A Painful Friday for Marc Márquez in Assen

The first day of the Grand Prix was fraught with incidents that caused delays to various training sessions and scheduled events, including the visit of the King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, who attended the centenary of the races in Assen and conversed with the four reigning champions present on the current grid (Marc Márquez, Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, and Joan Mir), in the absence of the fifth, Jorge Martín.

The rain made its presence felt in the morning, soaking the circuit and causing several crashes in the first Moto3 session. However, what truly delayed everything was a mechanical issue with Spanish rider David Almansa's bike, which leaked oil all over the track, turning the asphalt into an ice rink when combined with the water. For nearly an hour, all riders remained in the pits, and even the fire brigade was needed with high-pressure hoses to dissolve the slippery substance.

But not all the blame for the crashes lay with the oil. The asphalt temperature was also unhelpful, being almost 30 degrees cooler than the previous weekend in Mugello. This lack of tyre grip cost Marc Márquez dearly in the first free practice, where he suffered a nasty fall, the first of the day, resulting in a contusion on his left triceps with compression of the ulnar nerve, causing his arm to go numb. However, this did not prevent him from returning to the track and achieving the best time in the morning.

The morning FP1 served as a warning to all, though it did not prevent another carousel of crashes in the afternoon practice, which started even more disastrously from the first minutes. Up to six riders hit the ground in the first ten minutes of the session: Álex Márquez, Fermín Aldeguer, Johann Zarco, Franco Morbidelli, Enea Bastianini, and Aleix Espargaró. Before the session's halfway point, the seventh crash occurred, involving Japanese rider Ai Ogura, who turned his Aprilia into a fireball, prompting the first of two red flags in the practice. The second red flag was also due to another crash, this time by Italian Lorenzo Savadori, who left his bike in the middle of the track just as the first time attacks began, heightening the tension in the final minutes.

The eight riders who had crashed by that point only had one bike in the garage for their attempt at a fast lap to be within the top 10, granting access to Q2. Marc Márquez was in this situation when he suffered his second crash of the day at the fast Turn 7 at over 160 km/h. Compared to the morning crash, the impact with the asphalt was not as severe, but the slide through the gravel left him in significant pain, requiring the assistance of marshals to get up and call it a day.

Although he first stopped by the Ducati garage, he ended up in the circuit's medical centre, where he was diagnosed with a minor pelvic contusion and a cut on his chin that required a stitch. "Absolute calm," commented MotoGP's medical director, Ángel Charte, assuring that his continuation in the Grand Prix was not in jeopardy, despite expecting a very painful weekend for the Cervera native. Later, in front of the media, Márquez joked about his facial injury: "I wish that point also counted for the championship." He explained how he experienced his most accident-prone Friday in a long time: "The two crashes were different, at high speed, but clean, which saved me from any injury. The problem is that this circuit has no gravel, only stones, and when you hit them, they strike hard. Fortunately, nothing serious, just bruises all over, but all is well."

In addition to avoiding a potential injury, Márquez also managed to avoid going through Q1's repechage, as he had already set a decent time that placed him sixth in the standings. And this was despite crashing while lapping two-tenths below the fastest lap. The best time of the day went to Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, who with his Yamaha, surpassed Álex Márquez and Pedro Acosta, who was third on a good day with KTM, and Marco Bezzecchi finished fourth with Aprilia, in a day with mechanical variety at the top. Bagnaia finished fifth, just ahead of his teammate, and the top ten positions that mark access to Q2 were completed by Fabio Di Giannantonio, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, and Johann Zarco, the only Honda to avoid Q1, sending Madrid's Raúl Fernández to the eleventh position by just one thousandth.

In the smaller categories, where crashes were also unavoidable, the fastest of the day were Filip Salac in Moto2, who finished ahead of the two title contenders, Arón Canet and Manu González, second and third, respectively; and Luca Lunetta in Moto3, surpassing Seville's David Muñoz, with leader José Antonio Rueda in fourth. In the smallest class, the top two from the last Mugello event, Álvaro Carpe and Máximo Quiles, finished eighteenth and twentieth, respectively, on a Friday of suffering for the two rookies as well.