Fabio Quartararo’s 20th pole, Bagnaia “much better”, Alex “tricky for everybody”

Fabio Quartararo claimed his fourth MotoGP pole of the 2025 season – and 20th of his premier-class career – with a stunning lap at Assen, edging Francesco Bagnaia by just 0.028s in a thrilling Dutch qualifying.

The Monster Yamaha rider, who topped two of the weekend’s practice sessions, was behind Bagnaia after the opening two sectors of his fastest lap.

However, he launched a decisive charge through the flowing third and fourth sectors to snatch the top spot by just 0.028s.

It marks Fabio Quartararo’s first pole since Silverstone and follows a strong Friday showing where he also led the timesheets, signalling a potential return to form after a tough run at Aragon and Mugello.

“First of all, this afternoon the goal is to try to make a great start, great laps in the Sprint and see how it goes,” Quartararo told parc ferme interviewer Jack Appleyard.

“But I love this track. I love this place so hopefully we can turn this pole position into a great result on Saturday and Sunday.”

Quartararo will now target a Saturday podium, or better, in this afternoon’s half-distance race before going for his twelfth MotoGP win on Sunday.

Defending Assen winner Bagnaia, now 110 points behind world championship leader Marc Marquez, described this as his best weekend of the year so far.

“I feel much better than all the other races we had,” said the factory Ducati rider. “So we need to take the advantage from it.

“I’m happy with my feeling and in qualifying I just tried to set the best lap time, but it was tough and Fabio did an amazing job again.

“It's important to just remain calm and this afternoon try to see if I have the chance to win.”

Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez completed the front row in third (+0.160s), despite abandoning new setup ideas earlier in the day.

“We tried a few things this morning that were not working really good, so we decided to go back to yesterday’s bike and in qualifying I was able to be quite fast,” said the GP24 rider. “So happy for that, and to be on the front row was the main goal here.

“With the wind like this, it looks like Silverstone, and it will be a tricky day for everybody.

“It looks like Pecco is stronger, Marc also. They have a really good pace. Also Quartararo is there. We need to give our maximum and if we need to lose points, lose the minimum that we can.”

Alex’s brother and championship leader Marc Marquez qualified in fourth place (+0.220s) despite still nursing injuries from two high-speed Friday crashes.

The Ducati Lenovo leads the standings by 40 points from Alex, with Bagnaia a further 70 points adrift.

Quartararo, Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi (5th), Fermin Aldeguer (7th) and Maverick Vinales (10th) all put together their four best sectors during their fastest qualifying lap, suggesting they had got the maximum from their machinery.