Francesco Bagnaia smashed the MotoGP Assen lap record to score a second successive pole position ahead of series leader Fabio Quartararo.
The Italian looked to be lacking two or three tenths-of-a-second to the Yamaha rider for the bulk of the weekend prior to qualifying, and this trend looked set to continue in the pole shootout as the factory Ducati rider posted the third-best time in the opening runs just over three-tenths adrift of provisional pole-man Jorge Martin and Quartararo.
Bagnaia elected to head out early and get his run out of the way before the track got too saturated with other riders, the Italian banging in one of his now-customary qualifying masterclasses as he set a new-lap record of the TT Circuit Assen, a 1:21.504s affording him a two-tenth advantage over his closest rivals.
Martin’s charge ended with a crash at Turn 5 at the start of his final run, leaving Quartararo as the last man to try and challenge Bagnaia.
A sluggish second split left him well down on his 2021 title rival, and despite making up time across the second half of the lap he ended up screaming across the line 0.116s down on Bagnaia on what would end up being his final flyer, leaving the Ducati man to record his fourth pole of the year just ahead of Quartararo.
Martin’s earlier effort was enough to keep him on the front row despite failing to set a later lap, with VR46 rookie Marco Bezzecchi managing an impressive fourth just ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Jack Miller was sixth on the sister factory Ducati ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco, with leading Q1 runner and KTM pilot Miguel Oliveira grabbing eighth.
Alex Rins manoeuvred the sole Suzuki in Q2 to ninth on the grid, while Brad Binder slotted the second factory KTM RC16 into tenth.
Maverick Vinales was only 11th having managed third in FP3 on the other Aprilia, with Takaaki Nakagami rounding off the Q2 runners in 12th.
With both KTM’s controlling proceedings in Q1, Luca Marini ended up as best of the rest in 13th after the other Suzuki of Joan Mir crashed at Turn 5 on his final run, the 2020 MotoGP world champion forced to start the Dutch TT from a lowly 14th.
Enea Bastianini’s recent rough run of form continued as he was out-qualified for the fourth straight event by rookie team-mate Fabio Di Gianantonio, the latter taking 15th on the grid just a spot ahead of his countryman – who was forced to switched to his spare Gresini Ducati after his primary machine broke down as he exited the pits at the start of the session.
Franco Morbidelli continued to struggle on the second factory Yamaha en-route to a disastrous 20th just ahead of LCR Honda pilot Alex Marquez, with Aprilia tester Lorenzo Savadori getting the better of Tech 3 and RNF Racing rookies Raul Fernandez and Darryn Binder.
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