MotoGP news

Lorenzo tops second session

Jorge Lorenzo has finished quickest in the second practice session in Holland. Leading the way on Friday morning at Assen, the Spaniard's Yamaha heads Casey Stoner's Ducati with the Honda of Andrea Dovizioso making the top three. Valentino Rossi was fourth, with Thursday's quickest - Randy de Puniet - dropping to twelfth.

With the second practice session of the weekend getting underway at 8:55am local time at Assen (BST +1 / GMT +2), Lorenzo jumped from fourth on Thursday to steal the top spot with a best effort of 1.36.756 on the Yamaha. With the Spaniard running on Bridgestone's softer compound tyre, his best time beat Stoner's by a large margin of over four tenths of a second.

Australian Stoner was lucky to post his lap time without taking a high-speed tumble off the Ducati, however, after a dramatic wobble as well as an argument with Randy de Puniet, who fell to 12th place after being fastest for LCR Honda on Thursday. With the Ducati crew having worked overtime with Stoner's bike on Thursday night, he pipped Andrea Dovizioso's leading Honda by just seven hundredths of a second; it was a strong effort by the Italian, though, who is ill this weekend.

The third tied championship leader, Valentino Rossi, is now the slowest of the three men and in fourth position with Colin Edwards in the top five, ahead of Dani Pedrosa who is still on the mend after his damaging season so far. Nicky Hayden was happier with seventh on the second Ducati, with James Toseland the leading British rider in eighth position. Alex de Angelis and Loris Capirossi completed the top ten.

With a number of riders skipping off the race track on the final corner, De Puniet came off worse when suffering a lowside and sliding off his bike in the final minutes of the session, but with no major damage done.

Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix gets underway at 12:55 in the Netherlands (BST +1 / GMT +2); a full report and results will be available on GPUpdate.net.

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