2024 Dutch Moto3, Assen - Friday Practice Results

The opening day at Assen belonged to home rider Collin Veijer as finished Friday on top with a new lap record ahead of the Dutch Moto3 Grand Prix.

The 19 year old from the Netherlands challenged himself on repeat for the best time lowering his own best, with a final super clean lap bringing a new record of 1m 40.259s on his Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP bike.

The lap came thanks to a mix of the #95’s ability to lap solo, coupled with his track knowledge as the local rider for the round and showed great improvement after finishing the first practice in eighth.

The MT Helmets - MSI riders worked in tandem to pull themselves up the order with Ryusei Yamanaka leading around Ivan Ortola, with the favour then returned. That took the Japanese rider to within 0.091s of the record session best, with Ortola third.

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Adrian Fernandez was one of the early pacesetters in P1 for Leopard on his way to setting the fourth best time, as comfortable in a crowd as he was solo. The Spaniard placed just ahead of fellow countryman Jose Antonio Rueda, in fifth for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

Angel Piqueras was the best of the rookies in sixth on the second Leopard entry, completing a strong opening day at ‘The Cathedral’ for the team after making a big step, having been down in 17th after the first session.

Joel Kelso was only just over half a second off the pace in seventh in a tight session for BOE Motorsports, with rookie Luca Lunetta eight fastest for SIC58 Squadra Corse.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the championship leaders both struggling to get inside the top ten.

David Alonso was on a high before the three week spring break, with it almost impossible to take any session from the Colombian sensation.

Fourth in the earlier practice, which did not count towards the Q2 times, the CFMoto Gaviota GasGas Aspar rider was pushing hard to resume his spell at the top.

That left him looking stiff and running wide, with two falls in the second session. That left the #80 needing a solid late run to move him up from eleventh to ninth.

Daniel Holgado had been finding the practice sessions hard going but showed recent improvements. The Red Bull GasGas Tech3 rider had his best effort thwarted by traffic on track and was spun off his bike just before Alonso’s fall, leaving him to also need a strong final run to move into a late tenth.

The remaining progression places overnight are held by Tatsuki Suzuki, Scott Ogden, Jacob Roulstone and Stefano Nepa.

The day began with the first free practice session for the class which saw Ivan Ortola on top in a MT Helmets -MSI 1-2 with Ryusei Yamanaka, with the Spaniard setting what was then a new lap record.

Alonso was fourth, behind Leopard’s Adrian Fernandez.

Scott Ogden was much improved on his track return in sixth which gave the MLav rider something to build on in the afternoon.

There was a fall in FP for Taiyo Furusato at the turn five hairpin, he went on to finish 15th overall.