almost a second improvement compared to last season’s pole…
Jorge Martín did everything to resist Pecco Bagnaia.
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Relegated to the background, the Márquez brothers took the advantage over Maverick Viñales in the first series of laps. Then we saw Di Giannantonio move up to third place by setting a time of 1’31″274 in the Bagnaia wheel.
The reigning champion was no longer on the track when the rest of the pack tried to shake his leadership. Once again, the traffic weighed on the progress of the end of the session, and for Marc Márquez it ended in a fall at turn 7 when he tried to overtake Aleix Espargaró with whom he had had a disagreement. It should be noted that the latter was stuck in the pits for a few minutes, which apparently disrupted Aprilia’s strategy of having its official drivers ride as a duo.
While the #93 finished his session on a scooter bringing him back to the pits, Viñales indeed found the key to place himself on the front row, just 74 thousandths behind Martín. Álex Márquez then Espargaró also managed to complete a final fast lap to take the advantage over Di Giannantonio, pushing Marc Márquez back to the third row
For his part, Martín still had a chance and he almost achieved the feat! But the Pramac rider ultimately missed Bagnaia’s time by eight hundredths, nevertheless validating his second place in a ranking established at a more than impressive pace.
With eight drivers clocked below last year’s record pole, Franco Morbidelli and Brad Binder will accompany Marc Márquez on the third row, while Pedro Acosta must settle for the fourth row alongside Enea Bastianini and Raúl Fernández.
The starting grid is now established and will be used this afternoon for the sprint race: start at 3 p.m.!
Dutch GP MotoGP – Q2
