Dani Pedrosa tops Assen MotoGP Day One
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa sets the fastest ever lap MotoGP lap around the TT Circuit Assen to top the opening day combined timesheets.
Pedrosa outshone his rivals to end the first day of Free Practice at the Motul TT Assen on top after setting a blistering record lap of 1’33.450 during FP2, beating his teammate Marc Marquez’s 2014 best (1’33.462) in the process.
Today’s practice sessions took part in surprisingly warm and sunny conditions at the TT Circuit Assen, the only track that has been ever-present in the World Championship calendar since it began in 1949. Track temperatures peaked at 40 degrees Celsius in FP2 and with the forecast for Friday showing a chance of rain, today’s Free Practice sessions took on extra emphasis as riders tried to secure automatic qualification through to Q2. With this in mind, as the clocked ticked down towards the end of FP2, riders headed out on fresh tyres to try and set a flying lap.
Repsol Honda made it a 1-2 on the combined timesheets, as Marquez, who had earlier crashed on his out-lap in FP1, set the second fastest time of the day, just 0.139s behind Pedrosa. Dani did an exhaust comparison today and worked on various setups on his Honda RC213V machine, improving his time in the afternoon by over a second with his record breaking lap of 1’33.450 (lap 18/20), beating Casey Stoner’s record pole lap in 2012 of 1’33.713.
Despite a small crash on his out lap this morning (turn thirteen), Marc was able to press the reset button and continue his work as normal aboard the 2014 specification chassis – with updated 2015 swing arm and exhaust. This afternoon, Marc also improved significantly from FP1 (1’34.552 lap 17/20) with his time of 1’33.589 also under Casey’s time, finishing second behind teammate Dani.
Dani Pedrosa – 1ST 1’33.450 [LAP18/20] – “We started well today. Above all, we wanted to take advantage of the track being dry and in good condition, because here in Assen the weather is always a little unpredictable and so it was important for trying out tyres and bike setups. We have made a good start comparing different exhausts and working on setup, so tomorrow we will aim to continue in the same way.”
Marc Marquez – 2ND 1’33.589 [LAP 5/9] – “Today went fairly well and I’m happy because we had some more normal free practice sessions – riding with a good pace and used tyres – and I enjoyed myself on the bike. It’s clear that we still have to work hard and improve, but I’m happy with how things went. We expected Jorge and Valentino to be further ahead of us at this circuit, but this has not been the case. Dani was fastest and I was second which is good for the team. However, this is only practice and we must continue to progress, and I think that Valentino especially has a strong pace.”
Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (+0.202s), using a new frame which his team debuted last week at a private test at Motorland Aragon, ended the day in third after he had earlier topped FP1 for the first time since Indianapolis last year.
Valentino Rossi – 3rd / 1’33.652 / 41 laps – “It has been a good Thursday. I’m happy because we worked well during the sessions and we found some interesting solutions. The first priority today was to find out which chassis we prefer, the new one or the standard one. I feel good with the new one. My pace and my lap times were especially good this morning when I was in front, but also in the afternoon. Securing third position is a very good performance, because the first five to seven riders are really close in times. It’s a good way to start the weekend, but we still have a lot to do. It’s very important to use this bit of dry track time in Assen well, because we hope the weather will stay like this, but you never know. Now we will wait for tomorrow. Both the harder and soft tyres are not so bad for the race, it will depend on the conditions. If it’s hot, like it was today, you can decide to try the harder rear tyre.”
Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.249s) was fourth, with Cal Crutchlow (+0.284s) on the CWM LCR Honda the leading Satellite rider in fifth.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’33.699 (4th) – “We are working to try and understand where we can improve our performance. Assen is a circuit where the GP15 goes quite well, but we are still suffering in some parts of the track and so are aiming to improve the overall performance of the bike in every session. In any case, I am quite satisfied with the improvements made between the morning and the afternoon: I like the modifications we made to the bike and we were able to improve, so this is an important indication for the work we will continue to do tomorrow.”
Cal Crutchlow #35 – 5th (1’33.734) – “It was a strange day but overall I’m really pleased with the way we worked because we used old tyres for the whole of the first session and some of the second session. When people had switched to new tyres it looked a bit concerning, but we knew we could put in some decent lap times, and then we did. So overall I’m really happy. We went through some things with the bike that Honda wanted us to try, and this is why we were a bit off the pace in the first free practice. Tomorrow we will be able to focus on our own job and continue to push towards the front. We’re trying to help Honda though, they are our manufacturer and it’s nice that they put the trust in us to give them some important information.”
The man who has won the last four races in a row, Jorge Lorenzo (+0.291s), was in sixth ahead of the second Ducati Team GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.394s) who ended the day in seventh.
