The Moto2 World Championship qualifying for the 2019 Dutch TT got underway in the middle of the European heatwave.
The air was hot, the track was hot and so was Lorenzo Baldassarri’s pace at the beginning of Q1 for the Flexbox HP 40 squad, as he went to the top. At the top was where the Italian would stay, and he was joined in moving through to Q2 by Jorge Navarro (Beta Tools Speed Up), Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) and Nicolo Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46).
It was threatened until the final seconds but @GardnerRemy takes his FIRST EVER Grand Prix pole position! ???
He is PUMPED! ?#DutchGP ?? pic.twitter.com/cFsFpm1CDl
— MotoGP™ ?? (@MotoGP) June 29, 2019
In Q2 it was Remy Gardner (OMEXOX TKKR SAG Team) who continued his table-topping form from FP3 to take his first career front row and pole position, ahead of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Xavi Vierge (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) who has seen a return to form in Holland to start from the back of the front row.
The winner of the last three races, Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) will start from the head of row two ahead of Sam Lowes and top rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio (Beta Tools Speed Up); whilst Jorge Navarro (Beta Tools Speed Up) will start from seventh ahead of Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Enea Bastianini (Italtrans Racing Team).
Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans Racing Team) completes the grid’s top ten and heads up row four from Luca Marini (Sky Racing Team VR46) and Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Intact GP); whilst Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP 40) heads up row five ahead of Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Tetsuta Nagashima (ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team) who was strong in the first part of the lap but continually missed out in the second half.
Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) crashed in the beginning of Q2 and despite being able to get back out on track was unable to better his Q1 time and qualified just sixteenth. The Italian will be joined on the sixth row by Iker Lecuona (American Racing) and Nicolo Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46).
Dominique Aegerter (MV Agusta Idealavoro Forward) was the fastest rider to not make Q2 and will start from nineteenth ahead of Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) and Marco Bezzecchi (Red Bull KTM Tech3).
Jonas Folger (Petronas Sprinta Racing) will start from twenty-second, ahead of Bo Bendsneyder (NTS RW Racing GP) and Jake Dixon (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) who is for the first time at a track he knows in 2019. Simone Corsi (Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2) will start from twenty-fifth, ahead of Lukas Tulovic (Kiefer Racing) and Joe Roberts (American Racing) on the ninth row.
Row ten sees Steven Odendaal (NTS RW Racing GP) ahead of Xavi Cardelus (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) and Stefano Manzi (MV Agusta Idealavoro Forward) who received a back-of-the-grid penalty for causing Dimas Ekky’s practice two crash on Friday, which has taken the Indonesian out of the weekend.