Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales continued to confuse as he answered his last place finish at the Sachsenring MotoGP last weekend by topping the times in FP1 at Assen.
A similar story was echoed by Honda’s Pol Espargaro in second with Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo completing the four fastest times, as all six manufacturers were represented in the top-seven.
The Dutch paddock saw a range of emotions as round nine fired up on Friday morning. Quartararo was all smiles ahead of the opening 45-minute practice, with the opposing side of the Yamaha garage facing a different story. Viñales openly admitting to being completely adrift with the M1 in recent races and promising to copy everything his teammate does for this weekend in a bid to recover his Qatar-topping form.
Espargaro seemed to take a similar view over at Repsol Honda as he too looked to get to grips with the RCV after Marc Marquez’ victory last weekend. The Catalan was out of the blocks with impressive pace as he topped the times on his fourth lap at ‘The Cathedral’, Quartararo initially bettering before he returned once again, Marquez raising the bar almost instantly on lap five with a 1’34.644.
The laid back figure of Franky Morbidelli was missing from proceedings after the Italian aggravated the ongoing injury on his left knee during training on Tuesday. With surgery planned for later today, GRT WorldSBK rider, Garrett Gerloff, returns to the GP paddock for his debut full-time weekend after subbing for his now-teammate, Valentino Rossi, during Friday practice at Valencia last season.
Espargaro returned to head the standings after the opening 10-minutes before a revitalised, but seemingly still frustrated, Viñales became the first to break into the 1’33’s with his ninth lap of the 4.5 km circuit. Quartararo circulated in third with Aleix Espargaro and Marquez leading Jack Miller in the top-six. Takaaki Nakagami continued his strong practice showing in seventh with Danilo Petrucci enjoying his return to The Netherlands in eighth while the Suzukis of Joan Mir and Rins sat ninth and tenth.
Espargaro continued to push the pace as the closing 20-minutes began, with the Honda holding a 0.05s lead of the factory Yamaha’s, Nakagami trailing Quartararo by a further four-tenths as Gerloff crashed his Petronas at turn seven with 18’ to go.
Petrucci continued to impress as FP1 counted down, the Italian placing his Tech 3 KTM into fourth with his 13th effort, before Nakagami advanced to split the Yamaha’s, in third. Viñales was flying with 12-minutes to go, taking charge with a 1’33.308 as Rossi rose to eighth - 1.2s adrift of his fellow M1, with half the field sat in the pits ahead of a late-session charge.
The closing minutes found Rins up to third, Viñales and Espargaro ahead, with Quartararo, Petrucci and Nakagami trailing closely behind. Lorenzo Savadori bettered his Aprilia teammate for seventh and eighth before Marquez arrived to spoil the party and seal the position.
Pecco Bagnaia claimed leading Ducati honours, albeit from 10th, ahead of Miller and Mir with Miguel Oliveira beginning his Assen weekend in 13th, Brad Binder and Iker Lecuona following suit.
As the flag flew, Johann Zarco made a late-session move, denying Petrucci his top-six place with a 1’33.8 before Nakagami’s time was deleted and the Frenchman found himself in fifth, a similar fate demoting Savadori to 10th and Bagnaia to 12th. Rossi’s last effort promoted ‘The Doctor’ to 15th, ahead of the reading two KTM’s with Alex Marquez, Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin, Luca Marini and Gerloff completing the standings.
