ROSSI SECOND BUT WITH WORK STILL TO DO IN ASSEN
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to one of
his favourite race tracks today, as the 60th Dutch TT got
started in bright sunshine at Assen. Rossi won the race from
11th on the grid last year, arguably his best performance
of 2007, and the Italian is keen to emulate his success with
another win on Saturday. He started well today by finishing
the first day of free practice in second place, although he
was 0.732 seconds off Casey Stoner and will be looking to
improve on this tomorrow.
This morning saw Rossi in sixth position but some set-up
alterations for the afternoon session brought about a good
improvement in his lap times and the Italian was one of only
three riders to lap under the 1’37 mark, the others
being Stoner and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards. Rossi
lapped consistently in the high 1’36s, already well
under the circuit record, but he will be aiming to shave a
few more tenths off tomorrow in order to narrow the gap to
Stoner. Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile finished
the day 14th in the combined standings after a difficult day
in which he struggled for front-end feeling.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 2nd Time: 1'36.819 Laps: 56
“Second place this afternoon is not bad at all, considering
that this morning we had some problems. This afternoon we
made some modifications and we started to improve quite a
bit. We are still struggling in some points of the track however
and this shows in the gap that we still have to Stoner. During
this afternoon’s session we understood some interesting
things, which we hope will help us tomorrow. Today, however,
it seems like I am the leader of the ‘other’ championship!
Davide Brivio
Team Manager
“This afternoon we made a good improvement to our setting
compared to this morning, and our pace got better accordingly.
Compared to the majority of the field in fact our pace is
very good, the problem is Casey! In order to fight with him
it’s clear that we’re going to need to work even
harder and improve even more, so this is what we will do.
It seems that we now have a good base setting so now we will
just try to make the next step. The weather today has been
fantastic – a nice change from recent races –
so we hope for more of the same tomorrow so we can keep on
improving.”
Combined Free Practice Times
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'36.087
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'36.819
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'36.931
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'37.012
5. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'37.126
6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'37.137
7. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'37.187
8. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'37.251
9. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'37.280
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'37.282
11. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'37.326
12. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'37.357
13. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'37.838
14. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'37.960
15. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'38.082
16. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'38.413
17. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'38.656
18. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'39.020
Assen: Record Lap
N. Hayden (Honda) 2006, 1'37.106
Assen: Best Lap
J. Hopkins (Suzuki) 2006, 1'36.411
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