Pull&Bear Aspar riders back in top ten contention at Assen

2017-06-23 08:23
With a best lap of 1'33.130, Maverick Viñales ended the opening day of the Dutch TT as the fastest rider around the Assen circuit, taking three tenths of a second out of the rest of the field. One of the standout rookies from this season so far, Jonas Folger was second fastest with another three tenths over Marc Márquez in third. Andrea Dovizioso, winner of the last two rounds in Mugello and Barcelona, was the top Ducati rider on the combined free practice timesheets after finishing fourth.

Both Pull&Bear Aspar riders were in top ten contention today, with Álvaro Bautista ending the first day of practice in ninth place, a position that would give him direct access to Q2 should tomorrow's FP3 be hit by rain, and his team-mate Karel Abraham in eleventh. The Spaniard is happy with his work today but recognises that he still has work to do after struggling for feel on the track in today's two sessions. Abraham ended the day with mixed feelings; happy with the lap time (1'34.299) but disappointed to miss out on potential direct qualification for Q2 by just two tenths.



9th Álvaro Bautista 1:34.103 (28 laps):“Here at the Dutch TT you never know what the weather is going to do from one day to the next so you have to make the most of the first session to try and set a time to get yourself into Q2 just in case. We managed to get inside the top ten today so if it rains tomorrow then we are through. If not, we will keep working. We will try to find something else that moves us forward a step tomorrow because I am not fully comfortable on the bike and still need to find a little more feel for the contact between the tyre and the track. If we do go through to Q2 then we will use tomorrow to work on our race pace rather than worrying about grid position.”

11th Karel Abraham 1:34.299 (33 laps): “That's a great result, I am really happy but at the same time a little annoyed because we were so close to being directly in Q2, especially as it looks like it will rain tomorrow so the conditions will be completely different. Anyway, that's the way it is now so we have to work really hard tomorrow. Maybe FP3 will be dry in which case we will try again to make Q2 directly. We are eleventh, the bike worked really well. We had a couple of issues but we sorted most of them out and we are looking forward to tomorrow. I had a couple of moments on the track but finally we were able to make a really good lap time, it was just a shame it wasn't quite enough to make the top ten. Anyway, eleventh position is really good for us and if we can repeat this tomorrow and especially on Sunday we will be very happy."

Source: AsparTeam

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