Assen Practice 3: Ducati look monstrous, but could Petrucci pull off an upset?

The Ducatis are monstrous, and the forecast for the three Assen battles is locked on solid red. In the third and final free practice session, Iker Lecuona took off on the SCX tire, dipping below the official track record. He leads the Bimota of Alex Lowes, the revitalized Alvaro Bautista, and the BMW of Miguel Oliveira.

The final times in race trim don’t mean much, because almost all the riders, in the last stretch of the session, fitted the softest compound available to test Superpole configuration. The incident involving Somkiat Chantra required a red flag, effectively splitting the session in half, with the last eight minutes used for all-or-nothing laps. Nicolò Bulega, untouchable in the two Friday sessions, didn’t take a different approach. The World Championship leader is working with a third consecutive hat trick in mind.

The weather forecast is highly uncertain ahead of the three Dutch races and, as often happens on the Drenthe plain, the chance of rain must be taken very seriously. It could be the ace up the sleeve for Danilo Petrucci, who around here once led the MotoGP pack in the wet for the first time. “It was 2016, but unfortunately after five laps they stopped everything with the red flag, and on the second start I had a technical problem,” says the BMW rider, tenth fastest in FP3. “In Australia in the rain I wasn’t fast, but we understood why. Here I could actually have a good opportunity.” But here at Assen Petrucci is finally very fast even in the dry. “In Portugal Miguel Oliveira showed that the BMW is a podium bike; I just need to adapt better. And the results will come on their own.” The first step will be to secure the best possible spot on the grid. Friday’s fourth place is an excellent omen.

In Superpole, which starts at 11:15, the benchmark is 1'32"596 set by Sam Lowes with the Marc VDS team Ducati. Considering that Iker Lecuona has already dropped to 1'32"832 in the “dress rehearsal” during FP3, it’s a reachable target. Note, however, that Pirelli has not brought the ultra-soft SCQ to the Netherlands, opting for the SCX (soft race tire) which, while not allowing the same explosive performance, behaves better in low temperatures. Weather: overcast skies, but rain can’t be ruled out around the start time of Race 1 (15:30) in the afternoon.