Jorge Lorenzo – 6th / 1’33.741 / 35 laps – “It has been a difficult day. I still don’t feel great on the bike, so we have to make some modifications to get more confortable. We don’t have the softer edge tyre that Bridgestone usually brings. This certainly didn’t help me to feel at my best in the corners, but this is the same for everyone. We have to work on it. I think we still have a margin to feel better with this tyre and go faster, but we have to find a solution to get to that stage.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’33.844 (7th) – “My feeling with the bike is quite good, but unfortunately this morning we lost a bit of time due to some small problems that prevented us from doing a lot of laps. This is a circuit where you struggle to get dialled in immediately, but despite this things are not going too badly. I still don’t have the feeling I’m looking for at the front and I am unable to be really effective in the middle of the corner, so we have to focus on these aspects if we want to improve. We don’t quite have the pace of the top three or four riders but tomorrow for sure we can make some further steps forward.”
Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) made use of the softer option tyre available to him to finish in eighth, ahead of Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) and the second GSX-RR of Maverick Viñales who completed the top ten.
Aleix Espargaro – “It was a strange day because we had to struggle to find the better set-up for my machine. I like this track a lot, but I am still missing something to feel totally confident. Between FP1 and FP2 we pretty-much changed everything on the bike in terms of electronics and set-up. We started from the data collected in Aragon and from there we tried to improve. There is not such a big difference between soft and hard tyres here, so I preferred to focus on the hard ones, because we will have those next year, so it’s wiser to work with future plans if the difference is not so big. However, I’m in the top-10 and the time is pretty good and also some early trials for the pace gave positive reponses. Overall I’m confident that tomorrow we will make further improvements.”
Maverick Viñales – “We still have a lot of work to do because the machine is very responsive to the changes we make, but I still need to find the best set-up. Also I need to better understand the lines. This is a very-demanding track, so different from the previous ones, and I’m struggling to be effective, expecially in last part of the track. However, I feel positive for tomorrow as the test we made on the pace today gave positive responses and the only thing now is to find a better effectiveness on the single lap. It is also positive that at the moment we are already in Q2, so that if the weather tomorrow will turn into rain we will have an advantage.”
Pol Espargaro – 11th / 1’34.321 / 40 laps – “We kicked off the Dutch TT in a positive manner after having a good start this morning and managed to set a quick lap at the end of the session which put us near the front of the field. Yet unfortunately this afternoon, things didn’t work out the same way as everybody improved their times, while we had to face a few slight issues which prevented us from posting a really fast single lap. Everything is so close in the times and the guys with the soft tyre have a clear advantage and can easily beat us on one lap. Yet our race pace is really promising and is quite close to the top riders. Now we just have to hope that it won’t rain tomorrow morning so that we can have a good chance of qualifying straight through to QP2. We will see what happens and I will give it my very best.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith found himself outside of the top ten in 13th, along with Scott Redding (14th) on the Factory spec EG Marc VDS Honda. Stefan Bradl was the leading Open class rider in 15th, while the Aspar Team MotoGP Honda’s of Eugene Laverty, who was using a new swingarm today, and Nicky Hayden finished in 17th and 18th respectively.
Bradley Smith – 13th / 1’34.627 / 44 laps – “Today was quite a good day despite the final position in the combined standings. I am satisfied with the work that we have undertaken and as soon as we got out on track this morning, I felt comfortable straight away. When we tried the hard tyre this afternoon, I was happy with how the bike handled, yet when we put the soft tyre in, the grip wasn’t as good as it should have been because we had a tyre that may have been defected. This limited me and unfortunately was the reason why I wasn’t able to post a strong lap time. Having said that, these things occasionally happen and it’s much better for this to occur today instead of tomorrow as we all know how important the qualifying is. We don’t know what the weather conditions will be like tomorrow so it’s not ideal to be in 13th, but we’ve had a strong pace all day today and I am optimistic for the qualifying. Therefore, we will make a few small adjustments, but overall, I’m feeling confident and I’m looking forward to getting back out on the track.”
Scott Redding: 14th – 1’34.643 – “I don’t really know why we weren’t higher up the order because my feeling with the bike is pretty good, but the lap time doesn’t reflect that. It feels like the lap time should be there but it’s not. We had a bit of chatter in a couple of corners but that’s not the issue. It doesn’t feel bad in many areas. I’m losing a lot in the first sector and I don’t know why, but at least we know where to look to find the time.”
Stefan Bradl – 15th / 1’34.664 / 40 laps – “I’m happy with this start. This morning we were immediately competitive and in the afternoon we were able to go even faster. We have a different setup than Barcelona, but the feeling is good and we were able to collect a lot of information to further improve the setting of the bike. We have to find a little more speed on the corner exit, but I’m confident for qualifying. The weather is the real unknown, but we are not far from the top guys.”
