MotoGP

MotoGP Dutch GP: Bagnaia breaks lap record to top second practice

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2d ago

Jun 29, 2024 / 9239 Views

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia topped second practice for the 2024 MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales after setting a new Assen lap record.

The hour-long qualifying group-deciding session proved to be a tense affair, with just 0.673 seconds covering the top 10.

Bagnaia set the pace with a 1m31.340s, posted with just over 10 minutes to go, and proved strong enough for the world champion to box early at the end of the session.

Aprilia’s Vinales challenged him for top spot at the end, but came up just 0.065s short as team-mate Aleix Espargaro suffered a nasty highside at the final chicane.

This incident brought out yellow flags and scuppered the final laps of a number of riders, with the most notable Q1 entries proving to be Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta.

Alex Marquez leaped up to third late on for Gresini Ducati, while Espargaro was fourth despite his crash ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin, who was involved in an odd incident with Jack Miller in the closing stages.

Martin was riding slowly on the racing line through the Turn 9 left-hander, while KTM’s Miller was looking behind when he went through the corner.

Looking round at the last moment, Miller’s head made contact with Martin’s back and his KTM suffered some aerodynamic damage – but both stayed on their motorcycles.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull GASGAS Tech3

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marc Marquez was sixth on the second Gresini Ducati, with KTM’s Brad Binder seventh ahead of Ducati’s Enea Bastianini – who crashed at the end of the session.

Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez continued his strong Friday at Assen in ninth on his 2023-spec Aprilia, while Franco Morbidelli took the final direct Q2 qualifying spot in 10th on the second Pramac Ducati.

Despite running Yamaha’s new engine, which was met with rave reviews from Quartararo and Alex Rins in a recent private test, 2021 world champion Quartararo could do no more than 11th in second practice.

Both VR46 Ducatis have also missed the Q2 cut in 12th and 13th, Marco Bezzecchi heading Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Rins was 14th from Acosta in 15th.

Top Honda honours went to Johann Zarco of LCR Racing in 17th, while Miller was left in 18th after his scare with Martin.

MotoGP Dutch GP - FP2 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	23	1'31.340		179.014
2	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	25	+0.065 1'31.405	0.065	178.887
3	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	24	+0.320 1'31.660	0.255	178.389
4	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	22	+0.472 1'31.812	0.152	178.094
5	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	26	+0.489 1'31.829	0.017	178.061
6	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	24	+0.511 1'31.851	0.022	178.018
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	24	+0.526 1'31.866	0.015	177.989
8	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	19	+0.530 1'31.870	0.004	177.981
9	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	26	+0.569 1'31.909	0.039	177.906
10	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	26	+0.673 1'32.013	0.104	177.705
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	25	+0.714 1'32.054	0.041	177.626
12	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	25	+0.828 1'32.168	0.114	177.406
13	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	22	+0.833 1'32.173	0.005	177.396
14	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	26	+0.863 1'32.203	0.030	177.339
15	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	26	+0.904 1'32.244	0.041	177.260
16	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	27	+1.148 1'32.488	0.244	176.792
17	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	24	+1.390 1'32.730	0.242	176.331
18	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	23
19	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	24	+1.787 1'33.127	0.397	175.579
20	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	22	+1.966 1'33.306	0.179	175.242
21	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	23	+2.004 1'33.344	0.038	175.171
22	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	23	+2.015 1'33.355	0.011	175.150
23	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	25	+2.197 1'33.537	0.182	174.809
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