Mixed weather during Q2 at Assen earlier today led to some unpredictable results. Marc Marquez (Honda) and Maverick Viñales (Suzuki) both crashed shortly after the session started. Marquez grabbed a fan’s scooter (after asking for permission) in order to hurry back to the pits … where he re-mounted to eventually take the fourth spot.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso mastered the conditions to take pole with Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) second and Scott Redding (Ducati) earning his first-ever MotoGP front row start.
Below is full Q2 results. Stay tuned for a race report tomorrow on MD.
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time | Gap 1st/Prev. |
| 1 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1’45.246 | |
| 2 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’45.961 | 0.715 / 0.715 |
| 3 | Scott REDDING | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 1’46.312 | 1.066 / 0.351 |
| 4 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1’46.430 | 1.184 / 0.118 |
| 5 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda | Honda | 1’46.568 | 1.322 / 0.138 |
| 6 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 1’46.828 | 1.582 / 0.260 |
| 7 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1’46.997 | 1.751 / 0.169 |
| 8 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 1’47.118 | 1.872 / 0.121 |
| 9 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1’47.567 | 2.321 / 0.449 |
| 10 | Danilo PETRUCCI | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 1’47.601 | 2.355 / 0.034 |
| 11 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’47.897 | 2.651 / 0.296 |
| 12 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 1’48.415 | 3.169 / 0.518 |
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Rossi was right near the top from P2 on, in every weather/track condition. You always have to like his chances at Assen anyway, but especially in changeable conditions, particularly when Lorenzo is riding around as if on eggshells.
Tomorrow will be another test of Marquez’s burgeoning maturity. He likely won’t be able to run with Rossi and Dovi in the wet or semi-wet, but will he toss it down the road rather than collect solid third- or fourth-place points and live to fight another day?
I predict the latter. He seems to have turned the corner, mentally and emotionally. He won’t be willing to risk surrendering a full twenty-five points if Rossi checks out on everyone. He’ll minimize the damage and move on.
I sure hope they keep a camera on Iannone the whole race. Could be hilarious.
Should be entertaining to see Lorenzo and Ianonne charging through the field.
How epic would the dust-up be if Iannone takes him out again?
Man, I would love to see that.
Question: why Ianonne has that tendency to crash? is the bike? or his particular way of riding?
Fearlessness + inexperience = fast laps and lots of kitty litter.
those winglets are weird.
I see transformer winglets in the 2,018, ninja 300
Bad day for Dani 16th!…….
Dovi, Redding, Crutchlow, Hernandez in the top 6 and breathing rarified air. Lorenzo 11 and Pedrosa where? what is going on? lol
As closely as you’ve followed the guy his entire career, any theories on why Pedrosa has just completely lost the plot this season?
I’ll take a guess. The bike wants to wheelie, and he doesn’t have the size to man handle it. Oh, and also the R&D is focused on Marquez’s desires.
I was just reading about the steps Michelin has had to take to stop the tire failures, quickly. It seemed that it was happening to the heaviest riders on the highest HP bikes. When they changed the construction to alleviate this, it made it impossible for the little guys to make the tires work right. That, and the Nicky problem, most favored rider get the bike designed for him, and teammate suffers. That seemed to make sense to me. They’re not gonna be able to make more tires available for little guys, the big fellas might use them and have more blowouts.