2025 Dutch MotoGP: Fabio Quartararo takes pole, Marc Marquez off front row
Quartararo takes fourth pole of 2025
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo narrowly claimed a fourth pole of the 2025 MotoGP season at the Dutch Grand Prix, as points leader Marc Marquez could only manage fourth.
The 2021 world champion led the way at the end of Friday’s running at the TT Circuit Assen and carried that form into Saturday morning, as he topped FP2 prior to qualifying.
In what was a tight Q2 session, Fabio Quartararo seized his fourth pole of the season by just 0.028 seconds from factory Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia.
It marks Quartararo’s 20th career pole position and makes him just the third Yamaha rider in history to achieve this.
Bagnaia led the Ducati charge in second, as team-mate and championship leader Marc Marquez found himself off the front row for only the second time this year.
Alex Marquez completed the front row for the Gresini Ducati team.
In the opening phase of the 15-minute Q2 session, Marc Marquez set the pace at 1m31.284s from Alex Marquez and Bagnaia.
Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run GP24 then took over next time around with a 1m31.150s, before Bagnaia hit the front with a 1m31.059s as Marc Marquez slotted into second by 0.090s while chasing him.
Read more: Friday analysis hints at revenge for one MotoGP rider at Assen
But it would be Quartararo who would lead the timesheet at the end of the opening run in Q2, as he found a 1m31.047s on his factory Yamaha.
With four minutes to go, Alex Marquez returned to the top of the pile with a 1m30.811s - the first sub-1m31s lap of the weekend - but would soon find himself shuffled back by Quartararo.
The Frenchman produced a 1m30.651s to take pole, with Bagnaia slotting into second ahead of Alex Marquez.
Marc Marquez was unable to advance on fourth after making a mistake into Turn 1 at the start of his final lap and didn’t have time enough to get round for another effort.
It’s his first time off the front row since the British Grand Prix and only the second time he has not been inside the top three all year.
He heads Aprilia’s Marco Bezecchi in fifth and the VR46 Ducati of Franco Morbidelli, while Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer was seventh having come through Q1.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was eighth on the sister VR46 Ducati, with KTM’s Pedro Acosta and Tech3 counterpart Maverick Vinales rounding out the top 10.
Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez came through Q1 to qualify 11th, with LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco 12th.
Factory Honda rider Joan Mir narrowly missed out on a place in Q2 by just 0.004s and will line up 13th this weekend ahead of the next-best Yamaha of Pramac’s Jack Miller and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori.
Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura had a crash in Q1 at Turn 8 and was only able to put his satellite Aprilia 20th on the grid.
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