Jorge Lorenzo started at Assen as he left off at Silverstone, by topping the timesheet during Thursday’s opening free practice session at the historic Circuit van Drenthe for this weekend’s Dutch TT in the Netherlands.

The current championship leader quickly got to grips with the changes made to the Ramshoek corner since he finished second in the race here two years ago, to set a time of 1:35.169s and lead the session from Ducati’s Casey Stoner.

“I am happy with today and I feel very good on the bike; the weather is perfect and I love Assen!” The Spaniard commented. “The new corner is very fast and I really like it, it’s great fun to ride through the chicane at such a speed.

“We could probably have a bit more traction but we have two more sessions to work on this and then we will try to get the best possible grid position again. The team is working so well and the ambience and atmosphere in our garage is amazing at the moment.”

Stoner, still searching for his first podium of the season, got his Assen weekend off to a solid start by posting a time just 11-thousandths of a second outside that of Lorenzo to claim second place on the time sheet.

“We’ve started out here with a much better base set-up than at the last few races,” Stoner commented. “It has been a bit difficult for us since we switched back to the old forks because you have to change the way you set the bike up and change the way you ride so it has taken a little time to adapt.

“But I don’t want to use it as an excuse because at Silverstone we had the pace but didn’t get the start, whilst at Mugello nothing seemed to work. This weekend seems to be going well so far so I hope it stays like this. Silverstone is a faster track than this and more flowing in some ways. Assen is a little tighter and we use a lower gearing so we’ve had to change the set-up a fair bit.

“Also at Silverstone we struggled a little with wheelies because of the way we set it up to handle the bumps. That isn’t an issue here so we’re just trying to find grip and stop the bike standing up on the front end. We tried some things in the middle of the session that didn’t work but other than that it was a positive first session for us.”

A further half-second back was the Australian’s teammate Nicky Hayden. The American ran off the track without incident towards the end of the hour-long session, but was still fast enough to claim third place aboard the second Ducati Desmosedici.

Hayden is chasing his first podium of the season after a string of fourths have marked a solid start for the 2006 world champion.

“The bike felt pretty good out of the gate today and we made a few changes that improved it but the gap to the front is pretty big so we still have work to do,” he said. “The track is very similar to Silverstone, with a lot of fast corners, so the bike isn’t so different.

“Having said that we’re always trying new stuff and today was no different. What we tried seemed to work so I’m thankful to Ducati for that. Hopefully we can build on it tomorrow and try to repeat this kind of position in qualifying but with a smaller gap to the front.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards was next up in the order, just 0.013s off the time set by fellow countryman Hayden, while the two Repsol Hondas of Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa were separated by just five-hundredths of a second, with the Italian coming out on top this time around.

Aleix Espargaró continues to improve, with the Pramac Ducati rider finishing today’s opening free practice session seventh fastest, despite a brief off track excursion.

Ben Spies also took a trip off track on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1, but completed the highest number of laps of the session with 29 to finish in eighth position. Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri completed the top ten on their San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V machines.

Riding in place of the injured Hiroshi Aoyama for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team, Kousuke Akiyoshi was 16th fastest, 6.163s off Lorenzo’s time.

Andrea Iannone, the winner of the Moto2 race at Mugello, led the way during this afternoon’s hour-long free practice session at Assen. The Italian rider staked his claim to the top spot early on in the proceedings, but was forced to improve his lap time throughout the session to counter the threat from a number of hard charging rivals.

Current championship leader, Toni Elias, was the only other rider to break into the 1:39s bracket as he secured second place on the timesheet, just two-tenths of a second behind Iannone and three-tenths of a second ahead of Rathapark Wilairot. Shoya Tomizawa who currently sits second in the overall standings, was fourth on his Technomag CIP Suter MMX machine.

Forward Racing rider Jules Cluzel, flying high after his first World Championship win last time out at Silverstone, was fifth, but ended the hour with a crash that he walked away from uninjured. Cluzel’s teammate, Claudio Corti, was just over a tenth off the Frenchman’s time in sixth.

Alex Debón, Karel Abraham, Gabor Talmacsi and Sergio Gadea rounded out the top ten in the Moto2 class.

The 125cc riders got the TIM TT Assen underway on Thursday and it was Nico Terol who went fastest in the first practice session on the modified Dutch track. The Bancaja Aspar rider set a time of 1:43.208s as he laid down the challenge to his title rivals at round six of the 2010 campaign.

Marc Márquez, who this weekend is going for a third consecutive win, and current championship leader, Pol Espargaró, followed in second and third positions respectively, and were the final two riders to join Terol under the 1:44s barrier.

Bradley Smith, fresh off the back of his first podium of the season last weekend at Silverstone, was fourth fastest at just over eight-tenths off his team-mate’s time, while Sandro Cortese completed the top five in the hour-long session.

Esteve Rabat, Efrén Vázquez, and Randy Krummenacher were all inside the top ten, which was completed by Danny Webb and Johan Zarco.

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