Marco Bezzecchi fastest in red-flagged Assen MotoGP Practice
Marco Bezzecchi ended second practice at Assen fastest of all
Aprilia MotoGP rider Marco Bezzecchi topped Practice at the Dutch Grand Prix, which was red-flagged late on after a big crash for Alex Marquez.
The championship leader led the opening session on Friday morning at Assen on his factory Aprilia, as he looks to move on from his Czech Grand Prix race ban.
Marco Bezzecchi was hit with a penalty after FP1 for a practice start infringement, though he only copped a fine from the FIM stewards.
In a session in which the Aprilias looked supreme, Bezzecchi led the way by 0.177s with a 1m31.123s on his factory team-run RS-GP.
He led Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, while KTM’s Pedro Acosta completed the top three on his final lap.
The session was red-flagged with just over three minutes to go, following a big highside for Gresini’s Alex Marquez.
He had to be helped away by the marshals after the fall, which came just weeks after suffering multiple fractures in a serious incident at Barcelona last month.
Team-mate Fermin Aldeguer also had a crash in FP1 and had to be taken to the medical centre for checks.
Bezzecchi set the early pace in the hour-long Practice with a 1m31.956s inside the opening 10 minutes.
Aprilia would annex the top spot for the rest of the session, with Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura and Jorge Martin on the sister factory team bike trading fastest laps with Bezzecchi.
In the closing stages, Bezzecchi had taken over with a 1m31.123s, which would not be matched following the brief red flag period.
Fernandez moved up to second just ahead of the red flag, while KTM’s Acosta went to third on his final flying lap after the stoppage.
Ai Ogura was fourth from Pecco Bagnaia, who produced a 1m31.384s on a used soft rear tyre on his final lap having had previous bests cancelled because of yellow flags.
He headed Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez, while VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was seventh from Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini, Martin and Alex Marquez.
Martin crashed late on at Turn 12 prior to the red flag, but narrowly held onto a Q2 spot.
VR46’s Franco Morbidelli was just 0.026s outside of a Q2 place, though is facing a stewards’ investigation into blocking after he got in Bastianini’s way on a flying lap.
No Hondas or Yamahas have secured a direct place inside Q2.
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