Britain’s Scott Redding bagged his debut MotoGP front row start during a wet qualifying session in Assen, but in the end it was Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso who claimed pole.
The Italian lapped a 1’45.246 to put him P1 for the race on Sunday. Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi also made it on to the front row but was seven tenths of a second shy off the time set by his fellow countryman. The rain had eased slightly during Q2, but the track was still too wet for slick tyres.
Redding managed to hold off the charges from Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow to remain third on the starting grid, after an impressive 1’46.312 rotation.
Marquez, Crutchlow and Hernandez make up row two, with both Pol and Aleix Espargaro on the third row. Iannone was the first, and appeared to be the only rider who switched from wets to intermediate tyres during qualifying.
But the Ducati man will start from the back of the grid tomorrow because he was sanctioned a penalty after colliding with Lorenzo during the last round in Spain. Reigning champion, Jorge Lorenzo appeared to struggle slightly and will start P10 tomorrow.
At first it was Maverick Vinales who succumbed to the wet conditions, and crashed on his out lap at Strubben and had to sprint his way back to the pits. Then on the nine minute mark, Marquez fell unhurt at Stekkenwal and got a scooter to rush back to his garage to jump on his spare RC213V.
In Qualifying One all riders were out on full wet tyres, with most of them opting for the harder compounds. During the first outing it was Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro and Aspar’s Yonny Hernandez who made it through to Q2. Bradley Smith tried to push his machine into the top two, but to no avail and missed out by four tenths. He will start from 13th on the grid for the MotoGP race.
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa never once topped the Qualifying One timesheets and appeared to lack the pace to be competitive in the session, on the wet circuit. The Spanish rider will start from 15th place tomorrow.
Hernandez’s team-mate, Eugene Laverty did improve throughout the course of the session, but it was not enough to progress this afternoon and with begin the race from P16 on Sunday.