Yamaha's Ben Spies tops second practice at Assen for Dutch TT, ahead of Cal Crutchlow

The under-fire American, who scored his maiden grand prix victory at the venue 12 months ago, was in the hunt for much of the second half of the 45-minute session and just edged out Cal Crutchlow in the final stages.

Spies and the Tech 3 Yamaha rider were split in the end by just 0.006s, while the first 11 riders were all covered by less than 0.5s.

Completing a surprising top order, Nicky Hayden emphasised the progress made by Ducati recently by going third fastest ahead of Alvaro Bautista's Gresini Honda; the fastest of the RC213V riders.

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo looked unruffled in fifth, just 0.191s off the pace, having been at the sharp end for much of the session as he worked through long runs, while Honda's Dani Pedrosa (sixth) also spent a period of time at the top of the list.

Andrea Dovizioso was seventh fastest for Tech 3 ahead of Valentino Rossi, who was more than 0.3s off his Ducati team-mate Hayden.

Hector Barbera was ninth, the Spaniard recovering from a fall at Turn 10 when the front-end of his Pramac Ducati washed away inside the first five minutes of the session.

World champion Casey Stoner could only manage 10th place, the Honda rider spending much of the session evaluating different Brigestones and making repeated trips to his pit garage.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
 1.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m34.866s  
 2.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.872s  + 0.006s
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m34.968s  + 0.102s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m35.008s  + 0.142s
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m35.057s  + 0.191s
 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda                     1m35.080s  + 0.214s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m35.257s  + 0.391s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m35.296s  + 0.430s
 9.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m35.298s  + 0.432s
10.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m35.304s  + 0.438s
11.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m35.337s  + 0.471s
12.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m36.615s  + 1.749s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m36.871s  + 2.005s
14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m37.057s  + 2.191s
15.  Yonni Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m37.572s  + 2.706s
16.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m37.628s  + 2.762s
17.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m37.657s  + 2.791s
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m37.669s  + 2.803s
19.  James Ellison     Forward Suter-BMW         1m37.973s  + 3.107s
20.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m38.279s  + 3.413s
21.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m38.373s  + 3.507s