Repsol riders finish seventh and fourteenth, respectively, in first free practices for Dutch TT. Alex Rins unharmed in second session crash.
Thursday action kicked off the Dutch TT at Assen with two practice sessions, which ended with Bastianini on top and Alex Rins and Alex Marquez in seventh and fourteenth place respectively on the combined timesheets. The day ended earlier than expected for Rins, whose crash in the final minutes of the second session prevented him continue –although he did not do any further damage to his already injured left foot. He had suffered three microfractures in practice for the Catalan GP.
In the first session Rins finished eighth, after completing 18 laps without any infiltration in his foot. Despite experiencing discomfort, he confirmed that he can compete at a good level this weekend. Adding another 14 laps to his tally in the second session, he finally set a best time of 1’43.407. A crash at Turn 9 brought his day to an early conclusion.
Teammate Alex Marquez put in 19 laps in the first session and set the fourth fastest time. Shaving off nearly four tenths from that time in the second session, he clocked a 1’43.108 lap on the fifteenth of eighteen laps, undertaken with traffic on the straight.
Tomorrow sees the final free practice session and qualifying at 12:35pm, determining the starting grid for Saturday’s race.
Álex Rins >> Audio
14th, 1:43.407, 32 laps, 145 km
“We started well in the first practice this morning, despite the pain in my foot. To make things more comfortable when riding, I used a larger boot than normal; this has helped me a little, but the injury is still very recent, and is bothering me a bit. Nevertheless, I think overall every Honda rider is finding it difficult at a track where it seems the KTM is going well, so we’ll work to improve tomorrow and lower our times”.
Álex Márquez >> Audio
7th, 1:43.108, 37 laps, 168 km
“This first day we have struggled a bit. We didn’t find a good setup and I did not feel entirely comfortable, so tomorrow we will have to continue working hard. On my last hot lap attempt other riders got in my way and I could not improve my time, but I don’t think we are in a bad position considering how the day went. Tomorrow we will try to take a couple of steps forward to be closer to the frontrunners”.