Loris Baz – 16th / 1’34.897 / 36 laps – “Compared to Barcelona, we made a good step forward and we are positive for qualifying. I still must improve something in corner entry but I am convinced we can do well tomorrow. I will try to do my best to stay close to the other Open bikes.”
17th – Eugene Laverty 1.35.047 (43 laps): “We were able to work with the new swingarm today but in the first session this morning I preferred to do a long run on the old one so that we could compare. The feeling with the new one was very positive and I could already feel the potential. Obviously we are not going to perform miracles in one day, we need to go step by step but the first impressions are positive and it gave me the stability and confidence I was looking for. The grip in corner entry is incredible. We improved considerably from one session to the other and managed to set some consistent laps. The bike is easier to ride now, I am more comfortable in the fast corners and I can follow other riders, which is useful for us to know exactly where we’re at.”
18th – Nicky Hayden 1.35.149 (34 laps): “I have good memories of Assen, this is a great circuit with a lot of history but today has’t been a positive day for us. We had a few technical issues this morning and I couldn’t get out for my final run. The team has worked very hard but we didn’t manage to find a solution so we switched to the second bike for the afternoon. My electronics engineer spent the day trying to fix our issues and we improved the lap times in the second session but the feeling and the rhythm wasn’t perfect. I am losing a lot of time in T2, which is a sector that doesn’t exactly hold many secrets. We will keep working tomorrow and try to improve.”
Jack Miller put in an impressive first free practice session, where he finished in 11th place and ahead of several other Honda riders. However the CWM LCR Honda man was the only rider unable to lower his time again later in the day, and ended up as 19thquickest. Nonetheless, the Australian is confident of rediscovering the form he found early on when he takes part in Friday’s qualifying session.
Jack Miller #43 – 19th (1’35.348) “It was a good first session this morning, but we just didn’t seem to find the same kind of confidence in the afternoon and we weren’t able to improve which was a real shame. So I’m not too happy about that, but we have some ideas for tomorrow. We need to test some more things on the bike and try and get the confidence back to where it was in free practice one. I look forward to qualifying tomorrow however, and I hope I can do a good job to put us closer to the front for the start of the race.”
For Aprilia Racing Team Gresini the first two practice sessions of the Dutch GP round were the ideal continuation of the tests begun at Barcelona the Monday after the last race. Completely in line with a season that for Aprilia is one long test session and race trial, some of the solutions tested at Barcelona were therefore brought to Assen to be tested directly in the free practice sessions of this round. At the end of the day Bautista, who shaved more than seven-tenths off his time between the first and second free practice, finished with the 20th best time (1’35,489) whereas Melandri stopped at 24th place with a time of 1’37,225.
Romano Albesiano – (Aprilia Racing Manager) – “We had a lot of tests to do at Barcelona in the post-race session but unfortunately we were unable to finish that job because of the rain. So we brought some of that material here. Not al of it because during the weekend the time we have to test is obviously different than on a test day. Above all we tested different stiffness setups both for the front and the swingarm and we found a certain amount of improvement in grip, so tomorrow we’ll keep working in that direction. We also tried an evolution of the seamless gearbox – a fine tuning of some of the details – which we’ll assess now, analysing the components of the gearbox.”
Alvaro Bautista – “In the first free practice session this morning we started to get our bearings and gather the initial data on this track to define a first basic setup. Then in the afternoon we tested the new swingarm that we had tested briefly at Montmelò. The comparative tests showed that the new part makes the bike more stable in the initial part of the acceleration phase. Now we’ll analyse all the data more closely to further improve traction coming out of turns for tomorrow. It was without a doubt a positive day because every improvement, even minimal, is still positive.”
Marco Melandri – “Friday is always a good day to figure out which direction to go. Today we found something positive and tomorrow we’ll try to make some adjustments to the setup. I’m hoping for consistent weather tomorrow.”
From 2016 the TT Assen will be on Sunday
After carefully considering all the pros & cons, the TT Board has decided to move the race day from Saturday to Sunday, starting in 2016.
The TT Assen race day will be held on the last Sunday in June. This will have benefits for the future of the TT Racetrack, the preservation of the MotoGP and motorcycle racing in the Netherlands in general.
By changing to Sunday from 2016, it is expected that larger numbers of spectators will visit the track. In the current Dutch leisure pattern a top sporting event on a Sunday is more attractive than on a Saturday. On Sundays there is also more media exposure for these top sporting events, which is something the TT Assen will definitely benefit from. This has also proven to increase visitor numbers. By moving the training days to Friday and Saturday, the TT Assen becomes more attractive for a multi-day visit and therefore also for the purchase of all-in tickets.
