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Assen MotoGP qualifying
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That'll be a wrap for us. There's a lot of other good sports events on today, and this weekend as a whole, but this qualifying has been another example of how MotoGP has become a reliable must-watch in the recent years.
Marquez's pace suggests tomorrow might not be quite as competitive - but then again, following seems to work a treat so it might turn out a proper pack race after all.
Qualifying report
Marquez's pace suggests tomorrow might not be quite as competitive - but then again, following seems to work a treat so it might turn out a proper pack race after all.
Qualifying report
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Marquez: "Yeah, you know, every time I'm struggling a little bit here in Assen, but looks like this year I'm able to have a good pace.
"Of course for the qualifying practice I was able to do a good lap, but is not my strong point. For the race pace, I feel much better, it's there where we need to keep pushing, because tomorrow will be a long race here.
"For physical condition it is tough, and, yeah, we'll see, because today it was very windy and quite difficult."
"Of course for the qualifying practice I was able to do a good lap, but is not my strong point. For the race pace, I feel much better, it's there where we need to keep pushing, because tomorrow will be a long race here.
"For physical condition it is tough, and, yeah, we'll see, because today it was very windy and quite difficult."
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Crutchlow: "I timed it to perfection. It seemed there was a lot of messing around going on on track, I didn't want to be involved, so I decided I was going to go at the start and lead the group.
"And then I saw six or seven of them, and thought - I'm not going to be eighth. So I slowed down till the last guy. And timed it well.
"I knew where our bike was strong, I didn't overpush in the corners that I didn't feel great or the bike didn't feel great. And I made the lap count - not like in Barcelona, or Mugello, I made a mistake also, I ran out the track there.
"It's nice to be on the front row, the whole LCR team have done a great job, and Honda have done a great job working for me in the last weeks - now we have to go to battle tomorrow."
"And then I saw six or seven of them, and thought - I'm not going to be eighth. So I slowed down till the last guy. And timed it well.
"I knew where our bike was strong, I didn't overpush in the corners that I didn't feel great or the bike didn't feel great. And I made the lap count - not like in Barcelona, or Mugello, I made a mistake also, I ran out the track there.
"It's nice to be on the front row, the whole LCR team have done a great job, and Honda have done a great job working for me in the last weeks - now we have to go to battle tomorrow."
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Rossi on that last-minute group riding chaos: "Yeah, for sure, here in Assen always, especially the last part, here is very fast, so if you have somebody in front... but especially today because there was a lot of wind.
"I'm so happy for the front row because I crash in FP4, so I lose some feeling, and was not easy, but I did three lap with the first tyre, I recover my line, my rhythm, and at the end was a waiting game, but I was in a good position, and starting from the front row is important for tomorrow."
"I'm so happy for the front row because I crash in FP4, so I lose some feeling, and was not easy, but I did three lap with the first tyre, I recover my line, my rhythm, and at the end was a waiting game, but I was in a good position, and starting from the front row is important for tomorrow."
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What a mighty peculiar session. Marquez could've very easily been anywhere from first to 10th, as could any of his main rivals, really.
But it's no real surprise that he capitalised, is it? And it could be a very meaningful achievement, as his race pace has looked superb.
But it's no real surprise that he capitalised, is it? And it could be a very meaningful achievement, as his race pace has looked superb.
The top four is split by 0.079s, the top 10 - by 0.376s. Oh Assen.
Information
Q2 order: 1 Marquez; 2 Crutchlow; 3 Rossi; 4 Dovizioso; 5 Rins; 6 Vinales; 7 A Espargaro; 8 Zarco; 9 Iannone; 10 Lorenzo; 11 Petrucci; 12 Bautista.
Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi will join him on the front row. Zarco has been shuffled down to eighth. Lorenzo has been shuffled down to 10th!
And that'll be good enough for Marc Marquez's first Assen MotoGP pole!
Checkered flag
Zarco goes top, but only for a millisecond. Marquez is quicker, 1m32.791s.
