Rins, Bautista and Espargaró the fastest in FP3 at Assen

The World Motorcycle Championship kicked off Friday’s action at the Assen Circuit with the free practice sessions of all three categories, with the Moto3 riders the first to head out, in extreme conditions, with a damp track and plenty of cold. The truth is we saw many crashes and scares for all the participants.

The first riders out in these conditions were the Moto3 riders, with Álex Rins setting the best time, a 1:56.783, leaving the second-placed Maverick Viñales 0.351s behind. Without a doubt a complicated situation at the cathedral of motorcycle racing, but the same for everyone. Behind the top two came Márquez 3rd, Salom 4th, Folger 5th, Kornfeil 6th, Finsterbusch 7th, Binder 8th, Sissis 9th and Miller 10th, completing the top 10. There were many crashes, including Loi, Ajo, Carrasco, Granado, Iwema, I. Viñales, Khairuddin, Miller, Bagnaia, Schoute, Vázquez and Leeuwen.

The remaining positions for the Spanish riders: I. Viñales 21st, Guevara 22nd, Vázquez 27th and Carrasco 32nd.

After them it was the turn of the MotoGP riders, who rode with kid gloves and without the reigning World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo. The Mallorcan was taken last night to Barcelona, to the Hospital General de Catalunya, where he was operated on immediately by Dr. Joaquin Rodriguez and his team. The operation was a success, and the rest of the recovery programme has begun in an attempt to make it to the German Grand Prix.

As for what we saw in the session, we saw Álvaro Bautista as the fastest, setting a time of 1:40.029, while Randy de Puniet was behind him, 0.194s back. The top 10 of FP3 was completed by Pirro 3rd, Silva 4th, Márquez 5th, Crutchlow 6th, Dovi 7th, Hayden 8th, Pedrosa 9th and Abraham 10th. The rest of our riders finished 16th Espargaró and 19th Barberá. Meanwhile, going straight through to Q2 were Lorenzo, Crutchlow, Márquez, Rossi, Pedrosa, Espargaró, Bradl, Bautista, Pirro and Smith.

Meanwhile, as for crashes, we saw Marc Márquez’s, in a very fast section, which was very spectacular. The 93 went out on his first lap on dry tyres and paid for his inexperience. Luckily the Catalan seems to be fine.

The last to head out were the Moto2 riders, with Pol Espargaró setting the best time, a 1:39.660, in a session marked by Sucipto’s crash about 13 minutes from the end. The circuit was clearly tricky, in semi-dry to wet conditions, which caused several falls. That is why Espargaró took so long to go out onto the track, because the conditions were extreme and very risky, but in the end he did go out and set that time to take the first position.

Behind the leader in this FP3 was Tito Rabat, 0.237s back. The top 10 was completed by Kallio 3rd, Redding 4th, Zarco 5th, Luthi 6th, West 7th, Simeon 8th, Pasini 9th and De Angelis 10th. The rest of the Spanish riders finished Simón 15th, Pons 19th, Terol 20th, Cardús 23rd, Elias 16th, Smith 29th, Moncayo 31st and Torres 32nd. As for crashes and track exits, we saw Sucipto’s, Torres’s and a few others.

Now comes the moment of truth: the QPs.

Photo | MotoGP Official website