Maverick Viñales finished this second round of FP with the absolute best time of the day, followed by Andrea Iannone, Danilo Petrucci, and Valentino Rossi.
During FP’s eve at Motul TT in Assen, everybody saw Yamaha as the favorite for this round. Maverick Viñales is clearly trying to meet expectations: he registered the best time of the day, keeping a fast pace all through the session to send a message to his rivals and trying to win his competitiveness back. Just behind him in the ranking, there is an all-Italian group made up of Andrea Iannone (2nd), Danilo Petrucci and Valentino Rossi.
Smith experienced some issues right at the beginning of the round, and he had to push his KTM RC16 back to the pit lane. Marquez (who left the pit with two hard tyres, as did his Honda mates) collected a series of very quick laps that allowed him to take the lead almost immediately, even if he took some risks going out of track a few times. KTM didn’t start well today, as Pol Espargaro fell on Turn 7, while Dovizioso gets the 2nd position with medium tires for his bike, the same choice Yamaha riders did, while Lorenzo was the only one with two soft tyres.
In the second half of the round, Dovizioso decided to get the same tyres as his teammate, managing to overtake Marquez for just 2 thousandths. Zarco fell on De Bult turn, right after getting the 6th place. In the last few minutes, almost all riders decided to switch to soft or medium tyres, and the ranking changed multiple times afterward: eventually, Maverick Viñales registered the best time, followed by Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci. Valentino Rossi closed the FP2 in 4th, ahead of Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, and Jorge Lorenzo. Marc Marquez ended 8th followed by Alex Rins and Johann Zarco, while Dani Pedrosa finished out of the top ten (11th), together with Hafizh Syahrin (12th).
The ranking
