Fresh from two consecutive victories between Barcelona and Mugello, Pecco Bagnaia does not seem to have lost his moment of great form in the three Sundays in which the MotoGP engines were shut down, because he was the absolute dominator of the Friday Grand Prix of Holland.
After being the fastest in the morning, the Ducati rider confirmed himself in Pre-Qualifying, setting the new Assen track record with a time of 1’31″340. In the end it is true that he finished with a margin of just 65 thousandths compared to Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia, but equally so as the world champion only needed one time attack to set his time. Furthermore, in terms of race pace he gave the sensation of having a little more respect to competition.
However, it was also a positive day for Vinales and Aprilia, who were the only pairing capable of getting close to Bagnaia, even if the session of his teammate Aleix Espargaro, who ended up fourth at 472 thousandths, ended with a bad highside at the final chicane: the landing was rather hard for the rider from Granollers, who was carried away on a stretcher, even if it seems that it could only have been a bad knock without any particular consequences.
Between the two RS-GPs there is a Ducati GP23 of Gresini Racing, but surprisingly it is not that of Marc Marquez, who this time had to settle for the sixth time, showing some difficulty especially in the third and fourth sectors and finishing just over half a second behind. His brother Alex instead found a good push right at the end, placing third at 320 thousandths. Also less brilliant than usual is the world championship leader Jorge Martin, fifth at just under half a second with his Ducati of Prima Pramac Racing.
In seventh place is the only KTM that earned a direct pass to Q2, that of Brad Binder, who nevertheless took advantage of Marquez’s hook to slip into the top 10. The RC16s are struggling quite a bit on the Dutch track and this is confirmed by the 15th time of rookie Pedro Acosta, but also the 18th of Jack Miller, who in the final had a real scare, almost hitting Martin who was proceeding slowly on the launch lap. Fortunately he only broke a fork wing and both of them only got away with a big scare.
Despite a crash at turn 8, Enea Bastianini also earned Q2 with the eighth fastest time, ahead of Raul Fernandez’s Aprilia Trackhouse and the other Ducati of Franco Morbidelli. The big fool is therefore Fabio Quartararo, who seemed to have what it takes to bring his Yamaha into Q2, which would have confirmed the progress shown by the M1 in last week’s tests in Valencia, but he finds himself 11th by a few thousandths, without having had the chance to improve at the end due to the yellow flags.
The same goes for the two standard-bearers of Pertamina Enduro VR46, Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who are 12th and 13th, ahead of the other Yamaha of Alex Rins. Only 17th is the best of the Hondas, that of Johann Zarco, with the two RC213V of HRC that instead close the group. Johann Mir is 22nd and also suffered a fall at turn 8, but is still ahead of Luca Marini, once again unfortunately last. Finally, a small step forward for the Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori, who in this session brought the debut of the new fins on the tail.
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