MotoGP Assen, Free Practice 4: Marquez ahead of Rossi, the Ducatis poorly

During the fourth round of MotoGP testing in Assen the news arrived that Jorge Lorenzo is returning to Assen after having undergone surgery last night in Barcelona on his left collarbone. The Mallorcan rider currently returns only as a "spectator", but it is not certain that he will try to "dream" of being able to race tomorrow, doctors permitting.

As regards these FP4 sessions, which were not valid for the purposes of qualifying, the fastest was Marc Marquez, who despite the bad high-side this morning had suffered two small fractures in the big toe of his right foot and one in the little finger of his right hand, he lapped in 1:35.616.

The Honda rookie, already a winner in Austin (the youngest winner in the Top Class), trailed Valentino Rossi by just 32 thousandths, followed closely by Cal Crutchlow, on the Yamaha SAT of Team Tech 3.

Fourth, fifth and sixth times went to the Hondas of Stefan Bradl, Dani Pedrosa and Alvaro Bautista, followed by Randy de Puniet's CRT, which did better than Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati. Aleix Espargarò and Bradley Smith close the Top Ten.

The Terni native Danilo Petrucci (Ioda Suter BMW) also did well with the CRT, placing himself behind the Ducatis of Michele Pirro and Andrea Iannone.

Photos: Alex Farinelli