And now it's show time - there's red sectors all over the timing screens.
Stopwatch
A minute left on the clock, and it's only Lorenzo and Iannone pushing. And the latter goes top, 1m33.120s!
Iannone moves up from 11th to take second place from Marquez.
Stopwatch
Lorenzo is up two tenths on Marquez after three sectors - and manages not to lose any time through sector four, which has been his Achilles' heel all weekend. His reward is a 1m33.167s.
Five minutes left on the clock, Marquez is quickly heading back out in an effort to sneak away from the tow artists.
Information
Q2 order: 1 Marquez; 2 Rins; 3 Petrucci; 4 Zarco; 5 Vinales; 6 Lorenzo; 7 Crutchlow; 8 Dovizioso; 9 Rossi; 10 A Espargaro; 11 Iannone; 12 Bautista.
That should be that for the first runs. The top eight is split by four tenths, so the final minutes of this one are likely to be pretty special indeed.
Marquez helpfully restores some normalcy, logging a 1m33.330s. But Rins - now in the pits - is still second.
Stopwatch
Alex Rins confusingly goes top. 1m33.499s. He is on the hard rear tyre, remember.
And here's Danilo Petrucci. He isn't following anybody - as far as I can tell - and he fires in a 1m33.530s.
This time around it's Marquez following Lorenzo - and it helps him to go 0.007s quicker than the Ducati rider.
Stopwatch
Jorge Lorenzo sets the initial pace with a 1m33.600s - which is narrowly slower than the Zarco benchmark from Q1.
And Marquez rolls out. Not interested in towing Lorenzo along.
Marquez starts his first flying lap, and he is being followed - at a bit of a distance, but still - by Lorenzo. Bautista and MotoGP's most notorious follower Iannone are also there.
Vinales, Espargaro and Zarco have gone out on soft-soft, Alex Rins is on medium-hard, everyone else is on medium-soft.
Green flag
The 15-minute Q2 session is live, and it's Marquez who leads his fellow riders out of the pitlane.
Information
Q2 line-up: Marquez, Vinales, Crutchlow, Rossi, Iannone, Lorenzo, A Espargaro; Bautista, Dovizioso, Petrucci, Zarco, Rins.
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Pedrosa will start 18th. He has qualified no higher than 10th since Le Mans. It just hasn't clicked for him this season, and this will not be strengthening his position in negotiations with his likeliest 2019 destination - that Petronas-backed Yamaha satellite team.
Information
Q1 results: 1 Zarco; 2 Rins; 3 Nakagami; 4 Rabat; 5 Syahrin; 6 Miller; 7 Redding; 8 Pedrosa; 9 Abraham; 10 Smith; 11 P Espargaro; 12 Luthi; 13 Simeon.
Checkered flag
So it's Zarco and Rins advancing, with Nakagami relegated to third - 13th on the grid - at the final second.
The top six is split by 0.094s. Dani Pedrosa is not in it.
The top six is split by 0.094s. Dani Pedrosa is not in it.
Stopwatch
Zarco is going for it - he's just half a tenth off after two sectors. He loses a few more thousandths in sector three... but he fires in a brilliant final sector! 1m33.578s, the Frenchman tops the session.
Miller and Zarco were up on Rins at certain points in their most recent laps, but they're left only fifth and sixth at the start-finish line. One more try?
Pedrosa is only seventh, and will have just one more lap to try and force his way into Q2. I do not rate his chances.
Stopwatch
Rins goes top, 1m33.600s! Nakagami is just 0.025s off in second. This is getting fun - a minute and a half left on the clock.
Zarco is up to second, Redding is a close third.
Stopwatch
Hafizh Syahrin goes top! He followed a train of Zarco, Rabat and Redding and he's gone P1 by a fair margin, with a 1m33.666s.
Initial laps are in from Nakagami and Pedrosa, but they can't trouble the top two.
Zarco has switched to a brand new soft rear now, so he should in theory have a bigger margin for improvement than his Q1 rivals.
By: Matt Beer
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