2025 Dutch MotoGP: Marc Marquez tops FP1 despite huge crash
Marc Marquez crashes heavily in Assen FP1
MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez brushed off a massive early crash in FP1 at the Dutch Grand Prix to lead the session on his factory Ducati.
Marc Marquez comes to Assen off the back of successive perfect weekends, having taken pole, sprint victory and the grands prix win last time out at Mugello as well as the previous round at Aragon.
It has given him a 40-point lead coming into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Assen, though this was put under immediate pressure in the opening stages of FP1 on Friday morning.
The factory Ducati rider lost the rear end of his Ducati coming through the fast Turn 15 left-hander and was flicked into the gravel.
As he slide over the lip of asphalt that marks the beginning of the gravel trap, his left hand and arm took a heavy knock.
He needed to be seen by MotoGP’s medical chief, but rejoined the session with around 19 minutes of the 45-minute FP1 remaining.
He immediately went on to set the fastest time of the session, albeit on fresh medium rear rubber, but would better this time to a 1m32.216s at the end of FP1.
He headed Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales, who was 0.313s behind Marquez - but set his best lap of 1m32.529s at the end of the session on a 20-lap-old medium rear.
Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi completed the top three with a 1m32.570s, with last year’s Dutch Grand Prix winner Francesco Bagnaia fourth on a 1m32.609s.
Bagnaia comes into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix trailing team-mate Marc Marquez by 110 points in the championship.
At one stage in FP1, Bagnaia led the way and looked generally more comfortable on his bike than he did during last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was fifth on the leading VR46-run Ducati, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo completing the top six.
Alex Marquez, second in the standings, was seventh on his Gresini Ducati ahead of LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer and the sister factory Yamaha Alex Rins.
Aldeguer almost had his own massive in the latter stages of FP1 after suffering a huge rear slide going through the fast Turn 12 right-hander.
Pedro Acosta was the next-best KTM in 11th, while his team-mate Brad Binder was mired down in 20th.
Luca Marini’s Honda stand-in for this weekend, Aleix Espargaro, was 21st at the end of his first practice session since May’s British Grand Prix.
He was around half a second clear of LCR Honda rookie Somkiat Chantra.
FP1 at Assen was delayed by almost an hour due to a fluid spill at the end of the opening Moto3 session, but this afternoon’s hour-long Practice is still scheduled to run at 2pm BST.
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