Markus Zoerweg
Head of Motorcycle Department
With the outstanding MSM motorcycle gang, Markus keeps things running at MotoGP, WSBK & Co. He likes to irritate people with his Austrian accent.MORE
The result: Bagnaia was 0.065 seconds faster than Marc Marquez in 1:32.401 minutes. Third place went to Raul Fernandez, who had undergone arm pump surgery during the break after Mugello. Behind him were Fabio Quartararo and the Aprilia duo of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro. Seventh place went to Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had initially finished the session in first place, but whose fastest lap was deleted due to a track limit violation in the final chicane. Alex Marquez, Brad Binder and World Championship leader Jorge Martin completed the top ten.
Enea Bastianini finished 12th, Pedro Acosta 14th. Jack Miller could not get beyond 17th place, Takaaki Nakagami finished 18th as the best Honda.
Falls, defects & incidents: The first free practice session in Assen began strangely for Aleix Espargaro. He fell on his side with his Aprilia as he was leaving the pits. Although he was able to leave the pit lane, he turned back onto the service road after a few meters and had to be pushed back to the pits with his motorcycle.
Marco Bezzecchi came off the track in the fast section of Turn 14 and 15 and raced through the gravel. He was able to avoid a crash, however.
The weather: Good conditions greeted the MotoGP stars for their first free practice session in Assen. With partly overcast skies, the outside temperature was 19 degrees and the asphalt was 33 degrees.
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