Ducati’s Andrea Iannone, who will start from the back of the grid during the MotoGP race in Assen on Sunday, was the quickest rider in the opening free practice session this morning in cloudy and overcast conditions.
The Italian put down a 1’34.349 on his seventeenth lap and edged his team-mate, Dovizioso by two tenths of a second, with Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro completing the top three times with a 1’34.649.
The light rain that arrived during the earlier Moto3 practice session cleared by the time the blue riband class made their way on to the Dutch circuit. Some of the riders started out on intermediate tyres but after a few minutes they all opted for slicks.
Initially it was Iannone who set the pace on the soft front, hard rear tyre compound with a 1’34.665 on only his eleventh lap. Then Petrucci set a 1’34.660 with 90 seconds remaining to the opening session, only for Iannone to soar to the top of the sheets once again with a 1’34.349.
British rider Scott Redding improved throughout the whole outing and finished with a solid 1’34.660. The Movistar Yamaha championship challengers, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi ended FP1 in sixth and seventh respectively, with 0.03s separating the duelling pair. Rossi was outside the top ten times, until his last lap pushed him into P7 after a 1’34.748 rotation, while he opted for the harder rear tyre for the tail end of the session.
Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith was ninth fastest, just behind Maverick Vinales. But it was not a great session for the Repsol Honda’s of Marc Marquez and Danny Pedrosa who failed to make it into the top ten times and was sixth tenths off the best time of Iannone, with Cal Crutchlow sandwiched between the pair on the timing screens. Aspar’s Eugene Laverty was seventeenth quickest.
