Pecco Bagnaia gave the feeling of being the man to beat in Assen right from the first laps of Friday and Saturday morning seems to have given further confirmation in this sense, because the Ducati rider took pole position of the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix, the first for him this season.
The reigning world champion had already lowered the Dutch track record yesterday, but this morning he literally shattered it with a 1’30″540 which lowered his predictions on Monday by about four tenths. And it must be said that the Piedmontese and the Ducati garage were very good at implementing a strategy that caught the competition off guard: Pecco returned to the track very quickly for the second run, anticipating all the others, who instead had major traffic problems, which gave life to “markings” in search of a hook that should not be seen in the premier class.
Bagnaia raised the bar but, once the traffic problems were resolved, Jorge Martin made him tremble until the end. The world championship leader didn’t look too good this weekend, but he came out when it was time to get serious: after being the fastest in the first run, right under the checkered flag the Prima Pramac Racing standard bearer was arrived just 81 thousandths behind Pecco.
Completing the front row we then find the Aprilia of an excellent Maverick Vinales, who on a track that has always been congenial to him found the opportunity to place his RS-GP in third position. In his case, however, it must be said that the gap is more than four tenths. If nothing else, he managed to get the better of Alex Marquez by a handful of thousandths, who will open the second row with the Gresini Racing GP23.
Fifth time for the other Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro, who therefore seems to have overcome yesterday’s bad fall as best he could. Among other things, the Granollers rider had a troubled qualifying: first he had a problem on his RS-GP, then he saw a lap ruined by Marc Marquez’s fall, but he didn’t lose heart and all The last second gave a nice climb up the rankings to the top 5.
After going through Q1, it must be said that Fabio Di Giannantonio also implemented an excellent strategy: having only one new tyre available, the Pertamina Enduroi VR46 rider “marked” Bagnaia and took advantage of his slipstream to take sixth place in 1’31″274.
The crash on the penultimate lap relegated Marc Marquez to seventh place, but it must be said that he also got caught up in waiting for a hook on the second attempt and paid for it. Arriving at turn 7 he found himself glued to Espargaro and tried to pass him on the inside. In doing so, however, he entered the corner too fast and therefore ended his qualifying in the gravel of the escape route.
Next to him on the third row will be Franco Morbidelli, who completes a top 8 made up only of Italian bikes, with Brad Binder who is the best of the KTM riders in ninth position, just ahead of Pedro Acosta, who managed to take the lead passed to Q2 via Q1, despite also being the protagonist of a crash at turn 4 at the end of the first segment of qualifying.
The first four rows of the grid are then completed with a disappointing Enea Bastianini, probably also held up by traffic, who was more than a second behind Bagnaia, and with Raul Fernandez on the Aprilia Trackhouse.
The new engine wasn’t enough to get Yamaha into Q2. Fabio Quartararo had hoped, because he was in the race until a few seconds from the end, but he had already slowed down when Di Giannantonio showed up at the finish line, knocking him out by just over two tenths. A shame for “El Diablo”, who had spoken of tangible progress after last week’s test in Valencia.
Sharing the fifth row with him will be Jack Miller’s KTM, who got his time right on the tail of the Frenchman’s M1, and Marco Bezzecchi. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider probably got nervous about the “waiting” done by Acosta and “Diggia”, who wanted to avoid giving him a hook, and ended up going down at turn 5, ruining his last attempt. Among other things, the rider from Rimini had already fallen in free practice this morning, taking a rather hard hit at turn 7.
The sixth row opens with the other Yamaha of Alex Rins, who still took half a second from Quartararo’s twin M1. The Spaniard will have two Aprilias at his side, that of Miguel Oliveira and that of test rider Lorenzo Savadori. If for the wild card, who yesterday brought the debut of the new fins on the tail of the RS-GP, it is an interesting performance. The same cannot be said for the Portuguese of Trackhouse Racing, who seems to have slipped into a tunnel from which he cannot find the exit.
Seventh row for the best of the Hondas, which once again was that of Johann Zarco, with the Team LCR rider preceding the two HRC-branded RC213Vs of Joan Mir and Luca Marini, who at least managed to move from the last place he had occupied in all the free practice sessions. Closing out the grid are the GasGas Tech3 of Augusto Fernandez and the other Honda LCR of Takaaki Nakagami.
Q2 Ranking
Q1 ranking
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