Sandro Cortese leads Danny Kent on Assen Moto3 grid as Maverick Vinales is only sixth
Sandro Cortese ended his Moto3 title rival Maverick Vinales' run of pole position by leading team-mate Danny Kent in an Ajo one-two in Assen qualifying
Current points leader Cortese was on top for most of the final part of the qualifying battle. Kent was able to close right in, but moments after he did so, Cortese improved his pace to a 1m43.645s to take pole by 0.249 seconds, though Kent still claimed his first front row start at grand prix level.
Vinales was a pole contender for a while, but was pushed back to sixth as a big group of riders jumped up the order while following the Ajo team-mates around. The Avintia rider's final lap was not good enough to move him back towards the front, so he will start on the outside of row two.
Last year's Italian 125cc champion Niccolo Antonelli showed his best Moto3 form yet to take the final front row position for Gresini.
Veteran Hector Faubel (Aspar) and Niklas Ajo (TT Motion) were part of the pack chasing Cortese and Kent as they battled for pole, and that helped them jump from the midfield to fourth and fifth.
Behind Vinales, Alexis Masbou (Caretta), Miguel Oliveira (Monlau), Jakub Kornfeil (Ongetta) and title contender Luis Salom (RW) completed the top 10.
Jerez winner Romano Fenati was back in 17th for Team Italia, but just 0.916s off the pace in the very tight pack.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Sandro Cortese Ajo KTM 1m43.645s 2. Danny Kent Ajo KTM 1m43.894s + 0.249s 3. Niccolò Antonelli Gresini FTR-Honda 1m43.988s + 0.343s 4. Hector Faubel Aspar Kalex-KTM 1m44.074s + 0.429s 5. Niklas Ajo TT Motion KTM 1m44.097s + 0.452s 6. Maverick Vinales Avintia FTR-Honda 1m44.178s + 0.533s 7. Alexis Masbou Caretta-Honda 1m44.273s + 0.628s 8. Miguel Oliveira Monlau Suter-Honda 1m44.311s + 0.666s 9. Jakub Kornfeil Ongetta FTR-Honda 1m44.329s + 0.684s 10. Luis Salom RW Kalex-KTM 1m44.376s + 0.731s 11. Alberto Moncayo Aspar Kalex-KTM 1m44.408s + 0.763s 12. Louis Rossi Germany FTR-Honda 1m44.451s + 0.806s 13. Arthur Sissis Ajo KTM 1m44.533s + 0.888s 14. Alan Techer Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda 1m44.534s + 0.889s 15. Alessandro Tonucci Italia FMI FTR-Honda 1m44.541s + 0.896s 16. Alex Rins Monlau Suter-Honda 1m44.542s + 0.897s 17. Romano Fenati Italia FMI FTR-Honda 1m44.561s + 0.916s 18. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Ajo KTM 1m44.750s + 1.105s 19. Brad Binder RW Kalex-KTM 1m44.826s + 1.181s 20. Danny Webb Mahindra 1m45.174s + 1.529s 21. Adrian Martin Laglisse FTR-Honda 1m45.254s + 1.609s 22. Julian Miralles MIR Honda 1m45.280s + 1.635s 23. Toni Finsterbusch MZ Honda 1m45.391s + 1.746s 24. Efren Vazquez Laglisse FTR-Honda 1m45.420s + 1.775s 25. Ivan Moreno Laglisse FTR-Honda 1m45.596s + 1.951s 26. Isaac Vinales Ongetta FTR-Honda 1m45.697s + 2.052s 27. Simone Grotzkyj Ambrogio Suter-Honda 1m45.955s + 2.310s 28. Bryan Schouten Dutch Honda 1m45.981s + 2.336s 29. Luigi Morciano Ioda Italia 1m46.027s + 2.382s 30. Marcel Schrotter Mahindra 1m46.059s + 2.414s 31. Jasper Iwema FGR-Honda 1m46.173s + 2.528s 32. Giulian Pedone Ambrogio Suter-Honda 1m46.883s + 3.238s 33. Jack Miller Caretta-Honda 1m47.277s + 3.632s 34. Kenta Fujii Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda 1m47.419s + 3.774s 35. Jonas Folger Ioda 1m51.731s + 8.086s
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