Mixed conditions on day one in Assen for Pedrosa and Marquez

The Dutch TT has begun under mixed conditions today in Assen. This morning’s FP1 session was a chilly 14ºC with a low track temperature of 17ºC and both Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez set to work on soft front and soft rear Bridgestone tyres.

On his last exit, Marc tested a hard front to asses the difference and on his final lap of 19, he put in his fastest lap of the session with 1’35.883, placing him third in the standings. Dani remained on the soft option tyres for the whole session and was fifth fastest with 1’36.034 on lap 13 of 19.

In the afternoon, with temperatures similar to the morning, the riders had a new element to deal with as rain arrived for the entire session. Marc took the fastest time with 1’47.617 on his final lap of 18 and Dani was third with 1’48.240 on his last lap of 17.

Marc Marquez – 3rd – 1’35.883
“I’m happy because today went pretty well. From the beginning I felt good on the bike, both in the dry and wet conditions. Obviously there are still things to improve, especially in the dry, but overall I felt very comfortable and we’ll see if tomorrow the weather holds out for us, although the forecast is not too good. I hope for at least one dry practice in order to try to improve the setup, so fingers crossed we can have that tomorrow. As for the injury suffered by Jorge, he has been very unlucky. I think it’s only the second crash that he has had this year, and it’s resulted in injury – which you never wish on any rider. I hope he makes a speedy recovery; I’m sure that in Germany he will be ready for battle again”

Dani Pedrosa – 5th – 1’36.034
“In today’s sessions we rode on both dry and wet asphalt. In the dry the feeling was a lot more difficult than usual. With such a cold track it’s difficult to get grip in the tyres and you skid a lot when cornering, so we could not ride comfortably. We’ll see if it’s possible to improve the bike with regards to this over the next few sessions if we have dry conditions again. In the rain we improved a little and we were able to try some things out. The downside of today was the injury to Jorge. It’s a shame that he crashed and that it turned out so badly for him. As a rider, I know that now is a difficult time for him, so hopefully he can get through these days as best he can, as things like this are very painful”

Source: Repsol Honda Team