The rain, the oil spill on track and a problem with the engine cover of his Moto2 conditioned the first day of the Repsol rider in Assen
Marc Márquez first practice day at the Holland Grand Prix was of little use, as they were cancelled just before the beginning of the second Free Practice session due to some oil spilled on track. The Repsol rider, who could only do ten laps to the mythical Assen circuit due to a problem with the engine cover of his bike, finished the day with an anecdotal 21st position, and did not have any chance to improve due to the cancellation of the second session.
Márquez went out on track determined to take new references for the Moto2 at the Dutch circuit and to start setting a good pace in wet conditions. Nevertheless, after completing ten laps he had to stop due to a problem with his engine cover, that lost spilled some oil over the back tyre of the Repsol rider’s Moto2. Before repairing the failure and just 4 minutes before the end of the session, the organizers showed red flag due to another rider’s incident, who spilled oil from his engine over more than one kilometre of the track.
After unsuccessfully trying to clean the asphalt to allow the rest of the sessions to take place, the marshals were finally forced to cancel the afternoon practice and tomorrow the riders will have twenty additional minutes in the morning session, so that they can keep working in the set-up of their bikes.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:57.629, 10 laps, 45 km.
“Today we could not test many things, because in the first free session we had a small problem that prevented us from doing many laps. Everything is solved now and in the afternoon we planned to do more laps and set a good pace under wet conditions, because it seemed that it will take place under the rain again. But at the end of the first Moto2 session, a bike spilled some oil and the marshals were not able to clean it. We cannot do anything about that, so we can only hope that tomorrow the practice will be under dry conditions —they say they will make the morning session longer to compensate the time we lost today— to try and test the tyres and find a good set-up”.
