Marco Simoncelli quickest at Assen

Marco Simoncelli went quickest in Thursday's curtailed practice sessions for this Saturday's Dutch TT at Assen.

The Honda Gresini rider went quickest in this morning's opening free practice session held in wet conditions before a further deterioration in the weather and oil on the track meant all of the afternoon's planned action was abandoned.
The track became near unpassable in the Moto2 practice session this morning, with a number of riders involved in crashes. One such incident involved Italian rider Alex Baldolini, who rejoined only to leave a trail of oil from his damaged bike over one third of the circuit, which required a two-hour clean-up period.
Ultimately officials deemed the conditions were too treacherous to continue due to oil continuing to rise to the surface of the asphalt, and the action will now resume with the final practice sessions tomorrow morning.
In this morning's action in the MotoGP class, Simoncelli set the benchmark with a best time of one minute 49.036 seconds, 0.360secs clear of Valentino Rossi, who was riding Ducati's new GP11.1 for the first time.
MotoGP championship leader Casey Stoner, bidding for his fourth win on the spin this weekend, was third for Repsol Honda, nearly half a second slower than Simoncelli.
Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) was fourth with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) in fifth.
Yamaha Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow, who broke his collarbone at Silverstone two weeks ago, took sixth place and admitted afterwards that he had taken it easy in the difficult conditions.
"The shoulder just feels quite sore and I'm pretty cautious with it," the Briton explained.
"I'm definitely aware of it and when I start to go fast I think I should slow down a bit. In the wet conditions it doesn't hurt that much, but I'm really wary because the last thing I need is another crash on it.
"To be honest I hope it rains all weekend because it will make it easier on me.
"If it's a dry race then it will be a long 26-laps on Saturday with a plate and a load of screws in my collarbone, but I will do my best as always."
Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) took seventh place, ahead of Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3), Nicky Hayden (Ducati) and Ben Spies (Yamaha).
Hiroshi Aoyama, in for the injured Dani Pedrosa on the third Repsol Honda bike, was 12th quickest