FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ASSEN CIRCUIT FOR THE REPSOL RIDERS
Nicky Hayden, fourth on the first day and Dani Pedrosa, ninth.
In 250cc, Julián Simón sets the sixth best time.
In 125cc, Rabat 15th and Márquez 17th
Today the mythical circuit of Assen was witness to the first
day of practice in preparation for the Dutch GP, fortunately
the typical wet weather seen at this date in the World Championship
calendar did not appear, and the good weather allowed the
first day to be completed in perfect conditions.
For the two Repsol Honda Team riders their first contact was
positive, although at the end of the day it was clear that
both Nicky Hayden as well as Dani Pedrosa and their respective
teams have a lot of work to do this weekend if they want to
catch Casey Stoner, the Australian rider, who was especially
fast around the Dutch track today.
Stoner lowered the Assen track record by more than one second,
and what is more was the fastest in the two free practice
sessions. In the morning, Hayden was second fastest, just
0.6 seconds behind Stoner, and Pedrosa third at 0.8 seconds.
In the afternoon Pedrosa and Hayden went out onto the track
with the firm intention of lowering their times and to get
closer to the pace that the Australian was setting, but in
spite of setting better times, both of them stayed a little
behind Stoner in the second free session. Nicky Hayden was
fourh at 0.9 secs and Dani Pedrosa, with a set up he did not
feel comfortable with, ninth at 1.193 secs. Tomorrow, the
weather forecast is different - some predict rain, others
settled weather, and so the team will have wait and see what
the exact conditions are like for the timed practice session.
Julian Simón finished the day encouraged by the progress
he made throughout the first day. Although in the morning
and in a large part of the timed practice his times did not
turn out to be so good, in the end though he was able to change
the set up on his motorbike and set the sixth best time, 1.176
secs off the provisional pole set by Alvaro Bautista. The
Repsol rider was especially slow on the third section, but
after changing the tyres, along with the chassis and the suspension
set ups, he got onto the second row of the provisional grid
on the last two laps.
In 125cc, Marc Márquez had a little fright, falling
at the end of the timed session, although luckily without
any consequences. The Repsol rider finished the session improving
his time, he had been 14th, and he was setting faster laps
so as to continue climbing on the leaderboard, well aware
of the fact that if it rains tomorrow it will be today`s classification
that decides Saturday`s grid. Nevertheless, two minutes from
the end of the session when he was braking to take the third
corner his front wheel lost its grip and Márquez ended
up on the ground. Without any chance of getting back on the
track with the team`s second motorbike, the young Repsol rider
saw another three riders improve their times, so he is now
temporarily placed in 17th position.
His teammate Esteve Rabat finished 15th, setting a time of
1' 46.7 seconds, 1.167 seconds off the best time set by Sergio
Gadea. Rabat was soon into his stride, feeling comfortable
on the Dutch track, setting the eighth best time of the free
session. On the timed lap he was able to gradually lower his
times, but his KTM 125 FRR by this time was suffering from
stability problems on the rear wheel. Tomorrow, weather permitting,
he will try to improve the set up in search of a one that
give him a chance to fight for a good position grill on the
grid for Saturday`s race.
Quotes
MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa >> 1’37.280 secs, 51 laps, 232 Km.
“During the afternoon session we tried a different settings
solution for the chassis in an effort to improve my feeling
thorough all the changes of directions here, but it didn’t
give the results we had expected, so I couldn’t be fast
as I wanted this afternoon.
We also tested some tyres, looking for the best solution
for Saturday. But the big question mark is once again the
weather; we can’t be sure about what the weather will
do tomorrow but it looks like it may be wet so we tried to
get as much work as possible done during the course of today’s
two sessions. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will keep on
working on the set-up to improve our race pace.”
Nicky Hayden >> 1’37.012 secs, 55 laps,
256 Km.
“It’s nice to finally see a little bit of summer
weather starting to hit Europe. The track is in great condition,
they did a great job of having it clean, so we were able to
get up to speed a lot faster than last year. All in all it’s
been a pretty solid day. We made a little bit of an improvement
this afternoon.
I wasn’t able to improve my best time by much but I
was able to be a lot more consistent out there. I was hoping
to go a little quicker at the end which didn’t happen.
The bike’s working pretty well here but we’re
certainly going to have to step it up a bit to get in there
and be really competitive. We’ve got a few ideas to
try and make it a little bit better tomorrow, the rider too.”
250cc
Julián Simón >> 1’40.686 secs, 45
laps, 205 Km
“Today was a very complicated day and we were way down
the leaderboard. It is proving difficult to set the motorbike
up, although we are getting there little by little. In the
end we tried a different tyre, we made some changes to the
chassis and the suspension, and I got the sixth position.
For me this is very important, and it is rewarding to see
me up there, because this morning after seeing where I had
finished I was a little down-hearted. Tomorrow we are going
to work hard, trying to improve this bike. My arm also has
improved a lot too, and today I did not have any kind of problem.
We are going to take advantage of this to do some good work
tomorrow.”
125cc
Esteve Rabat >> 1’46.700 secs, 36 laps, 164 Km.
“It has been a quite a complicated day. In the morning
things did not go too badly, but in the afternoon we had quite
a lot of difficulties, above all with the engine, it did not
accelerate enough.
In addition, we also had problems when opening the throttle
since the bike lost adherence at the back, it was like it
wanted to spit me out. We still have some work to do, because
we must find new things to try and get a good set up and select
the tyres as well.”
Marc Márquez >> 1’46.898 secs,
33 laps, 150 Km.
“The day went well; in the morning I just went out to
get to know the circuit, nothing else, taking no risks. But
in the afternoon, when we started it seemed to me that the
bike was going better and I went faster.
But when I started to lower my times, we realised that we
were beginning to have a lot of problems and that is when
I fell. I was taking too many risks. We will see if we can
improve the set up by tomorrow, and so set faster times than
we did today.”
Official Results
MotoGP
1. Casey STONER (DUCATI) 1:36.087
2. Valentino ROSSI (YAMAHA) at 0.732
3. Colin EDWARDS (YAMAHA) at 0.844
4. Nicky HAYDEN (REPSOL HONDA) at 0.925
5. Alex DE ANGELIS (HONDA) at 1.039
9. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) at 1.193
250cc
1. Álvaro BAUTISTA (APRILIA) 1:39.510
2. Héctor BARBERÁ (APRILIA) at 0.231
3. Marco SIMONCELLI (GILERA) at 0.468
4. Aleix ESPARGARÓ (APRILIA) at 0.700
5. Thomas LUTHI (APRILIA) at 0.945
6. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL KTM) at 1.176
125cc
1. Simone CORSI (APRILIA) 1:45.533
2. Bradley SMITH (APRILIA) at 0.340
3. Joan OLIVÉ (DERBI) at 0.363
4. Mike DI MEGLIO (DERBI) at 0.364
5. Sandro CORTESE (HONDA) at 0.402
15. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL KTM) at 1.167
17. Marc MÁRQUEZ (REPSOL KTM) at 1.365
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