After yesterday’s unfamiliar dry conditions in Assen, today the unpredictable Dutch weather arrived. Fortunately both Repsol Honda riders, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, recorded a time yesterday to promote them into this afternoon’s Q2 as this morning’s FP3 session the track wasn’t fully wet – or dry – and neither Marc or Dani set a flying lap.

The weather improved slightly for FP4 and Marc set the fastest ever lap here on two wheels with a time of 1’33.462 (lap 12/15). However, the elements soon rolled in and just as the riders exited pitlane for the start of Q2, the rain arrived. In an intense first five minutes – of the fifteen minute session – all twelve riders in the shootout competed for the best line, anxious to record a fast time before the track became too wet.

Marc and Dani attacked immediately, passing several riders, and set times fast enough to place them second and third on the grid. All riders returned to the garages but as the track became wetter, the qualifying was decided. Most riders then utilised the final seven minutes to get a feeling for their bike in the wet, incase tomorrow’s twenty-six lap race serves more of the same.



Marc Marquez - 2nd - 1'40.194

"I’m happy with this front row, although we obviously wanted to take pole! The weather was very unpredictable, as sometimes it was raining and then it stopped – meaning that conditions were far from ideal. My goal was to get onto the front row, so when I saw that I was up into second I decided not to take any more risks; there was a lot to lose and not much to gain, so I kept calm because I had already reached my target”

Dani Pedrosa - 3rd - 1'40.732

"It was a difficult session because the track was half-dry, half-wet, and then it started to rain more heavily. We went out with slick tyres and had time to put in a couple of laps, although there was a lot of traffic and we were all close together. It was hard to know how much of a risk we could take. Finally, with the track half-wet, we managed to set a good time and qualify on the front row which I'm happy with. Tomorrow we will continue working on the bike and try to have a good race, which could be either dry or wet”

Qualifying position

1 Aleix Espargaro 1'38.789 ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
2 Marc Marquez 1'40.194 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Dani Pedrosa 1'40.732 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Andrea Iannone 1'40.786 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 1'40.796 GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Bradley Smith 1'40.818 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Andrea Dovizioso 1'41.140 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Stefan Bradl 1'41.982 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
9 Jorge Lorenzo 1'42.259 ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
10 Alvaro Bautista 1'42.884 ESP HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
11 Pol Espargaro 1'43.085 ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
12 Valentino Rossi 1'43.625 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
13 Karel Abraham 1'34.907 CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'34.930 JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
15 Yonny Hernandez 1'35.056 COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Scott Redding 1'35.059 GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
17 Danilo Petrucci 1'35.346 ITA ART IodaRacing Project
18 Colin Edwards 1'35.484 USA FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
19 Broc Parkes 1'35.513 AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
20 Hector Barbera 1'35.631 ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
21 Michael Laverty 1'35.731 WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Nicky Hayden 1'35.792 USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
23 Mike De Meglio 1'35.980 FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 175 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Valentino Rossi 117 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Dani Pedrosa 112 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Jorge Lorenzo 78 pts ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Andrea Dovizioso 71 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Pol Espargaro 58 pts ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Aleix Espargaro 54 pts ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
8 Stefan Bradl 50 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
9 Andrea Iannone 41 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
10 Bradley Smith 40 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Alvaro Bautista 34 pts ESP HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
12 Yonny Hernandez 27 pts COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Nicky Hayden 26 pts USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
14 Scott Redding 25 pts GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
15 Hiroshi Aoyama 24 pts JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
16 Cal Crutchlow 15 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
17 Karel Abraham 13 pts CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
18 Colin Edwards 8 pts USA FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
19 Michele Pirro 7 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
20 Hector Barbera 2 pts ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
21 Danilo Petrucci 2 pts ITA ART IodaRacing Project
22 Broc Parkes 1 pts AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
23 Mike De Meglio 0 pts FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
24 Michel Fabrizio 0 pts ITA ART IodaRacing Project
25 Michael Laverty 0 pts WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport

.