Bagnaia: Assen MotoGP pole record was “impossible” to beat

Despite the threat of rain hanging over the Assen circuit on Saturday afternoon, the pole shootout session began with red hot pace as Pramac’s Jorge Martin set a new lap record of 1m31.708s.

But factory Ducati counterpart Bagnaia smashed this with just over four minutes of Q2 remaining to claim his fourth pole of the year with a 1m31.504s.

Bagnaia pitted after that lap as he felt setting a better time wasn’t possible, explaining he would not have minded being overtaken had a rival somehow beaten him.

“Yeah, it’s the reason I stopped in the box, because I said ‘doing more than this is impossible for me’,” Bagnaia said when asked if his 1m31.504s was the perfect lap.

“If someone overtakes me, it would be ok. But I’m very happy for this qualifying because this morning I was struggling a lot to be consistent and competitive.

“Thanks to my team we did a good job and in FP4 we found a way to work that helped me a lot with racing tyres, and also for the time attack we are always so competitive.

“I’m very happy for that – but more for the step in front we did.”

Bagnaia wasn’t challenged as the clock counted down the final seconds of Q2, with nearest rival Fabio Quartararo having a big moment at the Turn 5 hairpin on his last attempt.

However, the championship leader thinks that lap was “going to be a little bit worse” anyway and was happy to settle for second.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

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