Aleix Espargaró Tops Thursday at Assen

The "open" entry Forward Yamaha of Aleix Espargaró topped Friday practice for the Dutch TT from TT Circuit Assen. The Spaniard ran a 1:33.653 minute lap in the second session. Espargaró is looking for his first career MotoGP podium. His career best finish is fourth, which came earlier this year at Qatar. Defending world champion Marc Márquez was second on Friday, 0.211 seconds off of his fellow Catalan rider. Márquez finished second to Valentino Rossi last year in his MotoGP debut at Assen. Prior to that Márquez had won three consecutive races in the Netherlands between the 125cc and Moto2 classes.

Dani Pedrosa followed his Honda teammate Márquez on the practice sheet in third. Two weeks ago at Barcelona, Pedrosa snapped Márquez's streak going back to last season of seven consecutive races starting from pole position. Pedrosa's lone win at Assen came in the 125cc class back in 2002. He has five second place finishes at Assen since that victory. Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo was fourth fastest with Andrea Iannone rounding out the top five on his Pramac Ducati.

Yamaha took the next three spots on the practice sheet with the Tech3 bikes of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró sandwiching defending Dutch TT winner Valentino Rossi in seventh. Pol Espargaró was fastest in the first practice session Friday morning. Stefan Bradl was ninth with Ducati factory rider Andrea Dovizioso rounding out the top ten, 0.807 seconds off Aleix Espargaró.

The Gresini Hondas of Álvaro Bautista and Scott Redding were eleventh and twelfth. Bautista will race despite chest and ankle bruising suffered in qualifying at Barcelona. Cal Crutchlow was thirteenth ahead of Engery T.I. Pramac Ducati of Yonny Hernández in fourteenth. Forward Yamaha rider Colin Edwards was fifteenth, 1.937 seconds off his teammate in first. The Aspar Hondas of Hiroshi Aoyama and Nicky Hayden were sixteenth and seventeenth. Karel Abraham was eighteenth with Broc Parkes and Héctor Barberá rounded out the top twenty.

Michael Laverty, Danilo Petrucci and Mike Di Meglio rounded out the field with 3.071 seconds separating the top and the bottom of the field.

MotoGP third practice will be held tomorrow at 3:55 a.m. ET with fourth practice at 7:30 a.m., leading into qualifying at 8:10 a.m. ET.