MARTIN TAKES POLE AS APRILIA DOMINATES DUTCH GP QUALIFYING
Jorge Martin returned to the top in qualifying by taking pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen, giving Aprilia its strongest MotoGP qualifying result ever. His lap of 1:30.812 was enough to beat Ai Ogura by just 0.011 seconds in an incredibly close session and marked Martin’s first pole position since 2024.
The qualifying session began with Q1, where several big names were fighting for the final places in Q2. Fabio Quartararo quickly emerged as one of the favourites and set the pace ahead of Joan Mir as the session entered its final minutes.
Diogo Moreira looked capable of joining the fight for a Q2 place, but his hopes ended when he crashed with less than two minutes remaining. Although the Brazilian rider escaped without injury, the yellow flags that followed prevented any final improvements from the rest of the field. Moreira was left in thirteenth place on the grid, bringing his run of consecutive Q2 appearances to an end.
Franco Morbidelli made one final attempt to challenge for the top positions in Q1, but his lap was only good enough for third in the session, leaving Quartararo and Mir to progress into Q2.
Once the fight for pole began, Aprilia immediately showed its pace. Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi set the early benchmark and led the session ahead of Raul Fernandez and Jorge Martin, while Francesco Bagnaia briefly moved himself onto the provisional front row.
Martin soon responded by beating his teammate’s time and moved into provisional pole by just a few hundredths of a second. The close battle at the front suggested that the final minutes would decide everything.
The session then took another dramatic turn when Pedro Acosta suffered a technical problem and was forced out of contention. It was his second mechanical issue of the day and ended any hopes of fighting for pole position.
Ai Ogura then produced another impressive lap to move into second place, missing pole by only eleven thousandths of a second. Moments later, Raul Fernandez appeared to have secured pole position with a brilliant lap, but celebrations inside the Trackhouse garage were short-lived as track limits violations led to the lap being deleted.
With Fernandez losing his fastest time, Martin was confirmed on pole position ahead of Ogura and Bezzecchi, while Fernandez had to settle for fourth despite showing the pace to fight for the top spot.
The result completed a historic day for Aprilia, which placed four RS-GP machines in the first four positions on the grid for the first time in MotoGP history. It was another sign of the progress made by the Italian manufacturer and continued the momentum gained during recent races.
Behind the Aprilia quartet, Francesco Bagnaia qualified fifth at a circuit where he has enjoyed considerable success in recent years. Fabio Di Giannantonio secured sixth place, while Marc Marquez could do no better than seventh after failing to improve during the closing stages of the session.
Pedro Acosta was classified eighth despite his technical problems, while Quartararo completed the third row after successfully coming through Q1 earlier in the afternoon.
Joan Mir secured tenth place on the grid ahead of Enea Bastianini, while Alex Marquez qualified twelfth after missing the session’s action following his crash on Friday. The Spaniard was declared fit to race and is expected to take part in both the Sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix.
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