Melandri tops practice

Marco Melandri has taken the top spot in the final practice session for the Assen round of the MotoGP world championship.

Melandri beat Thursday’s fastest lap, set by Loris Capirossi, by more than half a second, pushing the Italian Ducati rider down to fourth place in the Friday morning session.

Colin Edwards jumped up the table to take the second fastest lap followed by his team-mate Valentino Rossi only a fraction of a second behind.

Sete Gibernau slipped to fifth place followed by Alex Barros, Nicky Hayden and Max Biaggi.

We’ll be bringing you full reports of all the weekend’s racing action and don’t forget to check out the June 29 edition of MCN for all the behind the scenes news you won’t get from the TV.

MotoGP final practice positions:

Marco Melandri

Colin Edwards

Valentino Rossi

Loris Capirossi

Sete Gibernau

Alex Barros

Nicky Hayden

Max Biaggi

Carlos Checa

Alex Hofmann

Shinya Nakano

John Hopkins

Makoto Tamada

Troy Bayliss

Ruben Xaus

David Checa

Kenny Roberts

Shane Byrne

Roberto Rolfo