#assen2016

Moto 3

Results: E. Bastianini, A. Migno, N. Bulega, R. Fenati, B. Binder, J. Guevara, B. Bendsneyder, F. Quartararo, F. Di Giannantonio, F. Bagnaia, G. Rodrigo, L. Dalla Porta, N. Antonelli, J. Danilo, P. Oettl, A. Canet, A. Locatelli, J. Mir, L. Loi, D. Binder, J. Mcphee, M. Herrera, A. Masbou, K. Pawi, J. Kornfeil, T. Suzuki, A. Arernas, S. Valtulini, A. Norrodin, F. Spiranelli, L. Petrarca, D. Webb

After a change in the weather, compared to yesterday’s intense heat, riders had to adjust to a cooler track. Aron Canet impressed after dominating the free practices on Friday, and then continued his form topping the time sheets in free practice 3 this morning. The world championship leader, Brad Binder, was in 10th position 0.736 behind the leader of the session. With the riders times appearing to be unpredictable, it was unknown who would come out on top in the qualifying.

Luckily the rain continued to hold off for the start of qualifying for Moto 3. Unfortunately, Aron Canet suffered a nasty fall at turn 8 towards the start of the session and it was then a race against time for the mechanics to get him back on track. Whilst Canet watches on, Niccolo Antonelli also suffered a small crash putting his rhythm in jeopardy. Towards the end of the session, the rain flag suddenly appeared with a few drops of rain showing up on the tarmac. With Enea Bastianini leading the majority of the session with 1:42.436, it was unlikely that any rider would overtake him with the rain beginning to fall. Canet managed to come back out on track and showed he has serious pace for the race tomorrow, but with so little time only managed to secure 16th place on the grid. Antonelli was involved in another small crash, with just a few minutes to go, ending his qualifying practice entirely leaving him in 13th place. This is Bastianini’s first pole position of the year, but with only 49 points in the championship he will be focusing more on a race win rather than joining the title hunt. The Sky VR 46 team boys also showed to be on form with Andrea Migno clinching 2nd, Nicolo Bulega in 3rd and Romano Fenati in 4th place on the grid. Brad Binder will start in the middle of the second row of the grid in 5th place, but he shouldn’t be worried with championship rival Jorge Navarro sitting out this weekend.

Moto GP

Results Q1: P. Espargaro, Y. Hernandez, H. Barbera, B. Smith, A. Bautista, D. Pedrosa, E. Laverty, S. Bradl, J. Miller, T. Rabat, M. Pirro

Results Q2: A. Dovizioso, V. Rossi, S. Redding, M. Marquez, C. Crutchlow, Y. Hernandez, P. Espargaro, A. Espargaro, A. Ianonne, D. Petrucci, J. Lorenzo, M. Vinales

The rain continued to fall as free practice 4 for Moto GP soon approached, and the riders seemed reluctant to go out. With just 20 minutes left, the action started with Marc Marquez leaving the pits on wet tyres to begin the session. Other riders quickly followed, including Jorge Lorenzo, to get a feel of how wet the track was. Lorenzo suffered a fast fall in the free practice this morning, at turn 7, causing some damage to the back of his neck. Marquez also set pulses racing by locking his front wheel on the straight, sending the rear sliding, but somehow manages to recover it. With the impact of the save being so strong, his air bag was set off and it seemed like he would come back into the pits. However, it was clear it was just a rider error as he stayed out on track after seeing a few movements of the arms to bring the air bag down. With the two riders at the top of the championship suffering near fatalities, it was interesting to see how the rest of the afternoon would pan out.

FP4 started off very slowly with riders just reaching into the 1’51’s, compared to the 1’33 times from this morning. We saw a lot of crashes throughout the session including Cal Crutchlow, Jack Miller, Alvaro Bautista, Stefan Bradl, Danilo Petrucci, Scott Redding and even Dani Pedrosa who has been struggling all weekend. With just six minutes to go, Marquez decided it was time to make progress and started to improve his times significantly. He started off by moving into the 1’50 times, and soon ended up with a time of 1’48.628 topping the session. Lorenzo has also been struggling this weekend after his crash, and only just making it into the top 10 for qualifying 2, and sat in 8th place +1.476 behind Marquez. Valentino Rossi has a history of performing well in the wet, so all eyes were on him as he took to the track. He sat 2nd in the session with 1’49.326. By the end of the session, the rain decided to stop so it will be interesting to see what tyre options are chosen for both the qualifying practices.

