Francesco Bagnaia breaks lap record to MotoGP pole in Dutch GP, with Jorge Martin and Maverick Vinales in P2 and P3.
Q1:
The first part in MotoGP qualifying in Dutch GP at Assen saw VR46 Ducati’s Fabio di Giannantonio set the pace with a 1m31.679s lap to be ahead of GASGAS Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in third ahead of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.
The Top 5 had Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira, as the first run had a ‘hare’ moment too, where the animal escaped any hit after going across the Assen circuit. The tow game kick-started in the final run with riders looking out for their rivals on track.
It was a disastrous end to Bezzecchi’s chances after another fall in Assen after one of his bikes was ruined due to practice crash. His teammate di Giannantonio made it into Q2, even though he was 0.018s behind Acosta (1m31.372s), who made it in as well.
Right at the end though, it was not the thing Acosta wanted as he crashed to damage his preferred bike. He managed to bring the bike back in, as Quarartararo was agonisingly out of the Top 2 to be 13th for the sprint and the main race ahead.
KTM’s Jack Miller was 14th ahead of Bezzecchi, who only lost one place after his crash. The other Yamaha of Alex Rins was 16th from Oliveira as Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori was a good 18th ahead of first Honda of Johann Zarco on his LCR machine.
The factory Honda of Joan Mir slotted in 20th from teammate Luca Marini, as Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez was 22nd and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami in 23rd.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in Dutch GP saw fast laps at the onset itself as Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin dropped into the 1m30s barrier with a 1m30.877s lap to slot himself ahead of Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and the Marquez brothers.
It was Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez ahead in third from Marc, with Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales in fifth on his second attempt after his first lap was cancelled due to track limits. Bagnaia went for an early second run to up his pace with a 1m30.540s lap.
The tow game was on in Q2 as well which did hurt riders’ laptime. There was a problem with Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia but he made it out and saw M Marquez crash in front of him after the Spaniard tried to clear him to complete his quick lap,
Bagnaia, meanwhile, played it smart to run outside of this melee to take his first MotoGP pole of the 2024 season in Dutch GP after setting a new lap record. Martin had to be content with second from Vinales, who made a late improvement.
A Marquez was fourth from Espargaro, who recovered well after his bike issues. Di Giannantonio was sixth from Q2, with M Marquez dropping to seventh. Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli was eighth ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder, with Ducati’s Enea Bastianini and Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez rounding the 12 runners.
Results: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1806990056856445227
UPDATE: Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race at the Motul TT Assen. The World Championship leader was adjudged to have been riding slowly on the racing line and disturbing Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing MotoGP) in Q2. The #89 will therefore launch from P5 instead of his P2 qualifying position as he goes in search of stopping title rival Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) from pocketing the Tissot Sprint and race double in the Netherlands. This puts Maverick Vinales, Alex Marquez and Aleix Espargaro up to P2, P3 and P4.