Second row start for Simon at Assen

The top twenty riders were again separated by a little over a second in the Moto2 class today as qualifying practice for the Dutch TT took place in bright sunshine at Assen. Only the Italian rider Andrea Iannone was able to open an advantage at the top of the timesheets in a crash-strewn session.

Mapfre Aspar riders Julián Simón and Mike Di Meglio had a positive second day, the Spaniard six tenths off pole and the Frenchman less than half a second further back. Simón seemingly slept in this morning and was off the pace in the day’s opening free practice but he was back amongst the frontrunners this afternoon, qualifying seventh.

7th Julián Simón 1.39.755 (20 laps): “I’m happy with the way the day has ended because this morning we were off the pace and way down the timesheet. We changed the geometry for the afternoon and I was able to change direction quicker on the bike, which helped a lot in the last chicane. Our objective was to be on the front two rows and in the end we achieved it. The idea now is to get the best possible start, attack as much as we can into turn one and stay with the front group to the end. I ended the session feeling much more comfortable than I did yesterday and this morning – perhaps not as good as Silverstone, where we had things a bit more clear, but I still think we can be in the top five. I’m not ruling out another little modification to the bike that could give us a touch more pace. There were a lot of accidents today so hopefully there are less tomorrow and nobody gets hurt.”

Source: Team Aspar