#DUTCHGP: TOP-5 FOR RODRIGO AS ROSSI LEARNS HIS WAY AROUND ASSEN
It was a temperature-rising Friday at Assen in the Netherlands, where Team Kömmerling Gresini Moto3 began their #DutchGP weekend on a high note.
Gabriel Rodrigo completed both sessions within the top-six and eventually finished the day with a quickest time of 1’41.979 (he was the last one break below the 1’42s barrier). The Argentine claimed a very good feeling in race configuration with his Honda machine as he completed more than 30 laps while trying both tyre options available. With the race always as the main focus, for #19 tomorrow’s qualifying will be a different one as he will need to do some damage limitation given the sixth-place penalty received at Montmeló.
For Riccardo Rossi it was more of a first-day-at-school experience. The ‘Cathedral’ is not among the simplest tracks to learn on the calendar, meaning the #54 had to stay out on track as much as possible. The two-second improvement between FP1 and Fp2 are an important sign, but there will be a lot still to do starting from FP3.
5th– GABRI RODRIGO #19
“It was without a doubt a good Friday: we lapped basically on our own the whole time and with used tyres. With both tyre options we basically covered the whole race distance and the race pace was better than expected. My final 41.9 was done with fresh tyres and it’s a good lap-time for the opening day. Things will be a lot more complicated tomorrow because we have to bear in mind the penalty, so it will be extremely important to qualify as high as we can. In any case I’m not too worried because I feel we have really a great rhythm for Sunday.”
28th– RICCARDO ROSSI #54
“This is a very difficult circuit and there are areas in which I lose a lot of ground. Obviously this was a first contact with the track and we can only get better. We only used only one set of fresh tyres (usually there are two) and we improved by two seconds. We’re in the right direction but we’re still far. We obviously need more track time to adapt to the track, but we need to speed up because we need to be further ahead.”
