Francesco Bagnaia continued on from his strong showing in Mugello as MotoGP resumed with the opening practice session for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Bagnaia posted a 1:32.401s as he pipped Marc Marquez and Raul Fernandez, with a tenth of a second covering the top three riders around Assen’s twisting roads.
Marquez dictated proceedings through the first quarter of the session as he was acclimatising well to the high-speed Assen circuit on his year-old Gresini Ducati.
The Spaniard became the first rider to break the 1:32s benchmark, but that wasn’t enough to end proceedings in top spot as 2025 team-mate Bagnaia pipped him.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez’s rejuvenated confidence put him third as he finished as lead Aprilia rider on his satellite bike, followed by 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo.
Recently acquired Tech3 recruit for 2025, Maverick Vinales rounded off his opening session in fifth, followed closely behind by team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who had a difficult start to his first practice session of the weekend before a strong recovery to put his bike in sixth.
When the session commenced Espargaro dropped the bike when he attempted to ride it out of the pitlane before picking it up again and finding the nearest off-road to take his Italian marque back to the pits.
Right at the death, Di Giannantonio posted in the fastest lap time, but due to exceeding track limits at the final Turn 17, saw a demotion to seventh.
Alex Marquez provided a strong showing for Gresini which sees both riders inside the top eight, ahead of KTM rider Brad Binder.
Aprilia’s brand new lineup for 2025 saw Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi finish in tenth and 11th respectively, despite lapping half a second away from the leading trio.
Enea Bastainini finished his session in 12th with the second Trackhouse rider of Miguel Oliveira following behind, but two-tenths away is rookie sensation Pedro Acosta who ended the session in a surprising 14th in the final classification.
Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli once more displayed signs of him struggling on his GP24 finishing one second adrift of Bagnaia, while Alex Rins’ session saw the rider struggle to form a consistent pace on his ever-improving Yamaha.
Jack Miller’s misery with KTM continued as he finished a measly 17th ahead of LCR Honda’s Taakaki Nakagami who finished as the lead Honda rider.
Luca Marini put his Repsol Honda bike in 19th ahead of GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez, with Honda duo Johann Zarco and Joan Mir at the back.
Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori rounded off proceedings with a last-placed finish.
