Andrea Dovizioso, ready for a top-five race finish at Assen
 The
second day of practice for the Dutch TT at Assen was hit by
wet circuit conditions this morning, thanks to overnight rain.
This meant that the confrontation between the top riders was
postponed until the afternoon’s qualifying session.
Thankfully the sun came out and dried the Circuit Van Drenthe
in time. The JiR Team Scot squad worked hard on Andrea Dovizioso’s
race pace for tomorrow and are confident that the Italian
rider will be able to fight for fourth or fifth position from
his starting slot on the fourth row of the grid.
Cirano Mularoni - Team Manager JiR Team Scot
"The work done today in anticipation of tomorrow’s
race gave us some positive signals and tomorrow we will exploit
the warm-up for further development before the race. Despite
this we are confident that Andrea is able to compete for positions
much higher than his position on the grid. Qualifying is a
phase in which we have to learn to improve our performance.
Usually the race gives more motivation to Andrea, who –
with a good start – should put on a good spectacle for
the team and the fans tomorrow."
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
HONDA RC212V
11th best time: 1'36 "899
“Tomorrow I think I can battle for the fourth or fifth
position. Although I will have to make a good start, not make
any errors and get to the first corner in a good position,
because in the first part of the circuit it’s difficult
to overtake! Many other riders are able to run a race-pace
near to mine, and I believe that I can still improve a few
things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap
time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and
with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. It seems
that I cannot improve my performance on the qualifying tyres,
because I do not have the confidence with the front tyre that
I need and also a little vibration also disturbed my pace.
We still have to do some development on the setting of the
suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better
during the fast corners on the track, where you really need
to have good support from the front tyre.”
Gianni Berti - Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team Scot
“Today was like a half-day of practice for us all, because
the track was wet this morning and this meant we didn’t
gather any more data to help us in this afternoon’s
session. Despite this, under race conditions we are sure we
can be competititve, but thanks to our problems on the qualifying
tyres we have to work hard in the early laps and come from
the back to the front of the field once more.”
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