Front row start for Marquez with Pedrosa 4th in closely contested qualifying

Qualifying for the Assen TT was an incredibly tough battle with the top seven riders separated by just 0.4 seconds. Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez secured a front row start in third place for tomorrow’s 26 lap race after recording his fastest time of 1’32.886 on his final lap of eight. Teammate Dani Pedrosa missed out on the front row by just 0.1 seconds and will start from 4th with his best time of 1’32.987 on his penultimate lap of nine.

Marc Marquez  - 3rd 1'32.886

"Every rider was on the limit in qualifying. I'm happy, because we knew this circuit was going to be tough for us, but still we are close to Valentino and Jorge, who are very fast and smooth here. We are finding things a little tougher as we are still missing a tenth or half a tenth, but we will try to be as close as possible to them tomorrow and see what happens. I think it will be difficult, especially against Valentino."

Dani Pedrosa - 4th 1'32.987

"Today was useful for confirming the setup of the bike as we were fortunate to be able to have dry track time again for most of the day. In the qualifying session it was amazing how close the times were and I’m happy to have qualified a bit better than at the last Grand Prix in Catalunya. We’ll try to have a good start tomorrow and hope we can do well and have a good race!"