MotoGP™ World Champion Jorge Lorenzo led opening practice for the Iveco TT Assen. On a cloudy but dry Thursday morning, the winner of the last two races headed Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow and Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez.

Lorenzo, who has suffered first-lap collisions in the last two races at Assen, set the pace with his best lap time of 1’35.263. This was three and a half tenths of a second faster than Crutchlow as both he and Marquez improved on their final runs. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and championship leader Dani Pedrosa (Honda) rounded out the first five.

On the leading CRT machine, Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro made the top six, while Barcelona’s Ivan Silva returned to the field in order to cover for the injured Hiroshi Aoyama at Avintia Blusens. En route to seventh place, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl used front Brembo brakes as opposed to his usual Nissin setup.

MotoGP™ action will resume with the second free practice session, starting at 2:05pm local time (GMT +2) and also broadcast live on motogp.com.

.