Quartararo scorches Assen for second straight pole position
Fabio Quartararo sprints to his second consecutive pole position by destroying his own new MotoGP lap record at Assen
Full qualifying results for the Dutch MotoGP
Fabio Quartararo has bolted to his second consecutive MotoGP pole position by destroying his own new lap record at Assen ahead of Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins.
The Petronas Yamaha rider went into qualifying as strong favourite having headed up the practice times, setting a new lap record in FP3, before duly beating it again with a 1m 32.017s for his second straight pole position following his success at the Catalan round – making it three poles from eight rounds of his rookie MotoGP campaign.
Vinales, who swapped bikes to change his front forks mid-qualifying, moved up to second place on his final run but couldn’t bridge a 0.140s gap to Quartararo.
After graduating from Q1, Rins used that momentum to take the final spot on the front row having led the early times in the pole position shootout for Suzuki.
That left MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez off the front row in fourth place for Repsol Honda, pulling off yet another impressive save during qualifying at the first corner, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir taking the middle of the second row ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow who darted up the order with a late lap.
Danilo Petrucci led the Ducati charge in seventh place, 1.265s off pole-sitter Quartararo, ahead of Takaaki Nakagami on the 2018 LCR Honda with Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli completing row three.
Jack Miller failed to improve late on to see him stuck in 10th place for Pramac Ducati, but ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati who struggled, with Pol Espargaro taking 12th place for Red Bull KTM after progressing through Q1.
Qualifying turned into another frustrating show for Valentino Rossi, having missed out on the automatic Q2 after his best practice lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, and in Q1 he couldn’t match the outright pace of Rins or Espargaro to qualify down in 14th place behind Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro completes row five in 15th place ahead of Karel Abraham, who benefitted from a tow to reach 16th place on the Avintia Ducati, with Miguel Oliveira in 17th for Tech3.
Johann Zarco suffered a late crash in Q1 which relegated him to 18th place on the factory Red Bull KTM but kept clear of Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3), Andrea Iannone (Aprilia) and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati).
Jorge Lorenzo will miss the Dutch round for Repsol Honda after suffering two fractured vertebra in a heavy FP1 crash.
