Ay, what a wild Friday at the Tissot Grand Prix of the Netherlands. Under scorching heat at Assen, David Alonso put his CFMOTO Azul Marino Aspar Team machine right at the sharp end of the Moto2 field by putting down a 1:36.154. That was just enough to edge out Manuel Gonzalez of the Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP squad by a razor-thin 0.009 seconds. Insane margins. Right behind them, World Championship leader Tony Arbolino took third for REDS Fantic Racing, finishing 0.055 seconds off the top spot as a staggering 0.256 seconds blanketed the entire top 10 around this legendary circuit.
Unfortunately, the session was properly chaotic, interrupted by red flags and far too many crashes. Ayumu Sasaki of the Momoven Idrofoglia RW Racing Team had a nightmare afternoon, hitting the deck three times. But the headline disaster belonged to championship third-place runner Celestino Vietti. The HDR SpeedRS Team rider suffered a nasty highside coming out of Turn 5 early doors. Thankfully, he walked away from it, but the damage was done—he couldn't rejoin to fight for a top 14 spot, meaning Saturday afternoon Q1 now awaits him.
Thankfully, others navigated the chaos cleanly. Senna Agius of Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP put in great work to dodge Vietti's tumbling machine and landed P4. Right behind him in P5 was Daniel Holgado of the CFMOTO Azul Marino Aspar Team, while Alex Escrig of the KLINT Racing Team finished a brilliant P6, just 0.165 seconds away from the ultimate benchmark.
Further down the order, we saw some brilliant rookie grit. Taiyo Furusato of Idemitsu Honda Team Asia got his first-ever taste of leading a Moto2 session, eventually wrapping up Practice in a very promising P7. Czech GP winner Ivan Ortola of QJMOTOR – Xeramic – MSI slotted into P8, shaking off a crash at the Geert Timmer Chicane that thankfully didn't knock him out of Q2 territory.
Rounding out the automatic Q2 qualifiers, Filip Salač of the OnlyFans American Racing Team overcame an early technical issue to climb into P9. Home hero Collin Veijer of Red Bull KTM Ajo and championship runner-up Izan Guevara of BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2 finished up as the 11th and 12th quickest riders, respectively, locking themselves safely into the top 14 heading into Saturday.
