The Repsol riders first contact with the venue organising this weekend`s imminent World Championship race ended with Marc Márquez in 6th position, 847 thousandths behind the fastest time set by Julián Simón. Esteve Rabat made good progress too, as did Cameron Beaubier, and in the end the former was 15th and the American 21st. One place in front was Scott Redding, who was parked up for most of the practice session in the pits with electrical problems.
Today Thursday saw the first of the practice sessions before the Dutch GP, and of the Repsol riders, Marc Márquez is the one that put in the best performance. He set up his KTM 125 FRR bike step by step, although he still has to decide which tyres to use. After testing different set ups on the suspension and the chassis, he still needs to find out which is the best tyre width for the demands made at this track, either one of 115mm or one of 120mm.
Esteve Rabat also tried our different possibilities and was able to gradually improve his lap times. After finding the development that best suits the clearly differentiated sections at this circuit, he concentrated on adjusting the suspension and the tyre selection for this Dutch track.
His teammate did not have an easy time today as an electrical problem had him waiting around the pits for almost the whole practice session. He was only able to do 8 laps before going to the pits, then the bike would not start again. His team worked flat out to detect the fault, but found it when there were only 6 minutes left. He had time to do two more laps, one of them at a decent pace, but still far from his best, as really he only had time to adjust the set up he wants for this circuit.
At the end he was 20th almost 2 seconds and a half behind the best time, and just one place ahead of Cameron Beaubier. The American was able to adapt to the pace of the World Championship quite quickly as he rode at this circuit two years ago in the Rookies Cup. He used his first hour to get his first impressions of the different tyres available to him. An electrical problem at the end of the session did not allow him to make the progress that he would have liked, but even so he did 21 laps and this will help him to decide what to adjust for the official practice tomorrow.
Marc Márquez, 1’47.572 sec, 24 laps >> Audio
“The first day in Holland has gone quite well. At the beginning it was hard for us and I did not feel too comfortable on the bike, but we changed the set up quite a bit and then I felt much better. We still have a lot of room for improvement, but I suppose that tomorrow everybody will do the same, so we will carry on making a special effort. It was quite windy, but whatever, I was able to ride comfortably and I am pleased with how things went. Let`s see if we can round off the set up tomorrow and get closer to the leaders, but I think we are working on the right lines. This circuit has all types of corners, and I really like the last one, but on the first sector, the slowest, it is harder for me.”
Esteve Rabat, 1’48.322 sec, 22 laps >> Audio
“We are at one of my favourite circuits, I like Assen a lot, and that always helps you to ride more confidently on the track. It was a bit windy, but it did not really bother me. The first practice was to try out different sets of tyres, both on the rear and on the front, and to work on the development of the engine. As always I am pleased with how the engine behaved. It did not go too bad, but we saw some points where we can improve, which is positive”.
Scott Redding, 1’49.180 sec, 10 laps >> Audio
“I don`t have much to say because I hardly rode at all today. I did a few laps at the start of practice, but then we had some electrical problems which we could not sort out until right at the end of the session, and there was no time left to do more. The weather was good, so it is a pity that we could not take advantage of it”.
Cameron Beaubier, 1.49.200 sec, 21 laps >> Audio
“I like this circuit, it is great fun. The first sector is quite difficult because there are very tight corners where it is important to get the right line and so not lose time. But the rest of the circuit is very good. At the beginning of the session we were testing a rear tyre that did not go too badly, but then we put one that was a little wider and I did not feel so comfortable on that one. Towards the end I began to go a bit better, but then there was an electrical problem and the bike stopped”.
