Jorge Martin captured pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix with a blistering 1 m 30.812 on his factory Aprilía, launching the manufacturer to a 1‑2‑3‑4 grid.
Aprilía Dominates Dutch Qualifying
Martin’s lap edged the Trackhouse‑entered RS‑GP of Ai Ogura by a razor‑thin 0.011 s, following a pacemaking run of 1 m 30.853 from championship leader Marco Bezzecchi. The Spaniard’s final effort improved his earlier time by a fraction, securing his first pole of the season after setbacks at Balaton Park and Brno.
Contested Battle for the Lead
With the top six separated by just 0.143 s, the race for pole turned into a straight duel between the two factory Aprilía machines. Although Raul Fernandez briefly topped the timesheets with 1 m 30.796, the lap was erased for a track‑limit infringement, allowing Martin to hold the advantage to the session’s close.
Breaking Apart the Grid
Officially on the front row, Ogura’s final run out‑pushed Bezzecchi to third spot, while Fernández settled back to fourth after his deletion. Francesco Bagnaia led Ducati’s line, ending only a tenth of a second behind the Aprilía pace. Fabio di Giannantonio qualified sixth for VR46, and reigning champion Marc Marquez was forced into seventh after multiple lap‑time drops from track‑limit violations.
Other Grid Highlights
Pedro Acosta, hampered by technical issues on his factory KTM, finished eighth after parking his bike in the closing minutes. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Honda’s Joan Mir secured the following places, having qualified from the opening leg of Q2. Tech3’s Enea Bastianini rounded out the tenth row. Alex Marquez, though deemed fit by MotoGP’s doctor Angel Charte, chose to sit out qualifying in focus of recovery, positioning the rider at 12th.
Encore Grid Stories
Team‑mate Fermin Aldeguer was ruled out of the weekend after a vertebral fracture sustained in Friday’s crash, while Franco Morbidelli ran 13th for VR46. Diogo Moreira’s Q2 run ended in 14th on the LCR Honda, after which KTM’s Brad Binder completed the fifth row. The rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu took the final spot, joined by Yamaha wildcard Augusto Fernandez and Johann Zarco’s stand‑in Cal Crutchlow on the LCR team.
With the front row locked in by Aprilía and the gap to the rest of the field enduring, the Dutch Grand Prix sets the stage for testing whether the manufacturer’s qualifying dominance can be translated into race supremacy.
"