Awesome Vinales Leads On Opening Day At Assen

Maverick Vinales left it late before pulling out a sizeable lead over the Moto3 field in Thursday practice for the Dutch TT at Assen. The championship leader has won each of the last two races from pole position and his performance this afternoon indicates a hat-trick may be on the cards.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo squad claimed a 1-2 in first practice with Sandro Cortese leading Danny Kent but the early pace in FP2 was set by Brad Binder, riding for the Dutch-owned RW Racing GP squad. Jakub Kornfeil was the first man into the 1:45s with 25 minutes to go before French rookie Alan Techer outpaced him on the Technomag TSR.

Techer held on until the final five minutes when Miguel Oliveira went fastest, only for the Portuguese to be immediately beaten by Niklas Ajo. Ajo's time on top was equally short lived as Vinales followed him over the line with the fastest time of the weekend, a 1:45.007. That seemed impressive enough but two laps later, the Avintia Blusens rider raised the bar significantly with a 1:44.312, way quicker than anyone else.

His lead threatened to be a full second but Oliveira cut it to 0.737s in the closing stages, demoting Niklas Ajo to third. Morning pacesetter Sandro Cortese was fourth after only finding a tenth from the opening session with Luis Salom pipping Alan Techer and Jakub Kornfeil for fifth.

Danny Kent was next up in eighth ahead of Alex Rins and Romano Fenati while Binder's early effort was the fastest he could go, causing him to fall to seventeenth. Danny Webb was 21^st for Mahindra but the Indian team, yet again, failed to complete a trouble-free day with Marcel Schrotter unable to complete a single lap in FP2.

 

Moto3 Iveco TT Assen: Combined Thursday Practice Times

Pos	Rider	Motorcycle	Team	Time/Gap
1	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda	Blusens Avintia	1:44.312
2	Miguel Oliveira	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+0.737
3	Niklas Ajo	KTM	TT Motion Events Racing	+0.987
4	Sandro Cortese	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+0.994
5	Luis Salom	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+1.168
6	Alan Techer	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+1.192
7	Jakub Kornfeil	FTR Honda	Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta	+1.213
8	Danny Kent	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.329
9	Alex Rins	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+1.404
10	Romano Fenati	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	+1.421
11	Alberto Moncayo	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+1.485
12	Niccolo Antonelli	FTR Honda	San Carlo Gresini Moto3	+1.579
13	Louis Rossi	FTR Honda	Racing Team Germany	+1.613
14	Alexis Masbou	Honda	Caretta Technology	+1.626
15	Arthur Sissis	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.647
16	Hector Faubel	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+1.659
17	Brad Binder	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+1.814
18	Efren Vazquez	FTR Honda	JHK Laglisse	+1.887
19	Julian Miralles (WC)	Honda	MIR Racing	+2.080
20	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	KTM	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo	+2.248
21	Danny Webb	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	+2.381
22	Adrian Martin	FTR Honda	JHK Laglisse	+2.432
23	Jasper Iwema	FGR Honda	Moto FGR	+2.463
24	Isaac Viñales	FTR Honda	Ongetta-Centro Seta	+2.544
25	Alessandro Tonucci	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	+2.639
26	Marcel Schrotter	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	+2.761
27	Simone Grotzkyj	Suter Honda	Ambrogio Next Racing	+3.088
28	Giulian Pedone	Suter Honda	Ambrogio Next Racing	+3.090
29	Jack Miller	Honda	Caretta Technology	+3.106
30	Toni Finsterbusch	Honda	Cresto Guide MZ Racing	+3.289
31	Bryan Schouten (WC)	Honda	Dutch Racing Team	+3.333
32	Ivan Moreno	FTR Honda	Andalucía JHK Laglisse	+3.721
33	Kenta Fujii	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+3.742
34	Jonas Folger	Ioda	IodaRacing Project	+4.196
35	Luigi Morciano	Ioda	Ioda Team Italia	+4.204