First day of Moto3™ free practice at the Iveco TT Assen

On the first day of Moto3™ free practice at the Iveco TT Assen it was Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales who set the fastest time of the day ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Niklas Ajo. Conditions were favourable all day to give the Moto3 grid a good run out at the revamped Dutch track, with championship leader Viñales taking top spot with a 1.44’312, over seven tenths ahead of Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Oliveira. Surprise inclusion in third place was TT Motion Events Racing’s Ajo, who had one of his best sessions all season, riding with an upgraded frame.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Sandro Cortese finished the day in fourth, almost a second off Viñales. He suffered a crash on his warm-down lap as he lost the front, but walked away unhurt. The German headed RW Racing GP’s Luis Salom, who improved on his morning performance, as he seeks to close the gap on Cortese and Viñales in the championship standings. In sixth, Technomag-CIP-TSR’s Alan Techer continued his impressive form of the day, finishing just over a second off the top.

Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Jakub Kornfeil, who had been top early in the session, ended the day in seventh, ahead of Cortese’s teammate Danny Kent in eighth. He was followed by Oliveira’s teammate Alex Rins in ninth, while the top ten was completed by Team Italia FMI’s Romano Fenati.

Apart from Cortese’s incident at the end, there were three other crashers in the form of Andalucia JHK Laglisse’s Ivan Moreno, and the Mahindra Racing pair of Danny Kent and Marcel Schrotter. All walked away from the incidents unhurt.