Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo claimed his fourth pole position of the season in qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday while Ducati’s MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez will start on the second row.
Quartararo is joined on the front row by Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez while Marc was only fourth fastest at Assen, where he crashed twice in practice on a bruising Friday.
Marc leads brother Alex by 40 points heading into the sprint while Bagnaia, third in the championship, is 110 points behind. But the session belonged to Quartararo who clocked one minute and 30.651 seconds to claim his 20th MotoGP pole.
“The goal is to try to make a great start, great laps in the sprint and see a little bit how it’s going on,” Quartararo said.
“I love this track… So hopefully we can turn this pole position into a great result on Saturday and on Sunday.”
As expected, it was the Ducati machines of the Marquez brothers and Bagnaia who traded fastest laps early in the session but Quartararo laid down the gauntlet when he clocked one minute and 31.047 seconds.
Alex and Marc then broke the one minute and 31 seconds barrier but Quartararo and Bagnaia responded by going faster to take the top two spots.
A desperate Marc pushed too hard on his final lap and went off track, settling for fourth-fastest, marking only the second time he is off the front row on the red Ducati, while Alex was livid with himself when he could not set a faster lap.
Bagnaia has won at Assen in the last three years and the Italian said he was happy with the feeling on the bike after struggling early in the season, with the twice champion claiming only one victory in the first nine rounds.
“I’m very happy. It’s the best weekend so far this season… Surely this afternoon will be tough but we need to start well, set our pace and see if I can win,” Bagnaia said.
Marc will have Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and VR46 Racing’s Franco Morbidelli for company on the second row.
