MARTIN TOPS TIMESHEETS, DIGGIA FOURTH AT ASSEN
The eighth Grand Prix of the 2017 Moto3 World Championship has got underway with a great start for Team Del Conca Gresini Moto3 riders Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who were first and fourth, respectively, in the combined times of today’s two free practice session at the iconic TT Assen Circuit in the Netherlands.
Martin logged in a 1’42.414secs lap-time that was only three tenths of a second slower than the current “Circuit Record Lap”, which still belongs to another Gresini Racing rider, Jorge Navarro, and dates back to 2015. (1’42.135). The 19-year-old Spaniard had a very encouraging day on a track that has never been kind to him in the past.
Jorge’s team mate Fabio Di Giannantonio had also a very competitive start to the Dutch GP by setting the fourth fastest time of the opening day, which is usually not his favourite one of the whole weekend. Fabio was among the elite of riders able to lap under the 1’43secs barrier, despite the half-second gap from the top.
Moto3 action will resume tomorrow morning at 9am local time (GMT +2) for the third free practice session of the quarter-litre class of MotoGP, while qualifying is scheduled to begin at 12:35.
1st – JORGE MARTIN #88
“The first session was very useful to find again the braking marks around the track as last year, due to the injured hand, I was only able to complete 10 laps over the whole weekend. I felt really comfortable on my Honda NSF250RW especially with used tyres: both lap-times and pace on the longer runs were there. We tried the harder option this afternoon and that felt good too, although when I put the medium tyre back on, the lap-times were on another level. There’s still to improve the feeling with the front-end a little, but I guess this will be the choice for the race. We need to do our very best this weekend and for the rest of the season: if it’s raining tomorrow, which it likely to be the case, we will still aim for a good result.”
4th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“We finally started off well on a track different than Mugello. This morning, even though lap-times did not show it fully, I was riding on my own and did pretty well. It was some traffic towards the end of the session that didn’t allow me to improve my time and, therefore, my position. I continued to ride on my own this afternoon and we made a big step forward. There’s still room to improve but we’re getting better with the front-end of the bike. I’m changing my riding style and the team is working hard to tailor the best set-up of the bike around me.”
