Did you know…?
– With the triumphs at Mugello and Barcelona, it’s the first time that Ducati has had back to back victories since 2010 with Stoner in Aragon and Japan.
– Dovizioso is now part of an exclusive club of riders who have won two consecutive races with Ducati, as did Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner.
– There are only seven points separating Dovizioso from the championship lead. It’s the closest that Ducati has been to the lead after the first third of the championship since Stoner won the title in 2007.
– Dovizioso took pole position in last year’s race. The Ducati dominated 5 of the 6 practice sessions during the weekend.
– Dovizioso led the race last year until heavy rain caused it to be stopped for safety reasons.
– In 2008, Stoner won on the Ducati, took pole position and had the fastest race lap.
– Four different Ducati riders managed to lead last year’s race. At the start, Redding led the group, a position that later would be held by the Colombian rider Hernandez, then Dovizioso, and finally Petrucci.
– Jorge Lorenzo has not won at Assen since 2010. He has suffered bad luck at the Dutch circuit since then: in 2011 Simoncelli caused him to crash and in 2012 Bautista took Lorenzo out of the race on the opening lap. In 2013, he crashed during FP2 and broke his collarbone. In an heroic move, he had an emergency operation that same day and was able to participate in the race, ending in an astonishing 5th place just 36 hours after being operated on.
– Lorenzo has managed to win at Assen in every category: in 2004 with 125cc; 2006 and 2007 in 250cc; and 2010 in MotoGP. He has 6 podiums and 4 pole positions in addition to his victories.
– Assen is the only circuit that has been on the calendar since the first World Championship race held in 1949. For this reason, and because of the large number of fans who come to this GP annually, it is known as the Cathedral.
– For the second year in a row the Dutch race will not take place on the Saturday. Since last year, the Dutch Grand Prix has been held on Sunday as the other races are.
– In 2006, the track layout was subjected to a major remodeling which cut its length by 1442 meters, eliminating the first sector between Turn 1 to the current Turn 4.
– The most notable part of the Dutch track is the chicane at the start of the front straight. Many races have been decided here and some of them were quite controversial.
– The famous Assen chicane is entered at up to 260 km/h and slows to 126 km/h over a distance of 159 meters over 3.8 seconds.
– At last year’s Grand Prix, Dovizioso clocked a top speed of 318 km/h. The maximum speed recorded at Assen was in 2015 by Iannone on the Ducati who reached a peak speed of 319.8 km/h.
