Pecco Bagnaia's chances of hacking into Jorge Martin's 18-point MotoGP championship lead look good at the Dutch TT after an extremely strong Assen Friday for the reigning champion and a fraught afternoon for Martin.
Bagnaia had topped the Friday morning session - remarkably the first time in his MotoGP career that the double champion had led an opening practice - and followed it up with more of the same in the afternoon session that decided the automatic Q2 places, leading with a new track record 1m31.340s.
Martin had a low-key morning then was nearly half a second off Bagnaia's pace in fifth in the afternoon.
And he may yet face a penalty for going slowly on the racing line following a frightening late incident in which Jack Miller's KTM lost a wing having clipped the Pramac Ducati as he came upon it.
The Aprilias of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro were second and fourth, sandwiching a great run from Gresini Ducati's Alex Marquez.
But Espargaro's session came to a painful end with a violent crash going into the final chicane in which he headbutted the screen at the front of his bike and then had a very heavy landing on his lower back in the gravel. He was taken away from the scene on a stretcher but initial medical checks at the track suggested he escaped with bruising.
A big one for @AleixEspargaro at the very end of Practice! 😱#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/6F1y1SED1Q
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 28, 2024
Marc Maquez was two tenths down on his brother in sixth, followed by the only KTM in Q2 so far - that of Brad Binder, as Pedro Acosta ended a disappointing opening day in 15th.
Enea Bastianini made it straight to Q2 despite crashing his Ducati in the final minutes, something he'd looked like doing a few times earlier on but catching it on those occasions.
Raul Fernandez's year-old Trackhouse Aprilia and Martin's team-mate Franco Morbidelli complete the initial Q2 pack.
Fabio Quartararo only narrowly missed out though as Yamaha's latest engine made its debut and took him to 11th and team-mate Alex Rins to 14th.
They were split by the VR46 Ducatis of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio, whose day was cursed by track-limits offences. One cost him the top spot in first practice and another left him in Q1.
Joan Mir - yet again - was the session's other crasher, as he and Repsol Honda team-mate Luca Marini brought up the tail of the field behind Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori and Tech3 struggler Augusto Fernandez.
