The weather may be a little gloomy after last night's storm at Assen, but the atmosphere has relaxed a notch between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, since the two drivers jointly recognized the circuit yesterday; almost a year later, to the day, the hatchet seems to have been seriously buried and the theme of the last Dutch chicanery has even become a subject of jokes. So much the better!
While waiting for the first laps of the said MotoGP riders and their comrades, the track remains "not 100% dry, but not wet" after a little drizzle that occurred during the first Moto3 session, the significant wind, and the temperatures of the air and asphalt of 20° and 21° respectively.
| Assen MotoGP | 2015 | 2016 |
| FP1 | 1'34.357 (Valentino Rossi) | |
| FP2 | 1'33.450 (Dani Pedrosa) | |
| FP3 | 1'33.167 (Valentino Rossi) | |
| FP4 | 1'33.387 (Marc Marquez) | |
| Pole Positions | 1'32.627 (Valentino Rossi) | |
| Best lap of the circuit: | 1'32.627 (Valentino Rossi in 2015) |
Hector Barbera is the first to take to the track, on wet tires, soon followed by his colleagues, all on slicks.
After a few minutes, the track dries completely and Maverick Vinales sets a first milestone in 1'36.188, then 1'35.307, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez; the tone is set and everyone intends to take advantage of every minute of dry track to adjust their bike and calibrate their tires.
At the end of the first run, Andrea Iannone beats everyone to the post, in 1'34.939.
We then have Iannone, Vinales, Rossi, Redding, Barbera, Lorenzo, Petrucci, Marquez, Smith and Crutchlow for the first Batavian Top 10.
The two Yamaha riders have a motorcycle equipped with their usual chassis and another with the new chassis supposed to provide an improvement when entering corners.
The second run saw most of the drivers continue to improve their times, starting with Andrea Iannone (1'34.665) but also Jorge Lorenzo, Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez, while Pol Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso remember everyone fondly.
Conversely, Valentino Rossi does not improve and we can note the following Top 10 at the end of the second run: Iannone, Lorenzo, Vinales, Espargaro, Marquez, Dovizioso, Crutchlow, Rossi and Smith, Dani Pedrosa and Aleix Espargaro then appearing in 13th and 14th positions.
During the last run, some drivers decide to secure a time in the event of rain during the following sessions and fit the softest tire combination (Soft front / Soft rear) while most continue to use the Medium at the front, almost as efficient, and the Soft at the rear.
Whatever the case, a sort of frenzy then took hold of the Assen circuit and everyone launched into a “hot lap”.
Petrucci takes the lead of operations for a brief moment in 1'34.660, before the official Ducati riders do not ring the charge, Iannone in the lead in 1'34.349 ahead Dovizioso et Pol Espargaro, brilliant 3rd and only “non-Ducati in the Top 5”, ahead of Redding and Petrucci.
Honda was trapped in the maneuver, Marquez finishing only 11th, Dani Pedrosa 13th, while Rossi, 7th, is the only driver in the Top 10 to have completed his time on a Hard rear tire (editor's note: it turns out that this information given on air is false; he was not the only one). As usual, #46 works for the race…
| Pos | Pile | Team | Motorcycle | Km / h | HIGHLIGHTS | difference | ||
| 1 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati Team | Ducati | 308.6 | 1'34.349 | |||
| 2 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati Team | Ducati | 307.9 | 1'34.575 | 0.226 | ||
| 3 | Pol Espargaró | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 304.3 | 1'34.649 | 0.300 | ||
| 4 | Scott REDDING | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | 303.7 | 1'34.660 | 0.311 | ||
| 5 | Danilo PETRUCCI | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | 301.0 | 1'34.660 | 0.311 | ||
| 6 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 303.2 | 1'34.722 | 0.373 | ||
| 7 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 299.5 | 1'34.758 | 0.409 | ||
| 8 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 304.2 | 1'34.759 | 0.410 | ||
| 9 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 301.1 | 1'34.918 | 0.569 | ||
| 10 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 305.1 | 1'34.954 | 0.605 | ||
| 11 | Marc Márquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 301.7 | 1'34.972 | 0.623 | ||
| 12 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda LCR | Honda | 302.3 | 1'35.026 | 0.677 | ||
| 13 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 303.5 | 1'35.294 | 0.945 | ||
| 14 | Aleix Espargaro | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 299.5 | 1'35.365 | 1.016 | ||
| 15 | Michael PIRRO | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 301.2 | 1'35.530 | 1.181 | ||
| 16 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 295.8 | 1'35.672 | 1.323 | ||
| 17 | Eugene LAVERTY | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 302.4 | 1'35.989 | 1.640 | ||
| 18 | Jack Miller | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 300.3 | 1'36.019 | 1.670 | ||
| 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 295.9 | 1'36.188 | 1.839 | ||
| 20 | Stefan BRADL | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 299.1 | 1'36.284 | 1.935 | ||
| 21 | Tito RABAT | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 296.5 | 1'37.850 | 3.501 |
