Dutch MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia completes Friday clean sweep

Ducati made an early impression in second practice at Assen as MotoGP title contenders Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez exchanged fastest times.

Alex Marquez also carried on his strong showing from FP1 as he slotted into the top four, ahead of his brother.

After setting the best time of the day just minutes after the hour-long session began, Martin was soon relegated to second as Bagnaia set a 1:32.229s.

Following a slow start to FP1, Pedro Acosta also started to show his potential as he moved into fourth spot.

An early error at turn ten, Aleix Espargaro made another mistake as he went deep into the final chicane.

An even bigger mistake was then made by factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini, as the Italian came close to a monster highside on the exit of turn 12.

Wasting no time showing his true pace, Bagnaia set a sub 1m 32s lap with half the session remaining, creating a four tenths lead over Martin in the process.

Going very early for his opening time attack, Marc Marquez found five tenths as he went second, albeit still two tenths shy of Bagnaia’s effort.

Next up with a time attack was Maverick Vinales who had a soft front and medium rear combination, as he went second ahead of Marquez. 

But not for the first time in this session Vinales lost his lap time due to exceeding track limits. 

Vinales did manage to put a lap together on his second run as he went three tenths clear at the front, however, Bagnaia quickly responded with a lap time of 1:31.340s.

Marc Marquez, who was also set to improve and move into the top three, had to abandon his fast lap following a big front-end wobble at turn 14. 

There were falls for Bastianini and Espargaro late on, with the latter requiring the marshals to stretcher him away.

Espargaro was seen moving in the gravel prior to that.

Second behind Bagnaia came Espargaro's team-mate Vinales, with Alex Marquez leading Espargaro, Martin and Marc Marquez inside the top six.