MotoGP, Netherlands: Aprilia dominates, Jorge Martin on pole. Bagnaia fifth, Marc Marquez in the third row

Four riders in the top four positions: Aprilia’s result in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix at the Assen circuit is nothing short of sensational, with all of the Noale-based manufacturer’s bikes securing top spots on the starting grid for Saturday’s Sprint and Sunday’s main race. Jorge Martin claimed pole position with a time of 1:30.812: the Spaniard hadn’t set the fastest time in a decisive qualifying session since the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, when he was still riding a Ducati and was on his way to winning the MotoGP World Championship.

The second- and third-place finishers were separated by a very narrow margin: Ai Ogura, of the Trackhouse Racing team, posted a best time just 11 thousandths of a second slower than Martin, while Marco Bezzecchi, back in action after his controversial disqualification at Brno—which prevented him from adding points to his standings—will start from third place, just 33 thousandths of a second behind in qualifying.

The top non-Aprilia rider is Pecco Bagnaia on his Ducati, fifth with a gap of 118 thousandths. Behind the Piedmontese rider—who, incidentally, will be an Aprilia rider starting in 2027—is the other Desmosedici ridden by Fabio Di Giannantonio, the VR46 Racing Team rider (+0.143), who will round out the second row. It was a disappointing day, however, for Marc Marquez, who will be forced to start from seventh on the grid: for the rider who recently renewed his contract with the Ducati factory team, the gap is 319 thousandths.

Rounding out the third row will be Pedro Acosta’s KTM (+0.412) and Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha (+0.504), while Joan Mir (Honda, +0.692) and Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3, +0.792) will start from the fourth row alongside Alex Marquez, who qualified for Q2 but remained in the pits as a precaution following Friday’s nasty crash in pre-qualifying, despite being declared physically fit to ride again.

The following riders did not participate in the decisive session, having failed to set a qualifying time fast enough for the top two spots in Q1: Franco Morbidelli (Ducati VR46), Diogo Moreira (Honda LRC), Brad Binder (KTM), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Luca Marini (Honda), Jack Miller (Yamaha Pramac), Maverick Viñales (KTM Tech3), Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha), Cal Crutchlow (Honda LCR), and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha Pramac). In that order, the riders listed above will start from 13th position onward.