MotoGP: Andrea Dovizioso Wins Pole at Assen

Photo by Gold & Goose

Andrea Dovizioso scored a thrilling pole for the Dutch TT aboard the factory Ducati in challenging conditions Saturday in Assen. Dovizioso, using Valentino Rossi as a gauge, had a blazingly fast final lap of 1:45.246 in the Q2 MotoGP session on a track that began the session wet and ended with a narrow and variably dry line. Rossi put the Yamaha in second, making it an Italian 1-2. Scott Redding, who ran on the track directly behind Rossi and Dovi came home third on the Pramac Racing Ducati. It marked his first front-row start in MotoGP.

Dovi put a perfect plan in place, gambling that the track would be best at the end of the session and waiting to go all out until the final lap, with new rain tires. It paid off. The Ducati ace had the added benefit of having Rossi just in front of him as a rabbit. Rossi happened to be also unleashing his best lap at that point, which gave Dovi the perfect target to follow. You could see that Dovi was making up time on Rossi in certain sections and the timing clock confirmed it when they crossed the finish line for the final time.

Dovizioso explained how he was able to score his first pole since the opening round of 2015 and his fourth-career MotoGP pole.

“I’m really happy about the work of the team because also in the morning in the dry we were very competitive,” Dovizioso said. “The afternoon it was very easy to make a mistake. But we were very good to analyze the situation. In the middle of the session the track start to become dry, so I understood to change the strategy to put another set (of tires) and to make just one lap and I was lucky to start behind Valentino and I did a really good lap time. Part of that is because the bike is much better than the last couple of races, so we have to wait and see the weather tomorrow.”

Rossi said he came into the pits late in the session for new rain tires. He said he felt it was still too early to try an intermediate. “Three or four corners were still completely wet,” he explained.

Redding was happy about his first front-row start.

“I was a bit nervous for a bit, but I saw the track was getting a bit drier,” Redding said. “I almost crashed two or three times. I went a bit off line and then you realized how greasy it was. It was a difficult and stressful qualifying. If it was ten minutes more we would have gone with the intermediate tire, but there was not enough time. We’ll see tomorrow for the race. My first time on MotoGP front row and I’ll give it my best.”

Marquez crashed in the first half of the session and was up running back towards the pits almost before his Honda had stopped bouncing through the gravel trap. In a rather humorous moment, Marquez commandeered what appeared to be a photographer’s scooter to get back to his pits. He rode the thing like he stole it to get back to his pit box. Unfortunately for Marquez his backup bike was still being switched over from dry setup, so he was not able to get on the track immediately. He was able to get back on the track in time to record a lap that placed him fourth. He will be joined on the second row by Cal Crutchlow and Yonny Hernandez.

MOTUL TT ASSEN MotoGP Qualifying Nr. 2 Classification 2016