The decision to move the race to Sunday was made out of sheer necessity. The number of motorcycle Grands Prix around the world is limited, and often there is more capital available elsewhere to obtain a MotoGP license. In this competitive environment, the TT Assen can only hold its own by increasing the number of visitors. With an increase in the number of visitors, the Board expects the turnover of the TT to increase by 5-10% in the medium-to-long term. This extra revenue will be used to continue to cover the increasing operational costs of the event and to secure the license in the long term, and to be able to guarantee financial cover for new investments in public facilities.
Moving the TT to Sunday is a better fit with the pattern of other events in motor and motorcycle racing and with the spirit of the times. Nearly all top sporting events around the world take place on a Sunday. They will be maintaining the tradition of the last weekend in June, so the move from the Saturday to the Sunday could be seen as an old tradition with a modern twist.
Championship leader Zarco off to a flying start in Assen
Moto2 World Championship leader Johann Zarco sets the pace on Thursday at the Motul TT Assen.
Ajo Motorsport’s Zarco, who leads reigning World Champion Tito Rabat by a commanding 40-points in the standings, set a 1’37.670 to end the first day of Moto2 Free Practice on top.
That put the Frenchman, who has won twice in 2015 in Argentina and Barcelona, 0.196s ahead of Simone Corsi on the Athina Forward Racing Kalex. Zarco left it until his very last lap of FP2 to set his fastest time of the day, as riders enjoyed the ideal track conditions that greeted them at the TT Circuit Assen for both sessions. Zarco’s time was just over five-tenths slower than the outright lap record at the 4.5km track, set by Marc Marquez (1’37.133) in 2012.
Corsi took advantage of a tow from Rabat to end the day in second, with Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes (+0.208s), who had topped FP1 earlier, rounding out the top three. AGR Team’s Jonas Folger (+0.278s) was fourth, with 2014 Assen Moto3 winner Alex Marquez on the second EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex (+0.482s) impressing in fifth.
Álex Márquez: 5th – 1’38.152 – “This has definitely been my best day on a Moto2 bike. I enjoyed riding a lot and improved with every lap. We tried some different settings that improved my feeling and we will continue to work in this direction tomorrow. I have a lot of confidence with the bike now in the slow corners, but we can still gain more in the fast sections. It is getting better but I am pleased to be fast on new tyres also. We have been working very hard to improve in this area to help my grid position and it is paying off.”
Federal Oil Gresini Moto2’s Xavier Simeon (+0.490s) finished sixth on the combined timesheets, with Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten), Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Alex Rins and Franco Morbidelli completing the top ten.
The only riders to crash throughout the day were Ratthapark Wilairot and wild card Jasper Iwema, who both went down in FP2, but walked away unhurt.
Kent smashes lap record to finish day one on top in Moto3
Leopard Racing’s Danny Kent sets a new Moto3 lap record at the TT Circuit Assen to end the first day of practice on top.
Dominant championship leader Kent made the most of ideal conditions in both Moto3 practice sessions at the Motul TT Assen to finish on top of the combined timesheets with a 1’41.860. The British rider recorded his best time in FP2, and in the process became the first Moto3 rider to break the 1’42 barrier at the “Cathedral of Speed”, beating Jack Miller’s pole time from last season (1’42.240) by over three tenths of a second.
Kent topped both sessions, as most riders improved their times as the day went on. Kent, who is chasing his fifth win in eight races, finished 0.277s ahead of Sky Racing Team VR46’s Romano Fenati in second. The Estrella Galicia 0,0 duo of Jorge Navarro (+0.426s) and Fabio Quartararo (0.692s) were third and fourth respectively, with Karel Hanika (+0.693s) on the Red Bull KTM Ajo bike in fifth.
Ongetta-Rivacold’s Niccolo Antonelli (+0.753s) was sixth fastest overall, with Efren Vazquez (Leopard Racing), John McPhee (SAXOPRINT RTG), Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Team Moto3) and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) completing the top ten.
Remy Gardner – 26th – (1’43.730): “I’m satisfied about my performance and progression because as I do in every race, I have spent most of both sessions learning the track and fixing some settings of my Mahindra. If I keep improving tomorrow I’ll have the opportunity to reach the top 20 and a good position in the starting grid”.
The Moto3 field were following new instructions from Race Direction after the issues faced at the Catalan GP with riders going slow on track. Each lap that a rider completes now must be within 107% of their fastest time or they could face an investigation, which could lead to a penalty affecting their grid position for the race.
There were crashes in the morning session for wild card rider Kevin Hanus, Andrea Migno, Tatsuki Suzuki and Matteo Ferrari. In FP2 Livio Loi crashed at turn 1, while Niccolo Antonelli and Karel Hanika also hit the deck, luckily all riders were okay.
