Sawt Falasteen - Bagnaia fastest in rain-hit Dutch MotoGP practice

The Ducati rider had trailed in the first session under the rain but took advantage of the dry track in the second later in the afternoon for a quickest lap of 1min and 46.877 seconds to edge out Spaniard Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia by 0.178sec.

But Espargaro was penalised for a technical infringement and ended at the bottom of the timesheets.

He will need a strong third practice session on Saturday to avoid having to compete in the first qualifying session.

Italian Bagnaia is looking to make up for his fall last week when he was on pole position at the German MotoGP.

World champion Fabio Quartararo, who leads Espargaro in the overall standings this season, said he "preferred not to push to the maximum" in the rain and was third fastest for Yamaha at 0.305sec around the 4.542km Assen circuit.

He finished second on the timesheets due to Espargaro's disqualification.

"I saw that it was even a little bit dangerous, I didn't want to put myself in the red from the first session," said the French rider, who is 34 points clear in the championship race.

Ducati's Jack Miller initially dominated the morning session, but his time did not last long and the Australian finished fifth after a much faster second hour of practice.

Third in the championship before the 11th Grand Prix out of 20, Frenchman Johann Zarco of Ducati-Pramac, could only manage eighth fastest.

"I'm still in the game no matter the conditions tomorrow (Saturday)," Zarco said.

"Otherwise in the dry there will be Fabio (Quartararo) and Pecco (Bagnaia), a bit angry about the fall at the Sachsenring."

Standings after first two practice sessions

1. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) 1min 46.877sec, 2. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) at 0.305, 3. Alex Rins (ESP/Suzuki) 0.337, 4. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.559, 5. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 0.625, 6. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Aprilia) 0.664, 7. Brad Binder (AFS/KTM) 0.853, 8. Johann Zarco (FRA/Ducati-Pramac) 1.012, 9. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA/Ducati-VR46) 1.038, 10. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR) +1.230

F.AbuShamala--SF-PST