Even the Abu Dhabi League for self-driving car racing
Pico Bagnaia's chances of breaking Jorge Martin's 18-point lead in the MotoGP look good at the Dutch Grand Prix after a very strong performance in Assen on Friday for the reigning champion and a risky afternoon for Martin.
Bagnaia had topped the Friday morning session – the first time in his MotoGP career that the double champion had topped the opening practice session – and more of the same followed in the afternoon session that decided the automatic second qualifying places, setting a new track record of 1min 31.340sec.
Martin had a quiet morning and was about half a second off Bagnaia's pace in fifth place in the afternoon.
He could also face a penalty for slowing down the racing line after a scary late incident where Jack Miller's KTM lost a wing after hitting Pramac Ducati when he crashed into it.
The Aprilia duo, Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, took second and fourth places, after a wonderful advance from Gresini Ducati rider Alex Marquez.
But Espargaro's session ended in tragedy with a violent crash at the final corner, where he hit the screen on the front of his bike and then suffered a heavy landing on his lower back on the gravel. He was taken from the scene on a stretcher but initial medical examinations on the track suggested he escaped with only bruises.
Big one for @Alex Espargaro At the end of training! 😱#Dutch Grand Prix 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/6F1y1SED1Q
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 28, 2024
Mark Mackeys was two tenths behind his brother in sixth, followed by the only KTM driver in Q2 so far – Brad Binder, while Pedro Acosta finished a disappointing opening day in 15th.
Enea Bastianini made it straight into Q2 despite crashing his Ducati in the closing minutes, something he had appeared to do several times earlier but managed to catch up on those occasions.
The Trackhouse Aprilia of 19-year-old Raul Fernandez and Martin's team-mate Franco Morbidelli completed the initial Q2 package.
However, Fabio Quartararo narrowly missed out when Yamaha's latest engine made its debut to finish 11th while team-mate Alex Rins was 14th.
They were in contention for first place between Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio of the Ducati VR46 team, as they encountered track-bound irregularities. One of them cost him first place in the first free practice and the other left him in the first qualifying.
It was Joan Mir – once again – who was at fault in the session's other crash, as he and Repsol Honda teammate Luca Marini were at the bottom of the pack behind Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori and Tech3's Augusto Fernandez.
