Aleix Espargaró takes the MotoGP pole in Assen, Márquez 2nd and Pedrosa 3rd

The MotoGP World Championship has begun its fight for pole position at the eighth round of the 2014 season to the fullest, going through FP4 first and then both official practice sessions, to find out what grid we would have at the Assen Circuit.

First was FP4, the preparation for the battle for the grid positions, and we saw Marc Márquez flying around the Dutch track; without a doubt, the 93 has already put the pedal to the metal for this Grand Prix. The top 10 was completed with Márquez 1st, Rossi 2nd, Lorenzo 3rd, P. Espargaró 4th, A. Espargaró 5th, Pedrosa 6th, Dovi 7th, Iannone 8th, Bradl 9th and 10th Bauti.

Then we watched the riders who had not managed to sneak into the MotoGP top 10 compete in Q1, where all of them fought tooth and nail to secure one of the two spots that would take them through to Q2 and the top 12 on the grid. In this session we had a dominant force, Bautista, who from the start set the pace in 1st and never gave up that position; the second spot was more contested, but in the end it was Crutchlow who earned that pass to Q2.

The top 13-23 was completed with Abraham 13th, Aoyama 14th, Hernández 15th, Redding 16th, Petrucci 17th, Edwards 18th, Parkes 19th, Barby 20th, Laverty 21st, Hayden 22nd and 23rd Di Meglio.

And finally they went out for Q2, in a start full of drama with everyone ready in the pit lane; they left the pit and just at that moment the red flag was shown for rain, so tension was at its peak in Assen. The first laps of Q2 looked completely like the opening laps of a race; we even had a moment of “extreme tension” between Márquez-Lorenzo-P.Espargaró.

But before the rain became total, we saw Aleix Espargaró, the smartest in the class, set a good time of 1:38.789, which put him in first position as pole sitter at the controls of a Yamaha Open, with plenty to say tomorrow in the race. Behind him came Marc Márquez, 1.405s back, while the top 12 was completed with Pedrosa 3rd, Iannone 4th, Crutchlow 5th, Smith 6th, Dovi 7th, Bradl 8th, Lorenzo 9th, Bauti 10th, P. Espargaró 11th and 12th Rossi.

Pole for our Aleix Espargaró, the first of his racing career. Congratulations.

Photo | MotoGP Official website and teams