The second day of practice for the Dutch TT at Assen was hit by wet circuit conditions this morning, thanks to overnight rain. This meant that the confrontation between the top riders was postponed until the afternoon’s qualifying session. Thankfully the sun came out and dried the Circuit Van Drenthe in time. The JiR Team Scot squad worked hard on Andrea Dovizioso’s race pace for tomorrow and are confident that the Italian rider will be able to fight for fourth or fifth position from his starting slot on the fourth row of the grid.
Cirano Mularoni - Team Manager JiR Team Scot
“The work done today in anticipation of tomorrow’s race gave us some positive signals and tomorrow we will exploit the warm-up for further development before the race. Despite this we are confident that Andrea is able to compete for positions much higher than his position on the grid. Qualifying is a phase in which we have to learn to improve our performance. Usually the race gives more motivation to Andrea, who – with a good start – should put on a good spectacle for the team and the fans tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
HONDA RC212V
11th best time: 1’36 “899
“Tomorrow I think I can battle for the fourth or fifth position. Although I will have to make a good start, not make any errors and get to the first corner in a good position, because in the first part of the circuit it’s difficult to overtake! Many other riders are able to run a race-pace near to mine, and I believe that I can still improve a few things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. It seems that I cannot improve my performance on the qualifying tyres, because I do not have the confidence with the front tyre that I need and also a little vibration also disturbed my pace. We still have to do some development on the setting of the suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better during the fast corners on the track, where you really need to have good support from the front tyre.”
Gianni Berti - Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team Scot
“Today was like a half-day of practice for us all, because the track was wet this morning and this meant we didn’t gather any more data to help us in this afternoon’s session. Despite this, under race conditions we are sure we can be competititve, but thanks to our problems on the qualifying tyres we have to work hard in the early laps and come from the back to the front of the field once more.”
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