The Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati-VR46), already author of the best time in qualifying practice on Friday, took pole position on Saturday at the Dutch MotoGP Grand Prix in Assen, ahead of the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), current league leader.
Untouchable since setting foot on Dutch soil, Bezzecchi set a time of 1’31”472, bettering the absolute track record set last year by Francesco Bagnaia (1’31”504) . “The bike is really exceptional. It’s perfection”, rejoiced the Ducati rider, currently 3rd in the championship. His teammate and compatriot Luca Marini took third place and will therefore also start on the front row of the sprint race on Saturday afternoon (3:00 p.m.) and the Grand Prix on Sunday (2:00 p.m.).
The first line is therefore 100% Italian and 100% Ducati, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, 4th on his Yamaha, being the “best of the rest” (the best of the others). Satisfaction for the transalpine brand which consoles itself for the poor performance of the Spaniard Jorge Martin. The recent winner of the German GP, second in the championship just 16 points behind Bagnaia, failed on Saturday in 10th position and will start from the 4th row.
The opportunity is therefore a good one for Bagnaia to consolidate its position at the top of the championship before the summer break, with “a bike that is finally working well. It’s day and night compared to yesterday (Friday) morning. The bike was really hard to ride. But we quickly improved the machine, which makes me smile again and makes me optimistic for the races,” said the reigning world champion.
In the “cathedral” of speed, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) will start 4th, his best qualifying result since Valencia in 2022. For the 2021 world champion, the question is whether he will be able to go the distance when of the sprint (13 laps) and especially in the race (26 laps), his left leg bruised since a fall during the week during a jogging making him “suffer”. On Friday, during practice, he was only able to complete eight laps in a row. He lined up a dozen on Saturday morning, still feeling pain in his sprained ankle and fractured big toe.
Spaniard Marc Marquez (Honda), involved in a fall for the second time this weekend after hitting Bastianini’s bike during Q1, will start far from pole, in 17th position only. The six-time world champion is in great difficulty at Assen, the oldest of the championship circuits since it has hosted a GP since the first year in 1949. Marquez, it is true, is physically impaired, injured in an ankle and ribs after having crashed five times during the German GP last weekend at the Sachsenring.
