Bautista quickest in final practice for Dutch GP

Spain’s Alvaro Bautista (Honda) was the quickest in the third and final free practice session for the Dutch MotoGP this weekend, ahead of French rider Randy de Puniet and Italy’s Michele Pirro.

The riders began on a damp track in Assen in temperatures as low as 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) but conditions improved by the later stages.

Only Bautista and De Puniet were able to take advantage of the drier track in the later stages.

The best time of the three sessions was by Jorge Lorenzo but the Spanish rider, the reigning world champion, crashed and broke a collar bone, forcing him out of the race.

Lorenzo’s Yamaha team said that he underwent a successful operation on his broken left collar bone in Barcelona on Friday.

His team meanwhile said he had a complex fracture, which made surgery difficult, but he was fitted with a titanium plate and eight pins to fix the bones.

“We’ll assess Jorge’s progress in the next few hours and we will then be able to determine the length of his rehabilitation,” the team added.

Lorenzo crashed at 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour on a right-hand bend at the Assen track, ruling him out of Saturday’s race.

That has handed Dani Pedroso a chance to build his lead over Lorenzo at the top of the overall classification.