Francesco Bagnaia will start from pole position for the sprint and the Dutch Grand Prix. On the TT Circuit in Assen, the Italian from the official Ducati team achieved a time of 1’30”540, exploding the previous absolute track record by nine tenths. The Italian and Jorge Martin (Ducati Pramac), second on the grid, became the first riders to ride under 1’31” in the “Cathedral of Speed”.
It is the first time this season that Bagnaia, the reigning double world champion, has taken pole position. In Assen, he dominated the entire weekend so far but had a momentary fear that pole would slip away from him when Martin posted a resounding 1’30”870 on his first fast lap. But Bagnaia, on his second attempt, took the best time to unattainable heights. Even when Martin went on the attack in the final seconds to finish just 81 thousandths behind his Championship rival.
Quartararo ahead by a thread for qualifying in Q2
Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), already in the spotlight this weekend, took third place ahead of Alex Marquez (Ducati Gresini). Both riders also broke the 1’31” barrier. The end of the session was marked by the fall of Marc Marquez who was trying to overtake an opponent during his last attempt. Visibly a little injured in the left hand, the Ducati Gresini rider took seventh place. Coming out of Q1 in style but falling in the last seconds of this first part of the session, Pedro Acosta could do no better than 10th with his GasGas Tech3.
In Q1, Fabio Quartararo experienced a real heartbreak. In a position to qualify for Q2 in the final moments, the Yamaha rider was beaten at the last minute by Di Giannantonio and will only start from 13th position in the sprint and the Grand Prix. As for Johann Zarco, with his Honda LCR which gave him no chance of passing, he finally took 19th place on the grid, the four Hondas among the last five places.
