The MotoGP weekend at Assen opened with Ducati in the spotlight, with the Borgo Panigale manufacturer placing its two official riders in 2025 at the top of the first free practice session, and they also appeared to be the best placed of all in terms of race pace.
The fastest in the end was Pecco Bagnaia, who, despite continuing until the turn on the same tyres, managed to lap in 1’32″401, therefore less than a second from the record of the Dutch track, proving how much the level is really very high this year. The reigning world champion preceded Marc Marquez, who finished very close with the Gresini Racing GP23, just 65 thousandths behind.
After undergoing surgery to resolve an arm pump problem after Mugello, Raul Fernandez made a strong start, snatching up third place on the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia in 1’32″501. The Spaniard did better than the two official RS-GP machines ridden by Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, who are in fifth and sixth place, just under three tenths behind, with the rider from Granollers losing a few minutes at the start of the session due to a warning on the dashboard that forced him to stop along the track.
Among the Aprilias, an excellent Fabio Quartararo slipped in, who seems to have found positive feedback with the material tested in last week’s test in Valencia, which he said he was particularly satisfied with. “El Diablo” is fourth, just 193 thousandths from the top, but it must be said that he was also one of those who decided to fit a soft tire on the rear at the end of the session.
The same goes for Fabio Di Giannantonio, seventh. To be fair, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider was the fastest at the checkered flag, but then he saw his best lap cancelled for touching the green at the last chicane and therefore dropped back to 366 thousandths from Bagnaia, with a time he had previously obtained with the medium tire.
Continuing to scroll down the standings, eighth is Alex Marquez, who also seemed to be in a pretty good position in terms of pace in the first part of the session with the Gresini Ducati, while in ninth position is the first of the KTMs, that of Brad Binder. The RC16s seemed to struggle a bit in this first outing of the weekend and this is confirmed by the fact that the rookie Pedro Acosta, a great protagonist of this first third of the season, is only in 14th position.
It wasn’t a brilliant session for the world championship leader Jorge Martin either, who had to settle for tenth place, more than half a second behind, on the Prima Pramac Racing Ducati, ahead of the other two Reds of Marco Bezzecchi, who also went straight into the gravel towards the middle of the session, and Enea Bastianini, with his teammate Franco Morbidelli in 15th place, also behind the Aprilia of Miguel Oliveira and the aforementioned Acosta.
18th place for the best of the Hondas, which was that of Takaaki Nakagami, who has Luca Marini in his wake who managed to remove himself from the bottom of the standings on the last lap. At the rear of the group, therefore, is the other Italian Lorenzo Savadori, who is racing as a wild card for Aprilia this weekend.
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