Fabio Quartararo's high-speed scare: “A close one. You don't know what to do”

Assen pole qualifier Fabio Quartararo left the Dutch MotoGP with just six points after a Sprint crash was followed by a scary near-miss with Fermin Aldeguer during Sunday’s grand prix.

Struggling for early grip, Quartararo had already slipped to seventh when he was forced to swerve onto the grass at high speed to avoid the bouncing Gresini Ducati and rider, who had suffered a violent highside on lap 6.

Joan Mir, following Quartararo, was not so fortunate and hit the fallen bike. Both Mir and Aldeguer escaped serious injury.

Quartararo, running a special red-and-white Noriyuki Haga R7 livery as part of Yamaha’s 70th anniversary celebrations, lost five positions in the incident but recovered to pass Johann Zarco, Jack Miller and Brad Binder on his way to tenth.

“My start was not so good, but not so bad either, it's just that the others made a great start,” Quartararo said.

“The first laps were very difficult for us; we had zero grip. We were missing something.

“When Fermin crashed in front of me, I went into the grass and lost 8 or 9 seconds.

“It was a close one. You don't know what to do in such a situation.

“You want to keep turning, but the bike and Fermin are coming towards you. I opened the throttle to go into the grass.

“And then, when I was behind other riders, it was tricky to overtake.

“I think today, especially in the second part of the race, I could have gone much, much faster had I not been behind rivals."

Quartararo finished 23.7s behind Ducati race winner Marc Marquez.

Alex Rins explains Miguel Oliveira incident at Dutch MotoGP

Team-mate Alex Rins also had his race compromised by on-track drama, losing two positions from 18th on the grid after taking evasive action to avoid contact at Turn 5 on the opening lap.

"The race was tough, because we couldn't do more,” Rins said. “I had a big moment in corner 5 trying to avoid Oliveira who touched with another rider.

“From there, I tried to recover positions, tried to recover the gap, and I arrived in P14 or P15. I was fighting and doing some overtakes.

“But, even without this incident in the opening lap, the race would have been difficult.

“We know what is causing us problems, so we need to work on this. From our side, we give everything on track."

Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli added: "We already knew that this race was not going to be easy. Both our riders needed to take evasive action to avoid on-track incidents.

“Unfortunately, the results were not what we aimed for to celebrate Yamaha's 70th anniversary.

“We will not stop working between now and the German MotoGP. After Assen we move on to Brno for a two-day private test."