Marco Bezzecchi claims Assen pole with new lap record ahead of Francesco Bagnaia

Following Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli, Marc Marquez was attempting to find the type of pace that had been missing throughout free practice. 

And while he set a very competitive lap time, Marquez was unable to go faster than both riders as Zarco led the way.

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Nowhere near the 1m 32s all weekend, Marquez managed to break into that lap time barrier, however, it was only good enough for P5 following the first lap.

Flying the flag for Honda was Takaaki Nakagami as the Japanese rider stunned Ducati by overhauling Zarco. 

Having none of it, Zarco responded to both Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira by setting the fastest lap of the weekend. A time of 1:31.993s was set by the Pramac Ducati rider.

Using Marco Bezzecchi’s pace to his advantage, Brad Binder went straight to the top of the leaderboard to begin Q2. 

One of the clear contenders for pole, Jorge Martin crashed on his opening time attack at turn five, while Bezzecchi responded to Binder by going quickest. 

Bezzecchi went two tenths clear of Bagnaia with the best lap of the weekend. 

Sixth at the beginning of his second stint, Quartararo was pushing his Yamaha M1 to the limit in order to secure his best qualifying of the season. Quartararo seemed to have done just that as he lept up to top spot. 

But Bezzecchi responded once again with a new lap record in roder to deny Quartararo, before Binde rjumped up to second place. 

Francesco Bagnaia came close to challenging Bezzecchi for pole as he went second, before a mistake on his next lap ended his hopes of pole.

Luca Marini, who was third, managed to remain on the front row despite a late fall.