Marquez has biggest Ducati crash yet (then goes fastest)
MotoGP

Marquez has biggest Ducati crash yet (then goes fastest)

by Jack Cozens
2 min read

Marc Marquez experienced his biggest crash yet as a factory Ducati MotoGP rider in first practice at the Dutch TT - then went fastest anyway.

Key moments

  • Big Marquez crash on first laps
  • But points leader returns and goes fastest
  • Three factories in FP1 top three

Marquez fell heavily at Turn 15 at Assen as, off-throttle, the rear of his Ducati GP25 stepped out from underneath him at the left-hand flick.

Ducati works team boss Davide Tardozzi said having spoken to the championship leader upon his return to the paddock that he "downshifted too quick" into fourth gear, with Marquez falling off at just under 200km/h.

Marquez immediately took his left glove off to inspect his hand, and was also reported by Tardozzi to have some pain in his left elbow, but less than 20 minutes later was heading back out on track.

And perhaps inevitably Marquez subsequently went fastest soon after, setting a 1m32.389s on his second push lap on that run - aided by new tyres as a result of his earlier fall.

A final push lap just before the chequered flag ultimately left him more than three tenths clear, with Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales his closest challenger - 0.313s down on Marquez's table-topping 1m32.216s.

Marco Bezzecchi made it three different makes in the top three as he went third-fastest for Aprilia ahead of Marquez's factory Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia, who'd been fastest in the first half of the 45-minute session.

Fabio Quartararo was the fastest Yamaha in sixth, 0.740s off, with LCR Honda rider Johann Zarco (+0.928s) eighth - the pair sandwiching Alex Marquez's Gresini Ducati in the FP1 order.

The younger Marquez's team-mate Fermin Aldeguer was ninth and had the only other big moment of FP1 - as the rear of his bike stepped out through the circuit's fifth-gear Turn 12 right-hander.

Vinales' second-place aside, it was a tricky start to the weekend for KTM.

No other RC16 cracked the top 10, with works rider Pedro Acosta 11th and more than six tenths slower than Vinales. Enea Bastianini was 17th, but Brad Binder fared worse still.

He set the 20th-fastest time of all, quicker only than Honda test rider Aleix Espargaro and LCR's Somkiat Chantra, and lapped 1.707s off the ultimate pace.

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