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Marco Bezzecchi quickest at Grand Prix Netherlands Practice as Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez both crash
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Published 26/06/2026 at 16:17 GMT+1
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Aprilia's world championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was top of the standings in Friday afternoon's Practice session at Grand Prix Netherlands in Assen. Behind him was Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez, with Pedro Acosta of KTM the third fastest.
'That's a fast one' - Martin escapes from crash at Grand Prix Netherlands Practice
Video credit: TNT Sports
The Aprilia rider leads the standings by eight points, and is looking to get back to his best after a difficult weekend in his previous outing.
Bezzecchi was banned from competing in the Sunday race at Grand Prix Czechia following a physical confrontation with a race marshal after crashing out in the previous day’s Sprint race.
However, he was able to put down the quickest time of the session, ensuring that he - along with the rest of the top 10 - would go straight through to Q2 for qualifying, shown live on TNT Sports and HBO Max on Saturday morning.
Another Aprilia rider was the second quickest, with Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez impressing, and his team-mate Ai Ogura followed up second place at Brno with a fourth-quickest performance in Practice on Friday.
The two Trackhouse riders sandwiched KTM rider Pedro Acosta, who is set to join Ducati Lenovo for the 2027 season, replacing Francesco Bagnaia.
Bagnaia, who has the most points of any rider in the most recent five rounds, was the fifth-fastest rider in the session as the quickest Ducati rider overall.
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'Unusual crash' - Ferrandez suffers bizarre accident at Grand Prix Netherlands
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The Italian’s current team-mate, world champion Marc Marquez, has been in exceptional form of late with back-to-back wins in the last two race weekends, and has cut the deficit behind Bezzecchi to just 40 points, when once it stood at 102. He was sixth fastest.
Another Ducati rider, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Pertamina) was seventh quickest.
KTM’s Enea Bastianini made a rare appearance in a Practice top 10 as he was eighth fastest.
Ninth fastest was Jorge Martin in the other factory Aprilia, with a pretty rough crash costing him the chance of more laps around five minutes towards the end of the session.
For Martin, it was his 16th crash of the season so far - the most of all the riders.
More worryingly, two minutes later, BK8 Gresini’s Alex Marquez, suffered a heavy crash of his own between Turn 10 and 11, bringing a brief red flag and forcing the bikes back into the paddock.
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The Spaniard is only just back from a broken collarbone and vertebrae, and looked to be in real pain as he was gingerly helped away from his bike.
He was 10th quickest, but given he was not fit enough to compete at Grand Prix Czechia last weekend, there would be little surprise if he did not compete for the rest of the weekend. Earlier, Fermin Aldeguer, Marquez’s Trackhouse stable-mate, suffered a crash in a similar place.
That absence would open up a spot for Franco Morbidelli of VR46 Pertamina, but given he was likely facing a penalty for earlier blocking off Bastianini, he will have to wait for the stewards’ verdict.
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