For the first qualifying practice, the track still appeared to be considerably wet. A fine mist of water still covered the back wheel as the riders, including Dani Pedrosa, took to the track to try and get into the top three and reach qualifying two. Hector Barbera is first to take to the gravel, and rushes back to the pits to try and go back out on his second bike. Due to his second bike programmed with dry settings, and slicks, mechanics worked hard to swap over into a wet set up. Jack Miller and Michele Pirro also went down, and with such a short session it was wondered if they could get their rhythm back before the end. Pedrosa started to show quicker times with just 3 minutes of the session left, but it was unfortunately not enough to take him into the top two. Pedrosa will start 16th on the grid, which is his most disappointing qualifying time so far this season. Yonny Hernandez led the majority of the session, but it was Pol Espargaro who took the top spot right at the end with 1:48.482 knocking Barbera into 3rd, which is the equivalent to 13th on the grid.

As the second qualifying session started, the rain decided to stop and it was a question to which tyres were to be used. Marc Marquez had a crash very early on in the session, before setting a time, seeing him steal a scooter, to get him back to pit lane and on his 2nd bike. Once making it back, he watched on as his mechanics worked to get the settings and tyres changed ready to go back out. Maverick Vinales also suffered a fall early on and struggled to get the bike started again, also seeing him switch to the spare bike. It started with an unusual top three seeing the likes of Pol Espargaro, Yonny Hernandez and Danilo Petrucci swapping and changing in the top three positions. However, as the riders began to feel more comfortable times began to speed up and the likes of Valentino Rossi began to appear on the timesheets. As the chequered flag came out Rossi was unaware that Andrea Dovizioso and Scott Redding were following behind him. They all took a place on the front row of the grid, as they crossed the line together.  Dovizioso took Ducati’s first pole position since Mugello last year, whilst Rossi took 2nd, and Redding was in 3rd which is his first front row since joining Moto GP. Marquez came back out on track with only four minutes remaining, giving him only two attempts at setting a lap time. His first lap sent him sent him to only the 3rd row on the grid, but his second lap sent him to 4th position putting him just in front of Cal Crutchlow. Let’s not forget that Andrea Iannone will start from the back of the grid tomorrow, pushing all the grid positions up one place.

Moto 2

Results: T. Luthi, J. Zarco, D. Aegerter, S. Lowes, F. Morbidelli, T. Nakagami, S. Cortese, A. Rins, J. Folger, L. Baldassarri, M. Oliveira, M. Pasini, A. Marquez, X. Simeon, J. Simon, S. Corsi, M. Schrotter, D. Kent, A. Pons, H. Syahrin, L. Marini, R. Mulhauser, J. Raffin, I. Vinales, X. Vierge, R. Gardner, E. Pons

 With a different rider topping each free practice session so far in Moto 2, it was going to be very interesting. What we saw was something very similar to the Moto 3 qualifying, with the session starting off dry and half way through seeing the rain come down again. However, this time the rain decided to come down a lot heavier with just 20 minutes remaining, causing the riders to all enter the pits discussing with their teams whether to go back out. Tom Luthi had already set a time of 1:37.954, handing him that pole position. Unfortunately for the championship leader, Alex Rins, he was still getting to grips with the track and only managed to get up to 8th place on the grid before sitting in his box. Although this may not deter him, seeing Sam Lowes his main rival sitting in 4th, may make him more nervous for the race tomorrow. A couple of riders went back out on track with wet tyres to try and prepare for the, more likely than none, wet race tomorrow. It was too late to set a new time for Rins, who also decided to join, and seemed to take it very slowly as the rain continued. In the end a lot more riders decided to follow, but the times stayed the same leaving your top three as Luthi, Johann Zarco and Dominique Aegerter, who took his first front row of the year.