Raul Fernandez leads Aprilia 1-2 in Assen sprint

Aprilia set the pace through the Dutch MotoGP weekend at Assen, with Jorge Martin taking pole position and Ai Ogura, Marco Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez filling the next three grid spots in qualifying. Aprilia riders were fastest in every session except Q1, and Bezzecchi briefly had his best lap deleted for a yellow-flag infringement while Fernandez also lost a lap for track limits. Francesco Bagnaia led the non-Aprilia group in fifth, Fabio di Giannantonio was sixth, Marc Marquez qualified seventh after losing two laps for track limits, and Pedro Acosta was eighth after a technical issue on his KTM.

The sprint underlined Aprilia’s strength. Raul Fernandez won the 2026 Dutch MotoGP sprint, his second Sprint victory of the season, ahead of Ogura in second for a Trackhouse Aprilia one-two. Di Giannantonio finished third, Bezzecchi recovered from an early mistake to take fourth, Martin was fifth, Marquez sixth and Bagnaia seventh after a wheelie at the start. Fermin Aldeguer did not start because of a vertebra fracture suffered on Friday. Riders used medium front and soft rear tires in the sprint, and Michelin said the medium front tire was the preferred choice for Sunday’s 26-lap race, with rear choices likely to vary between soft and medium.

Marquez said the weekend had been a difficult one at Assen, calling himself uncomfortable and inconsistent and saying he was riding in “safe mode” because the circuit’s direction changes did not suit him. He said he could not push hard enough, that he was giving 100% but could do no more, and that at some circuits simply surviving could still leave him well outside the podium places. He had said his goal was to survive and limit damage, and after a sixth-place warm-up finish he expected to run around seventh in the grand prix. In the warm-up, Bezzecchi led the session, Ogura was the only other rider in the 1m 31s range, Bagnaia was third and Alex Marquez, who was injured, was fifth. Yamaha also brought test rider Augusto Fernández in as a wild-card entry to gather data and continue development work at the 4.54-kilometer circuit known as The Cathedral of Speed.