This eighth round of the MotoGP season takes place on the legendary Assen circuit in the Netherlands. It is Arón Canet on his KTM who leads the championship with 23 points ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta and 28 points over Niccolò Antonelli. It is already obvious that the KTM rider will want to shine this weekend and will want to offer a great victory, as a birthday present to his boss Max Biaggi, who has just celebrated his 48th birthday.
|
Assen Moto3™ |
2018 |
2019 |
| FP1 | 1'42.771 Jorge Martin | 1'42.738 Ai Ogura |
| FP2 | 1'42.677 Arón Canet | |
| FP3 | 1'42.308 Marco Bezzecchi | |
| QP1 |
XXX |
|
| QP2 | 1'42.039 Jorge Martin | |
| warm up | 1'42.566 Arón Canet | |
| Course | Martin, Canet, Bastianini | |
| All time lap record | 1'41.283 Enea Bastianini 2015 |
It's 16,1 degrees on the track and 21,2 degrees in the air. The sky is overcast at the start of the morning.
The Asia team pays tribute to Honda which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a motorcycle which displays the colors of the Hondas of the time with a gray, yellow and red fairing. The pilots, Kaito Toba and Ai Ogura, wear black leather giving a vintage look to the whole thing. Even the numbers on motorcycles are more rounded.
We're off and running! 👊@KaitoToba looks the part in this special @honda_team_asia delivery to mark 60 years of Honda Racing! 😍#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/hdiYi494r6
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) June 28, 2019
It was Jakub Kornfeil on his KTM who set the reference time in 1.46.569s before being caught by Romano Fenati in 1.46.067s, the Honda driver of the VNE Snipers team. Fenati who needs to get back on his feet despite a seventh place in Catalonia when he has four blank results alongside. As the laps go by, the times drop and Tony Arbolino takes the lead, quickly passing the 1.45 mark, he laps in 1.44.556s. Niccolò Antonelli, the third man in the championship, is second best in 1.44.920s.
Marcos Ramirez, the winner of Catalonia, comes second (1.44.322s) behind Tatsuki Suzuki who took the lead with a lap time of 1.43.755s. Augusto Fernandez is third and posts a time of 1.44.345s. Aron Canet, the championship leader, made the effort and took the second best time in 1.44.236s. Ai Ogura is third, he runs in 1.44.241s. Still 12 minutes before the end of this first free practice session and John McPhee is closing in on Tatsuki Suzuki and placing second in 1.43.874s.
Gabriel Rodrigo did the same and took the best time of the session in 1.43.323s. The Argentinian driver will start with six penalty positions this Sunday following the incident with Binder, in Catalonia 15 days ago. He pushed further and improved his own time to 1.43.075s. Note at the end of the session, the return of Dalla Porta, Canet's runner-up in the championship, who comes between McPhee and Antonelli, in fifth position with a time of 1.43.878s.
It was Ai Ogura who at the end of the session, took the best time of the session in 1.42.738s ahead of Marcos Ramirez, of the Leopard team and Jakub Kornfeil. Romano Fenati finished with the fourth fastest time in 1.42.931s.
