The weather has changed significantly in Assen compared to yesterday. While the Sprint was run under the sun, with over 50 degrees on the asphalt, this morning the sky above the Dutch track is grey and the temperature has dropped dramatically, to the point that the track is only 27 degrees. There is also a rather annoying wind.
These conditions, however, do not seem to have changed the scenarios that theoretically would lead everyone, or almost everyone, to switch from the soft rear tyre to the medium for this afternoon’s MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix. In fact, in the Warm-Up, almost everyone went for this choice, with a few rare exceptions.
The fastest at the end of the 10 minute session was Fabio Di Giannantonio, one of the most talked about on the market these days, who on his Pertamina Enduro VR46 Ducati lapped in 1’32″309, fitting a soft tire on the front and an average on the rear. Same choice made by Marc Marquez, who follows him by just 4 thousandths with the Gresini Racing GP23 and today will certainly try to make up for the retirement of yesterday’s Sprint.
In third position is the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, who instead ran with a pair of medium tyres, closing at 16 thousandths of a second. The driver from Roses remained the only one present in the garage of the official team from Noale, because both Aleix Espargaro and Lorenzo Savadori were injured in yesterday’s Sprint crashes: the Spaniard fractured his right hand and was fit for the Warm- Up, but his hand hurt too much when putting on the glove, so he decided to stop. The test driver, however, had small spinal fractures and has already flown to Italy to begin the recovery process.
Next up are the two main contenders for the title, Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who also had a pair of medium tyres. It should be noted that the Prima Pramac Racing rider will have to serve a three-place grid penalty today, dropping him to fifth place, for having hindered Raul Fernandez in yesterday’s qualifying.
The amount of momentum that Ducati has placed in the very top positions is impressive, because there are eight in the top nine. Following, in fact, is the Italian trio made up of Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli, with Alex Marquez completing the Red contingent. A sign that these conditions are probably even more suited to the Desmosedici GP than those of the rest of the weekend.
You have to go down to tenth place, therefore, to find the first of the KTMs, which is that of rookie Pedro Acosta, who is slowly finding the key to the problem also on the Dutch track, but is also the first among the riders who decided to ride with the soft tire on the rear. As is Fabio Quartararo, who follows him in 11th position with his Yamaha. For both, however, it is important to underline that it was a tire with about ten laps.
The Hondas are still far behind: the first of the RC213Vs is that of Johann Zarco in 15th position, with that of Luca Marini occupying 20th place, with only Augusto Fernandez behind him.
#MotoGP #Assen #WarmUp #Giannantonio #precedes #Marquez #whisker