Rain and oil hamper Assen practice

Friday’s final MotoGP practice session for the Dutch TT has been doubled to 90 minutes following the forced cancellation of Practice 2 on Thursday.

While Marco Simoncelli topped a rain-soaked Practice 1, the second session was abandoned due to an oil spill in an intervening Moto2 session.

The earlier 45 minutes of running had seen Simoncelli emerge 0.3s ahead of Valentino Rossi, who will race a 2012 Ducati chassis for the first time this weekend.

Having sat atop the order for much of the session, championship leader Casey Stoner was third at the chequered flag, ahead of team-mate Andrea Dovisioso and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.

Seventeen bikes to to the track on Thursday, with Hiroshi Aoyama having his first competitive outing in place of the injured Dani Pedrosa for Repsol Honda. Aoyama ended the session 12th, while his replacement at Gresini Honda, Kousuke Akiyoshi, was 16th.

Having broken his collarbone in qualifying for the recent British Grand Prix, Cal Crutchlow returned to action in impressive style – ending the day sixth fastest.

The Moto2 and 125cc classes will also have extended final practice sessions on Friday, having also had their Practice 2s cancelled.

See below for the full Practice 1 result

Pos	Rider	Team/Bike	Time	Gap
1	Marco Simoncelli	Gresini Honda	1m49.036s
2	Valentino Rossi	Ducati	1m49.396s	0.360s
3	Casey Stoner	Honda	1m49.527s	0.491s
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	1m49.640s	0.604s
5	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1m49.995s	0.959s
6	Cal Crutchlow	Tech 3 Yamaha	1m50.386s	1.350s
7	Karel Abraham	Cardion Ducati	1m50.413s	1.377s
8	Colin Edwards	Tech 3 Yamaha	1m50.968s	1.932s
9	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	1m51.277s	2.241s
10	Ben Spies	Yamaha	1m51.590s	2.554s
11	Hector Barbera	Aspar Ducati	1m52.646s	3.610s
12	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	1m53.132s	4.096s
13	Alvaro Bautista	Suzuki	1m53.164s	4.128s
14	Toni Elias	LCR Honda	1m53.323s	4.287s
15	Loris Capirossi	Pramac Ducati	1m53.348s	4.312s
16	Kousuke Akiyoshi	Gresini Honda	1m53.353s	4.317s
17	Randy de Puniet	Pramac Ducati	1m53.562s	4.526s