Moto2 Assen: Bagnaia continues domination with pole position
Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia completed a pre-race clean sweep after taking pole position in qualifying for the Moto2 Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, having topped every session so far.
The Sky Racing VR46 rider will defend his one-point championship lead from the front of the grid after his time of 1m 37.608s, which had been set at the beginning of the session, held firm as no-one could make the most of the post-red flag dash.
It is the Kalex riders’ second Moto2 pole position and despite the Italian sitting at the top of the timseheets for so long it was a close session with second place Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Intact GP) equalling his best ever grid start by being just 0.073s slower, with the top 22 riders all within a second of the pole lap.
A superb day for Sky Racing was completed when Luca Marini secured his first front row start in the intermediate class by putting in a strong banker lap early on.
With late progress hard to come by, Alex Marquez managed to hold on to fourth after a late tumble from his EG 0,0 Marc VDS machine.
Xavi Vierge secured fifth as one of few riders to find time in the latter stages on the second Dynavolt Intact GP entry.
Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors) also shot up from 15th to sixth with an impressive lap and was the top non-Kalex rider for KTM.
Catalunya pole-sitter and winner Fabio Quartararo could not quite match those heights but still managed a solid seventh for Speed Up.
Italtrans rider Andrea Locatelli enjoyed his best-ever qualifying in eighth, while Jorge Navarro was another rider lucky not to slip too far down the timesheets after his progress was halted by a turn eight fall from his Gresini when in seventh, only dropping to ninth at the chequered flag.
Joan Mir was the top rookie in tenth for EG 0,0 Marc VDS, his nearest rival was Romano Fenati (Marinelli Snipers), who couldn’t get past Mattia Pasini on his final run leaving him 14th, with Pasini 11th for Italtrans.
Miguel Oliveira again struggled in qualifying and after his superb podium finish in Barcelona the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider will have to do it all again to keep his title hopes alive after qualifying down in 17th, but ahead of his team-mate Brad Binder who could only manage 22nd.
British rider Danny Kent ended qualifying down in 23rd on the second Speed Up, one place ahead of home rider Bo Bendsneyder in 24th for Tech 3.
Stefano Manzi was the first off track, but recovered by riding through the Assen gravel. Niki Tuuli’s late fall brought out the red flag as it left him on track at turn five, he was taken to the medical centre for checks in an ambulance.
Wildcard Xavi Cardelus (Team Stylobike) then had an equally spectacular crash on the restart, spinning a 360 degree turn while still holding the handlebars, only to then be slammed by the bike. He too was taken for further check-ups.
Tetsuta Nagashima was absent from the session as he was having surgery on his hand following a crash in FP2.
