The track had dried a little bit from the morning’s rain when it was finally time for the premier class to kick things off with a delayed Free Practice 1 after the race direction had to undergo a big cleaning of the track following some oil spillage earlier in Moto3™. Super motivated for this new race week in Assen, Maverick Viñales already showed great speed in the opening session, as he was second fastest of FP1 after 20 laps, with a best in 1’32.529 (+0.313). The track had dried by Practice time at 15:00, but tricky conditions still awaited the main class, with a cold track catching many off guards. When Practice kicked off, we saw many riders crash in their opening laps, while ‘Top Gun’ had chosen to remain in the pit box to evaluate things. It appeared to be the right move for SuperMav. When he finally went on track, the Spaniard progressively got the feels on the track, and started with an 1’32.821 placing him in a provisional 8th place with just half an hour to go. Shortly after, a crazy crash of Japanese Ai Ogura in T11 saw his Aprilia catch fire in the gravel, and that was a red flag straight away. All riders were forced to return to their pit boxes until the track was cleaned. Once that was done, Viñales returned on track and decided to go for a first time-attack session. First it was a 1’32.090, and the next lap he reached a brilliant 1’31.896 which powered him up to first. He dropped to second when Alex Marquez improved, and then came another red flag, this time caused by Lorenzo Salvadori’s crash at T8, just 13 minutes before the end. That time-off was shorter, and sooner than later, all riders rejoined the track for the very final time-attacks. Maverick did not improve straight away and sat in 7th 5 minutes to the end, but a late push of ‘Top Gun’ saw him take 8th in the timesheets with an improved 1’31.606. Another direct Q2 for our own Superman, who will aim to place his RC16 on the first two rows tomorrow morning.

Enea Bastianini arrived at Assen hungry for more, after he sadly crashed in the first lap of his home GP last week in Mugello. The feeling was decent after the opening FP1 this morning, with a best lap just 1.4 seconds off the top. When Practice kicked off in the afternoon, Enea Bastianini was unfortunately one of the many riders to go down early into the session, probably caught off-guard by the cold track temperature. It took a bit of time for 'Bestia' to return on track, but once he was able to re-join, there was the red flag from Ogura’s crash. Let’s wait a bit more then. Once the pitlane opened again, the number 23 could finally properly start his practice, and he clocked in a 1’32.367 which placed him in 10th place with 20 minutes left on the clock. The Italian continued to push, but the second red flag sadly cut his efforts.  When the action resumed, Enea dropped to P15 with the time-attacks fully on. Eventually, he managed to improve to a 1’31.953 in the final seconds to finish in 15th, just 0.177 seconds from the Q2 spots. For the second week in a row, Enea finished close to the top 10, and he will be looking to bring these positives to qualifying day, and hopefully get himself a decent position for sprint and main event. The action will be back on Saturday with FP2 at 10:10 (UTC+2), followed directly by the qualifying sessions. Then at 15:00, both Viñales and Bastianini will line up for the Tissot Sprint (13 laps)!