Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Motorsport

Rachit Thukral

MotoGP Dutch GP: Marco Bezzecchi leads Aprilia 1-2 in red-flagged practice

Marco Bezzecchi Aprilia Ai Ogura Alex Marquez Gresini Alex Marquez Pedro Acosta Raul Fernandez Jorge Martin Francesco Bagnaia Joan Mir

Marco Bezzecchi bounced back from a race ban at Brno to set the fastest lap in Friday practice for the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix.

The Italian led a 1-2 for Aprilia in the 60-minute session, which was red-flagged with just three minutes left on the clock due to a crash for Gresini rider Alex Marquez.

Pedro Acosta finished third for KTM behind Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez, while Ai Ogura and Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the top five.

Lap times quickly tumbled at the start of the session, with Acosta and Bezzecchi trading the top spot in the opening 10 minutes.

The KTM rider found more time on each flying lap, but Bezzecchi always had enough to respond, setting an initial benchmark of 1m32.275s.

A third of the way into the session, Aprilia riders began lighting up the timesheets on the soft rear tyre, with Jorge Martin moving the goalposts with a blistering time of 1m31.956s.

Bezzecchi caught up to the Honda of Joan Mir at the final chicane on his next flyer, but managed to put together a clean lap to go three tenths quicker than his team-mate.

Trackhouse riders soon joined the party, with Ogura posting a time of 1m31.443s to snatch the top spot from Bezzecchi. Fernandez slotted into third ahead of the other factory bike of Martin, establishing 1-2-3-4 for the Noale factory with 20 minutes remaining in practice.

Even as Marquez and Acosta made some improvements to join the fight, Aprilia continued to consolidate its advantage at the front, with Bezzecchi retaking the top spot, and Trackhouse duo Fernandez and Ogura moving up to second and third respectively.

Alex Marquez brought out the red flags (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images)

With just three minutes remaining, the session was red-flagged due to a crash involving Alex Marquez, who went down at Turn 11. The Gresini rider was conscious and able to walk away from the incident with assistance from marshals, and the session resumed shortly afterwards.

However, Bezzecchi’s time of 1m31.123s remained unbeaten, with the factory rider completing a clean sweep on Friday having also stopped FP1 earlier in the morning.

Fernandez also held on to second, 0.177s behind Bezzecchi, but Acosta was able to make a last-minute improvement to demote Ogura to fourth place.

The late red flag created jeopardy for factory Ducati rider Bagnaia, who languished in 17th place after his fastest time was deleted due to yellow flags. However, the Italian jumped to fifth on his one and only flying lap after the restart, securing a direct passage into Q2.

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez, who suffered a small crash in FP1, ended up sixth after electing not to return to the track after the late red flag.

Fabio di Giannantonio was seventh aboard the VR46 Ducati, with Enea Bastianini finishing eighth for Tech3 KTM.

Martin crashed at Turn 12 in the final five minutes and dropped to ninth on the factory Aprilia, while Gresini’s Alex Marquez also managed to make it into Q2 despite his own late fall. Early scans showed that the younger Marquez suffered "contusion to his right shoulder and abrasions to his left arm" but no injuries to his shoulder.

Fermin Aldeguer went down earlier at Turn 11 and had to be ' transferred to the nearest hospital for further examinations on his chest and back.' The Spaniard ended the session in 14th place.

Joan Mir was Honda’s top rider in 12th, while Fabio Quartararo led Yamaha’s charge in 15th.