DRIVE M7 Aspar begin preparations at Assen

2014-06-26 08:27
Hiroshi Aoyama works on front fork set-up and clocks 16th fastest time, just ahead of his team-mate Nicky Hayden

As if inspired by the lap times in the Moto3 class the MotoGP boys wasted no time in getting down to lap record pace at Assen today, with Pol Espargaró dipping inside the 2012 circuit record (1.34'548) this morning and then his brother Aleix smashing the outright lap record (Stoner, 2012, 1.33'713) this afternoon with a sensational time of 1.33'653. The Spanish rider's effort came at the end of a session that had been dominated by his compatriot Marc Márquez, proving that the fast and flowing nature of the Assen circuit could well lend itself to the non-factory machines – especially those using the soft tyre option.

For that reason it was a slightly disappointing day for the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team riders, who expected to be more competitive in the opening two free practice sessions. However, both riders reported improvements as the day progressed, Hiroshi Aoyama making some positive changes to his front fork set-up on his way to the sixteenth fastest time of the day whilst Nicky Hayden reported good performance from his bike in the flowing sections of the track, with work still to do in other areas when the action resumes tomorrow.



16th Hiroshi Aoyama 1.35.787 (40 laps): “We have been lucky that the weather has been on our side so far here in Holland. We have been able to do a lot of work on the set-up of the bike, especially this afternoon when I tested a new configuration for the front fork, which seems to work much better than the old one. I am really happy with the feeling I had with the bike today and even though we clearly need to improve I am satisfied we are on the right path. Hopefully we get more good weather tomorrow so that we can keep working in the same way. We tried the softest option tyre today and the feedback was good, also in terms of durability. If we can do full race distance on it then that will be our choice for Saturday. We're still not clear about the front tyre yet though, that will depend on the track conditions.”



17th Nicky Hayden 1.35.891 (37 laps): “To be honest we expected to be more competitive in the first two sessions. We made some slight improvements this afternoon and got the bike handling better through the direction changes. This is a technical circuit and we will have to work hard. The good thing was that we got dry track all day today and were able to gather a lot of data. Even though we have the bike working better through the flowing sections we still have a lot of work to do in the other parts of the track. Physically I feel better than Barcelona although it has been tougher today than I expected. In Barcelona we also started slower than we expected but in the end we put in a good performance on race day so hopefully it can be the same story here.”

Source: AsparTeam

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