In this afternoon's Free Practice session, Texas Tornado Colin Edwards was fastest, setting a 1:38.144. Carlos Checa was in an outstanding second place, 0.115 behind, ahead of Casey Stoner, Kenny Roberts Jr, Randy de Puniet, John Hopkins, Chris Vermeulen, Makoto Tamada, Shinya Nakano and Nicky Hayden, in tenth spot. Dani Pedrosa is 11th, ahead of Valentino Rossi. Marco Melandri is in 14th, with Loris Capirossi down in 16th, behind temporary team mate Alex Hofmann. Less than 1 second covers the top ten.
Based on data from the World Endurance Championship races run at Assen earlier this year, Ohlins engineers calculated that the MotoGP bikes should be able to lap Assen in 1:36. So there's plenty of room for improvement.
