The Moto3 pole in Assen goes to Angel Piqueras. The Leopard rider will be starting from pole position for the first time at the Dutch TT. He is joined on the first row by Taiyo Furusato and Collin Veijer. The latter caused a violent crash in the last corner. The local hero was thrown from his bike by a highsider, but was uninjured. He was unable to make another attack due to the severe damage to his bike.
Ivan Ortola, Ryusei Yamanaka and Stefano Nepa start from the second row. Jose Antonio Rueda, Adrian Fernandez, Joel Esteban and Luca Lunetta complete the top 10. World Championship rivals David Alonso and Dani Holgado disappoint in qualifying in Assen, finishing in 13th and 15th. Qualifying was also disappointing for the Swiss Noah Dettwiler. He did not make it past 25th place on the grid.
This is how the Moto3 qualifying went:
The following twelve drivers competed in the first qualifying: Buasri, Farioli, Carraro, Roulstone, Bertelle, Suzuki, Rossi, Dettwiler, Whatley, Esteban, Zurutuza, Rueda.
Jose Antonio Rueda finished the first round as the fastest driver. He set a time of 1:40.706 minutes, more than half a second faster than his opponents.
At halftime, Rueda, Matteo Bertelle, Tatsuki Suzuki and Jacob Roulstone are in the top four.
Now the long slog begins again. Most of the pilots start the last run together. Nobody wants to do the leading work, everyone is looking for Rueda’s rear tire.
Rueda is able to improve his best time once again in the last attempt. He leads the session with a time of 1:40.380 minutes. Bertelle, Joel Esteban and Tatsuki Suzuki move into Q2 with him. Riccardo Rossi and Jacob Roulstone narrowly fail. Noah Dettwiler finishes the session in second to last place, 1.8 seconds behind.
Collin Veijer was in top form again on Saturday. The local hero set the fastest time after the first lap, ahead of Ivan Ortola and Adrian Fernandez.
Veijer’s team is trying everything to repair the bike as quickly as possible. But there probably won’t be enough time. Veijer is currently still in pole position.
Meanwhile, Joel Esteban has fought his way up to fifth place. The next crash comes from Adrian Fernandez in turn nine. The yellow flags cost some drivers their fast laps.
Ryusei Yamanaka moves into the first row of the grid next to his teammate Ivan Ortola. The dominator of the first seven races, David Alonso, is still struggling in Assen and is currently only in tenth place. Now he is once again posting fast intermediate times.
Angel Piqueras sets the new best time! The Leopard driver completes a lap of the TT Circuit in less than 1:39.746 minutes. Tayio Furusato moves up to second place, pushing Collin Veijer into third place. Ivan Ortola, Ryusei Yamanaka and Stefano Nepa form the second row.
Falls and incidents:
Tatsuki Suzuki crashed in turn nine in the first qualifying session. However, the Japanese rider was able to get his KTM back on its feet with the help of the marshals and continue the session.
Collin Veijer crashes spectacularly on his second attempt. After the last chicane, he is thrown from his bike by a highside. He remains uninjured, however, and quickly brings his bike back to the pits.
Adrian Fernandez crashes in turn nine shortly before the end.