Aprilia on top as Alex Marquez crash halts Assen afternoon practice

Aprilia continued its superior form in an Assen MotoGP Friday afternoon practice session interrupted by a crash for the already-injured Alex Marquez.

Red flags came out with three minutes to go as Marquez needed to be helped away from the gravel trap after crashing his Gresini Ducati at the Duikersloot right-hander.

He had returned to the field at Brno last weekend only a month on from the horrific Barcelona crash in which he sustained collarbone and neck injuries, and pulled out of the Czech Grand Prix weekend after qualifying.

Despite an early low-speed fall, Marquez was showing top-six pace at Assen when he had his second, more serious, accident, after which he initially struggled to get up before eventually walking away with assistance from the marshals.

His Gresini team-mate Fermin Aldeguer had earlier crashed at the same spot and bounced violently through the gravel in the process.

And title-chasing Aprilia rider Jorge Martin also fell in the same section of the track, having clipped a kerb as he turned in and that immediately had a high-speed low-side.

That left Martin ninth but still - like eventually 10th-placed Marquez - safely straight into Q2 after the last-minute scramble and slight order shuffle that followed the restart.

Aprilia had held a comfortable top-four sweep - with the best of its rivals seven tenths of a second off the pace - in the middle of the session, and still ended the day with a 1-2 with championship leader Marco Bezzecchi and Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez.

Fernandez's team-mate Ai Ogura was fourth, pushed down a place by Pedro Acosta following the bike he'll be on next year - Pecco Bagnaia's Ducati - to thrust his KTM up to third at the chequered flag.

Bagnaia had been looking at a Q1 place up to his last lap, having made mistakes on earlier runs, but got up to fifth with his single shot after the red flag. That put him just ahead of factory Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez and VR46's Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Tech3 rider Enea Bastianini was another last-gasp, post-red-flag improver and placed a second KTM in Q2 by getting up to eighth.

Automatically into Q2: Bezzecchi, R Fernandez, Acosta, Ogura, Bagnaia, M Marquez, Di Giannantonio, Bastianini, Martin, A Marquez

In Q1: Morbidelli; Mir; Moreira; Aldeguer; Quartararo; Vinales; Rins; Marini; Miller; Razgatlioglu; Binder; A Fernandez; Crutchlow