Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi missed out on finishing at the top of the second MotoGP free practice timesheets, by only 0.004 seconds and was pipped by fellow countryman, Andrea Iannone with three minutes remaining in Assen.

It was a case of déjà vu for the Ducati rider, who once again found himself in the P1 position, just like he did this morning, and he was able to better his earlier free practice time by nearly one second, with a 1’33.591 which he did on the softer front and medium rear slick tyre.

But Iannone will have to start the race on Sunday from the back of the grid, after he was sanctioned with a penalty after colliding with Jorge Lorenzo during the last round in Spain.

Rossi and Iannone both went under the circuit record with Rossi lapping a 1’33.595. Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez improved by over one second from this morning’s session and was inside the top three quickest times, and was only two tenths off Rossi’s best lap.

The weather is predicated to be wet for tomorrow’s FP3 session, so many riders were trying to get the best out of their machine’s today so they could make it inside the top ten times, and to avoid qualifying one. Vinales, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Petrucci and the Espargaro brothers all made it safely inside the top ten. Scott Redding ended FP2 in P10, and his 1’34.172 pushed Pedrosa down to eleventh fastest, and if the bad weather persists on Saturday the Spaniard could find himself in qualifying one.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was testing out the new aerodynamic winglet, that was also used by Marc Marquez today. The Brit finished FP2 in thirteenth, followed by Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith and Eugene Laverty. But the Monaco-based resident crashed out unhurt at Veenslang, just as the chequered flag appeared. There were a few fallers out on track, including Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera and Aprilia Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, who both fell unhurt at Ossebroeken.

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