Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa place third and fifth, respectively, in opening practice sessions at Assen –riding in both wet and dry conditions.
The first day of the Dutch TT featured two very different sessions for the Repsol Honda riders, due to the arrival of rain shortly before starting the second outing. On dry asphalt in the morning session, Marc Marquez set the third fastest time and Dani Pedrosa the fifth. In the wet, Marquez topped the timesheets and Pedrosa was third quickest.
Marc Marquez continues to adapt to each circuit at lightning speed, and from the first practice session was amongst the fastest riders in MotoGP. The Spaniard was third quickest, with a time of 1:35:883 –0.620 off Jorge Lorenzo in first place. Dani Pedrosa was fifth, clocking a 1:26:034 lap.
In the second session the rain appeared and complicated things at Assen –to the point that Jorge Lorenzo crashed and fractured his left collarbone in a heavy fall. Marquez set the fastest time in the wet, stopping the clock at 1:47:617. That was 0.623 quicker than Pedrosa, who finished third.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 1:36.034, 19 laps, 86 km.
FP2 – 1:48.240, 17 laps, 77 km.
“In today’s sessions we rode on both dry and wet asphalt. In the dry the feeling was a lot more difficult than usual. With such a cold track it’s difficult to get grip in the tyres and you skid a lot when cornering, so we could not ride comfortably. We’ll see if it’s possible to improve the bike with regards to this over the next few sessions if we have dry conditions again. In the rain we improved a little and we were able to try some things out. The downside of today was the injury to Jorge. It’s a shame that he crashed and that it turned out so badly for him. As a rider, I know that now is a difficult time for him, so hopefully he can get through these days as best he can, as things like this are very painful.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:35.883, 19 laps, 86 km.
FP2 – 1:47.617, 18 laps, 82 km.
“I’m happy because today went pretty well. From the beginning I felt good on the bike, both in the dry and wet conditions. Obviously there are still things to improve, especially in the dry, but overall I felt very comfortable and we’ll see if tomorrow the weather holds out for us, although the forecast is not too good. I hope for at least one dry practice in order to try to improve the setup, so fingers crossed we can have that tomorrow. As for the injury suffered by Jorge, he has been very unlucky. I think it’s only the second crash that he has had this year, and it’s resulted in injury – which you never wish on any rider. I hope he makes a speedy recovery; I’m sure that in Germany he will be ready for battle again.”
