2021 Assen MotoGP FP4 Result: Quartararo Challenges Viñales

With rain keeping away from the Assen circuit despite the pessimistic forecast, the premier class got to enjoy good conditions in their chase for race pace in FP4 and it looked like a Yamaha vs Suzuki party throughout. Fabio Quartararo put the darker shade of blue at the top of the timesheets early on and did not budge, responding to any challenge by going quicker and quicker. The Frenchman was one step ahead on both the medium and hard rear tyre, but all tyre options got significant airtime from the field. There was quite a bit of soft rubber on display as well, including Maverick Viñales starting the session on used softs, but it was the mediums that brought him up to second, two tenths behind his teammate. The Spaniard was very consistent but could not quite match his teammate’s outstanding pace in the 1:32s.

Miguel Oliveira crashed the blue party to climb into third in the final handful of minutes and was closely followed by Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia, demoting the first Suzuki of Joan Mir to fifth. Takaaki Nakagami was the lead Honda in sixth, pushing Alex Rins down to seventh, although the Spaniard had pretty impressive pace. Marc Marquez seemed to favour the soft rear and used it to show possible podium pace despite ending the session eighth, ahead of teammate Pol Espargaro. Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10, seven tenths off the lead and not particularly impressive in terms of rhythm. Amongst the rest of the Ducatis, Jack Miller seemed to struggle the most, spending the entire session outside of the top 15 and nowhere near the pace of the main contenders.

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