MotoGP

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow will start from his first ever GP pole position for Saturday’s Iveco TT Assen. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider will share the front row with Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl. World Champion Jorge Lorenzo missed qualifying after his crash on Thursday, however following an overnight operation has returned to Assen to undergo a fitness test tomorrow morning before Warm Up for a possible return.

A truly dramatic qualifying session for the 65th World Championship Dutch TT concluded with several riders grabbing provisional pole position, only to be demoted by their rivals just moments later. Rain had fallen earlier in the day but would not disrupt the grid-deciding period.

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi, Bradl and Marquez all provisionally held the top spot before Crutchlow delivered the pole time of 1’34.398 to become the first British MotoGP™ pole-sitter since Jeremy McWilliams at Phillip Island in 2002. Behind him, Marquez qualified in the top three for the first time since Le Mans and 2011 Moto2™ title winner Bradl sealed his first front row start in the premier class. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa had looked likely to collect his third consecutive pole, but crashed at De Bult with six and a half minutes remaining and would tumble to fifth.

Rossi qualified fourth, his best qualifying this year, whereas Tech 3’s Bradley Smith will line up behind Pedrosa in sixth – also his best grid position to date. The third row will be headed up by Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, who further raised the bar as the best ever CRT qualifier. It was also a positive day for teammate Randy de Puniet, who was quickest in Q1 and will start ninth.

Q1 was also full of surprises. Andrea Iannone crashed his Energy T.I. Pramac Racing machine when challenging for a place in the shootout, which leaves him 13th on the grid. Two places further back, Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso could manage no more than 15th, which is his worst grid position since joining the top class in 2008. The field is completed by Ivan Silva, back on the grid with Avintia Blusens as substitute to Hiroshi Aoyama, who picked up hand injuries at the last round in Barcelona.

During Q1 there was also an incident during which Avintia’s Hector Barbera was deemed to have impeded Dovizioso on the racing line, after which the Italian kicked out at the CRT rider in displeasure. Both riders were given one penalty point by Race Direction for their actions.

Moto2

Pol Espargaro has claimed pole position for Saturday’s Moto2™ Iveco TT Assen. The Tuenti HP 40 rider will start alongside Came IodaRacing Project’s Johann Zarco and Marc VDS Racing Team’s championship leader Scott Redding.

The historic Assen TT Circuit has already been subject to much rain this weekend, not least this morning when the final Moto2 practice session was red flagged for half an hour due to a crash for QMMF Racing’s Rafid Topan Sucipto; the Indonesian rider would go on to qualify at the back of the grid despite an injured left foot.

Espargaro sits second in the riders’ standings to Redding, 35 points in arrears. His second pole in a row and third of the 2013 season came in the form of 1’38.734, edging out Zarco by just over a tenth of a second. Behind Redding, Row 2 is headed up by Espargaro’s teammate Esteve Rabat who suffered a crash during the session.

Xavier Simeon and Anthony West complete the second row for Desguaces La Torre Maptaq and QMMF Racing, respectively, while Row 3 will be occupied by NGM Mobile Racing’s Mattia Pasini, Marc VDS’ Mika Kallio and JiR Moto2’s Mike di Meglio. Independent wildcard Gino Rea will line up 24th.

Moto3

Miguel Oliveira has earned the first Moto3™ pole position for Mahindra Racing, having set an identical Assen lap time with Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Marquez just before. Maverick Viñales will start on the front row for Team Calvo, whereas championship leader Luis Salom held pole until retiring from the session with four minutes to go.

A threat of rain saw the majority of riders streaming out of the pits in the opening moments with the sole aim of posting competitive dry weather lap times. No showers would come during the session, which resulted in a quiet patch before track activity increased for the final efforts in the closing 15 minutes of the session.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s championship leader Salom looked to have sealed the top spot, but ran off-track and was unable to restart his KTM. His rivals proceeded to push hard and just thousandths of a second separated those filling places two to five. Oliveira delivered 1’43.588 before Marquez matched it just seconds later; pole goes to the former – for posting the time first – and he becomes the first Portuguese rider in history to achieve pole position in any of the three classes of the World Championship.

Salom will start fourth and one position behind Viñales, who is his closest title rival, whereas Marquez’s teammate Alex Rins and Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger complete Row 2; incidentally, the German saw one lap being removed for exceeding track limits. On the sidelines, Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin.

Source: motogp.com