After yesterday’s unfamiliar dry conditions in Assen, today the unpredictable Dutch weather arrived. Fortunately both Repsol Honda riders, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, recorded a time yesterday to promote them into this afternoon’s Q2 as this morning’s FP3 session the track wasn’t fully wet – or dry – and neither Marc or Dani set a flying lap.

The weather improved slightly for FP4 and Marc set the fastest ever lap here on two wheels with a time of 1’33.462 (lap 12/15). However, the elements soon rolled in and just as the riders exited pitlane for the start of Q2, the rain arrived. In an intense first five minutes – of the fifteen minute session – all twelve riders in the shootout competed for the best line, anxious to record a fast time before the track became too wet.

Marc and Dani attacked immediately, passing several riders, and set times fast enough to place them second and third on the grid. All riders returned to the garages but as the track became wetter, the qualifying was decided. Most riders then utilised the final seven minutes to get a feeling for their bike in the wet, incase tomorrow’s twenty-six lap race serves more of the same.

Marc Marquez

"I’m happy with this front row, although we obviously wanted to take pole! The weather was very unpredictable, as sometimes it was raining and then it stopped – meaning that conditions were far from ideal. My goal was to get onto the front row, so when I saw that I was up into second I decided not to take any more risks; there was a lot to lose and not much to gain, so I kept calm because I had already reached my target.”

Dani Pedrosa

"It was a difficult session because the track was half-dry, half-wet, and then it started to rain more heavily. We went out with slick tyres and had time to put in a couple of laps, although there was a lot of traffic and we were all close together. It was hard to know how much of a risk we could take. Finally, with the track half-wet, we managed to set a good time and qualify on the front row which I'm happy with. Tomorrow we will continue working on the bike and try to have a good race, which could be either dry or wet.”

MotoGP 2014
Qualifying Round 8   Assen

Results Session

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
MotoGP 2014

Rider standings

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor
Location Information

Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose built for the Dutch TT in 1955, with previous events having been held on public roads. The track is narrow, with rapid changes in… read more.

Length 4.542 kilometres / 2.822 miles
Width 14 metres
Left corners 6
Right corners 12
Longest straight 0.487 kilometres / 0.303 miles
Constructed 1955
Modified 2012

TT Circuit Assen, De Haar, Assen, The Netherlands - View in Google Maps

www.ttcircuit.com

Records

Pole Position 1m 31.504s (178.6km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022)
Race Lap 1m 32.500s (176.7km/h) Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia, 2022)
Race Time 40m 25.205s (175.2km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022)
2023 Race Winner Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati)
2023 Sprint Winner Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati)