Vinales on Assen MotoGP pole, Marquez has his worst qualifying

Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales took pole position for the 2021 Dutch TT MotoGP race at Assen, as Marc Marquez suffered his career-worst qualifying.

Last weekend’s German Grand Prix winner Marquez has looked a lot less comfortable with his Honda this weekend, especially following a massive highside in Friday practice.

He crashed again in the final stages of Q1, at the De Bult corner, and will start from as low as 20th, having never qualified lower than 14th in the whole of his MotoGP career before.

No place in Q2 for @marcmarquez93! ❌

The Spaniard is down! 💢#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/tUJcLqOURj

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 26, 2021

As the pole shootout commenced, points leader Fabio Quartararo needed just two flying laps to improve on his own Assen MotoGP record from 2019, bettering it by a tenth and establishing an initial half-second lead over nearest rival Vinales.

Yet Vinales, running off-sequence by starting his second Q2 run much earlier than most, jumped ahead of his Yamaha team-mate with two minutes left on the clock.

And though Quartararo did improve on his second run, and was nearly two tenths up on Vinales after the first sector on his decisive attempt, he was ultimately forced to settle for second place on the grid for a second week running.

This means that Vinales has now claimed at least one pole and one race win in each season with Yamaha since he arrived in 2017.

Having fought through from Q1, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia completed the front row, three tenths down on Vinales, but two tenths up on LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, who headed row two.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati), who stands as Quartararo’s nearest rival in the points standings, and Miguel Oliveira, KTM’s sole representative in Q2, completed the second row.

A late crash at Stekkenwal didn’t prevent Alex Rins from leading Suzuki’s charge in seventh, followed by Jack Miller (Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia).

Reigning champion Joan Mir (Suzuki) was 10th, ahead of Pol Espargaro (Honda) – who followed Vinales on his pole lap but struggled to capitalise – and Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha).

Benefiting from a slightly faster time for Tech3 KTM team-mate Danilo Petrucci being deleted, Iker Lecuona looked on course to progress to Q2 until the very final moments of the first segment.

He was ultimately thwarted when Zarco, who had run wide at Turn 1 at what looked like his final attempt, managed to start another lap moments before the chequered flag and topped the session, getting through with Bagnaia.

Rookies Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) will join Lecuona on the fifth row, Savadori shrugging off a crash in the pre-qualifying FP4.

Petronas Yamaha stand-in Garrett Gerloff placed last on his MotoGP qualifying debut, but was just a tenth behind KTM works rider Brad Binder, whose 2021 qualifying struggles continued with what was already his sixth Q1 exit of the campaign.

Qualifying Results