Assen, Qualifying: Late charge from Quiles – pole for the World Championship leader

Despite having the smallest motorbikes in the GP paddock, the Moto3 riders also had to work up a sweat to secure the best starting positions for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. At 1.10 pm, with an air temperature of 33 degrees, the 18 fastest youngsters took to the historic Assen circuit.

Riders from four nations had previously put in the best performances in Q1. Behind Ireland’s Casey O’Gorman, England’s Scott Ogden, Veda Pratama from Indonesia and Italy’s Matteo Bertelle made it through to the Q2 session. Once again missing out was Leo Rammersdorfer. The Austrian, who is competing in his first World Championship season for Paolo Simoncelli’s team, finished 23rd in FP2 and now sits in P10 – and thus in 24th place on the grid.

The big questions ahead of Q2: How far up the field can World Championship leader Maximo Quiles move after a mediocre qualifying session (11th place) – to take another step towards the Moto3 title on Sunday – and how will the fast Honda riders Kelso, Pini and O’Shea – who had set the fastest times in qualifying – fare when it comes to securing the best starting position?

The session began with another statement from Aussie Joel Kelso: 1:40.559 mins. This put the Honda a good tenth of a second ahead of his team-mate Veda Pratama on his first attempt. He was followed by three Spanish Moto3 riders: Alvaro Carpe, Fernandez and Cruces. Quiles initially finished only in 6th place. As the championship leader was unable to improve on his time in the second lap, he dropped back to 11th place following attacks from Almansa, Uriarte and Danish.

However, the Aspar rider recovered and picked up the pace again in lap 3. Finishing 5th, 0.388 sec behind Kelso, he laid the foundations for a good starting position. After a brief pit stop, the 18 riders took to the TT Circuit once more. The first rider to improve his time was Ajo rookie Brian Uriarte. The winner of the 2025 Red Bull Rookies Cup moved up to P1 with a time of 1:40.430 min. After Casey O’Gorman, who had come through Q1, moved up to sixth place, Quiles was left in row 3.

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But on the final lap, Maximo Quiles found the perfect response. The 18-year-old had positioned himself perfectly and, after P1 had initially gone back to Kelso, Quiles crossed the line seconds later with a new fastest lap time. With a time of 1:40.130 min, he missed the lap record by four tenths. Behind Quiles, Kelso held second place ahead of Brian Uriarte, Marco Morelli and Adrian Cruces.

The pole-setter from the last three races, Intact rider David Almansa, was unable to make his mark as he had done recently. The fourth-placed rider in the World Championship will start from sixth place ahead of Veda Pratama and Alvaro Carpe. Brno winner Hakim Danish (MSi) remained in 16th place.