Solid First Day Of Practice At Tt Assen For Bastianini And Di Giannantonio
Gresini Racing Team Moto3 racers Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio enjoyed today a positive first day of practice at the TT Assen, eighth round of the 2016 Moto3 World Championship.
Enea Bastianini ended the day with the seventh fastest time in the combined classification – 1’43”293 – just over 0.2 seconds off the pace. The 18-year-old rider from Rimini, who had ended the morning session, affected by a few drops of rain, on top, was therefore once again among the fastest riders in the afternoon. Tomorrow Enea will work with his technicians looking for more front end feeling, in order to improve on the entry of the fast corners.
His teammate, rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, closed the combined classification in thirteenth position with a lap time of 1’43”579. The 17-year-old from Rome, pleased with the behavior of his Honda NSF250RW machine since the beginning of the morning session, tomorrow will continue to work to try to improve some set-up details, in particular to be more effective in the faster sections of the track.
ENEA BASTIANINI (7th – 1’43”293)
“We closed the first day of practice with a good lap time, but honestly I didn’t feel very good with the bike: I still don’t have much feeling with the front end and consequently I struggled to be strong on the entry of the fast corners. Tomorrow we will work primarily on this aspect, while for other areas we have worked well, solving some rear grip issues that had emerged during the day. We are already fast, but we can improve significantly”.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (13th – 1’43”579)
“I’m very happy, first of all because I got my best performance with the soft tyre only on the front. In addition, this morning in the first Free Practice session I felt immediately at ease on the bike, despite the high lap times and the few laps completed. Consequently, since the feeling was already good, in the afternoon we made very little adjustments on the bike. Now we will try to improve on the fast corners, where at the moment I’m struggling a little bit to close the line, but we can already count on a good base set-up, so I’m satisfied with this first day”.
FAUSTO GRESINI
“Despite some drops of rain disrupted the morning session, this first day ended positively, with both our riders who were able to get good lap times. We are in line with our expectations, although there is still some work to do to improve, as always. A positive start on a very nice track: we feel ready to do battle, now let’s wait for tomorrow to see how it goes. I’m happy also because Di Giannantonio is confirming his growth, having been once again solid today, already close to the fastest riders”.
