Salom, Márquez and Pasini the best in FP2 at Assen with Lorenzo KO

After the first contact of the World Motorcycle Championship with the Assen track, now comes the time for the second free practice sessions of the three categories at the Cathedral, with the Moto3 riders going out first, followed by MotoGP and closing with Moto2, on a Thursday full of action.

The Moto3 riders have gone all out in these free practice sessions, with the best in this second session being Luis Salom, with a lap time of 1:43.511, breaking the track record and leaving Maverick Viñales behind, who finished more than half a second off the pace. Without a doubt things are extremely intense, and on Saturday we will see a very exciting race between the favourites, and unpredictable too: any of them could win, although the rain has cut the action on track a little.

Completing the top 10 of the category in this FP2 were Folger 3rd, Rins 4th, Márquez 5th, Masbou 6th, I. Viñales 7th, Techer 8th, Sissis 9th and 10th Miller. Regarding crashes and problems, we saw the one by Ferrari and the one by Guevara, caused by the track conditions with the rain. Our Juanfran took a good knock from a highside; in principle he is fine. The rest of the Spanish riders in the category placed Vázquez 11th, Carrasco 25th, Guevara 26th.

Next were the MotoGP riders, who found the track with a lot of water, rain being the protagonist of this FP2. However, all the riders went out to set laps and get a feel for the bike so they would be prepared for these possible conditions. With a Marc Márquez who was the fastest and dominated this FP2 of the premier class, with 1:47.617, in second position was Valentino Rossi, 0.252s behind the leader.

For his part, closing the top 10 were Pedrosa 3rd, Bradl 4th, Dovi 5th, Hayden 6th, Crutchlow 7th, Petrucci 8th, Hernández 9th and 10th Laverty. The first CRT was Petrucci’s, while the rest of the Spanish riders finished 12th Bautista, 16th Espargaró, 17th Lorenzo, 20th Silva. Regarding crashes and problems in this batch of practice, we saw several, among them Espargaró and Abraham, and above all Jorge Lorenzo, who went down in a very fast section and fractured his left collarbone. Undoubtedly bad news, but we will see how the 99 evolves in the coming days; he will surely fight to be at the next race. A pity.

Finally, it was the turn of Moto2, with Mattia Pasini being the best, with a time of 1:47.835, while Mika Kallio placed second, 0.746s behind. For his part, the rest of the top 10 was completed by Zarco 3rd, Cardús 4th, Krummenacher 5th, Di Meglio 6th, Redding 7th, West 8th, Elías 9th and 10th Moncayo. The rest of our riders placed Smith 15th, Espargaró 16th, Rabat 18th, Terol 19th, Torres 24th, Pons 26th.

Regarding crashes and problems, we saw many; the track conditions were quite extreme, and among other crashes we saw those of Smith, Takahashi, Nakagami, Corsi, Sucipto, Rossi, Cardús and Wilairot, among others.

Difficult sessions at Assen.

Photo | MotoGP Official website