First day of practice for Andrea Dovizioso and JiR Team
Scot at Assen
 This
weekend’s racing at the Dutch TT started well for Andrea
Dovizioso, ending the first day in 11th position. He was in
a group of ten riders all covered by just one second as they
all fought for fourth position on the timesheets. During the
morning, the JiR Team Scot rider started to find the right
feeling with the circuit, which he admits from his time in
125 and 250cc categories isn’t one of his favourite
circuits. In the morning he was in seventh position, then
in the afternoon the whole programme of the team was focussed
on finding the best set-up of the bike. For the qualifying
day of tomorrow the team will aim to find an increased pace
for the race. With Andrea only three-tenths of a second from
fourth in the provisional classification, he’s confident
that he can improve tomorrow.
Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager JiR Team Scot
“The circuit of Assen is not one of Andrea’s favourites
from his time on 125 and 250cc machines and also with the
MotoGP bike he doesn’t feel so comfortable around here.
The question is to keep on trying and he will gain in confidence
as he did throughout the day. Today we did a huge amount of
work to find the best balance of the bike and we tried many
different solutions of tyres. We were not focussed on the
ultimate lap time but instead finding the right pace for tomorrow
and then the race. Assen is a demanding racetrack: you need
stability in the fast sections, but also handling for the
part of the track with corners and bends. We will work tomorrow
to find the proper solutions.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider JiR Team Scot MotoGP
HONDA RC212V – 11th: 1’37”326
“The gap of three tenths to fourth is not important
as many of us are all together within a second and I know
that we can improve. We are working to improve the overall
stability of the bike, which in braking and in the corners
doesn’t give me the confidence I’m looking for
at the moment. We tried today a lot of tyres and made many
runs but it’s not so obvious at the moment which we
will use for the race, which in my opinion will be run in
the 1m 37 bracket which I feel I can reach. This pace could
make for an interesting race. With the MotoGP bike Assen remains
one of the tracks, which are not my favourite, but today is
the first day and I think that tomorrow things will be easier
for us. This is another reason why I’m not worried by
our position of 11th overall today.”
Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team
Scot
“Today was the start of our very important programme
of tests in which we were working on finding the proper balance
of the bike and using the tyres at our disposal without looking
for the best lap time. We made many short runs to properly
test everything and tomorrow the target will be our pace for
the race. We are not so far off the leaders and I’m
confident we can find the lap times that allow us to do a
good race.”
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