Assen MotoGP: Marquez beats Crutchlow to pole

Marquez led the opening runs in Q2 aboard his works RC213V with a time of 1m33.330s, marginally quicker than his best time in third practice earlier in the day.

That time was then beaten by Jorge Lorenzo, who posted a 1m33.167s aboard his Ducati, and then again by Suzuki's Andrea Iannone on a 1m33.120s as the 15-minute shootout entered its final stages.

Running in the slipstream of Johann Zarco's Tech 3 Yamaha, Marquez logged a 1m32.791s to regain his place on top of the timesheets at the chequered flag to take only his second pole of 2018.

With many riders running together in a group for their last runs, a huge reshuffled occurred behind.

Crutchlow moved up to second on his final flyer, just 0.041s behind, while Rossi - languishing down in ninth after the first runs - vaulted to third, just a further 0.018s back.

Andrea Dovizioso was the quickest of the Ducatis in fourth place, followed by Alex Rins - who made it out of Q1 on his Suzuki - and Friday pacesetter Maverick Vinales on the second factory Yamaha.

Aleix Espargaro, another rider to crash in FP4, took a strong seventh for Aprilia ahead of Zarco, who topped Q1 ahead of Rins.

Iannone and Lorenzo were demoted to ninth and 10th places, with just 0.376s covering the top 10.

Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) and Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati) completed the Q2 order.

Q1: Zarco denies Nakagami

After failing to qualify directly to Q2 for the first time this year, Zarco appeared set to be eliminated in the first qualifying segment after coming in third behind Jack Miller and Rins in the opening runs.

But a last-minute effort of 1m33.578s as the chequered flag allowed Zarco to advance, 0.022s ahead of Rins - pushing LCR's Takaaki Nakagami down from second to third at the death.

Nakagami will start from 13th on Sunday ahead of Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati) and the second Tech 3 bike of Hafizh Syahrin, who set identical times.

Miller (Pramac Ducati) was pushed down to sixth in the closing stages, and will line up 16th ahead of Scott Redding (Aprilia) and Dani Pedrosa (Honda), who endured yet another difficult qualifying session.

KTM also had a session to forget, with Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro set to line up 20th and 21st.

Q2 results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'32.791
2	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'32.832	0.041
3	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'32.850	0.059
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'32.870	0.079
5	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'32.933	0.142
6	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'32.984	0.193
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'33.029	0.238
8	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'33.072	0.281
9	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'33.120	0.329
10	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'33.167	0.376
11	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'33.292	0.501
12	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'34.015	1.224

Q1 results

Grid	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
-	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'33.578
-	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'33.600	0.022
13	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'33.625	0.047
14	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'33.666	0.088
15	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	1'33.666	0.088
16	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'33.672	0.094
17	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	1'33.995	0.417
18	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'34.125	0.547
19	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'34.145	0.567
20	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'34.149	0.571
21	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'34.268	0.690
22	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	1'35.192	1.614
23	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	1'35.646	2.068
WD	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda