- Dani Pedrosa took the first win of his career at Assen in the 125cc class (2002), and has finished on the podium there in MotoGP on 5 occasions (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014).
- Marc Marquez has four victories at Assen: One in 125cc (2010), two in Moto2 (2011 and 2012) and one in MotoGP (2014).
- Marc Marquez has finished on the podium on his last 6 visits to the Dutch track.
The Repsol Honda team riders come into the Dutch TT eager order to maintain their positive momentum, after a podium double at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
The MotoGP World Championship continues its first European leg of the season with a return to the Netherlands, where the eighth round of 2016 takes place this weekend. Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa face the Dutch TT with the intention of maintain their positive momentum, after both got on the podium in Barcelona. Marquez currently leads the overall standings, heading to a track where he has finished on the podium on his last six visits -and where Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa took the first win of his Grand Prix career. Pedrosa has racked up five podiums at the historic track since his debut in the premier class in 2006.
Marc Marquez
“We’ve had two weekends off after Catalunya, and it has been good to be able to disconnect a bit, spending a little time with my friends and enjoying the amazing experience of doing some laps on the RC213V-S at the Red Bull Ring last Tuesday. Anyway, I’m happy that the time to go racing at Assen has arrived, as it’s a track I really enjoy and, importantly, the first in a series of circuits that suit my riding style quite well! Step by step, we’re making some small improvements to the bike, so in Assen we’ll keep working hard from the first session to find a good setup and try and fight for the podium again. The weather is particularly unpredictable there, so we’ll keep an eye on that also and try to be fast from the beginning of the weekend.”
Dani Pedrosa
“It was nice to be able to put in some good laps at the last race in Catalunya, to enjoy a bit of fighting and to step back on the podium, but now we must focus on doing a good job in Assen as well. We’ll see what feeling we’ll have in different conditions: colder than recent races, and very high-speed. The chances of rain are always high there, so we hope to have enough dry sessions to do some good work, both for the race weekend and for the future. Last Tuesday I quite enjoyed taking part in a video shoot at the Red Bull Ring in Austria: it was my first time at that track, which looks really good, and I had fun with the RC213V-S, which is an awesome street bike.”
