Fabio Quartararo made a brilliant start to the Dutch GP on Friday, as the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team rider finished the first day at Assen with the second fastest time – also having led the morning session. Franco Morbidelli was 14th on the combined timesheets after a day focused on race pace.
Frenchman Quartararo was immediately fast at the historic circuit, topping the order in FP1 thanks to a time of 1min 33.909secs on his third and final run. Morbidelli undertook several 6-lap stints with a focus on Sunday’s race, with the Italian clocking the 17th best time of the session with a 1min35.505secs.
In the afternoon, Quartararo continued his excellent dynamic, and at the end of FP2 he claimed second place, courtesy of a great lap on his last stint. He stopped the clock at 1min 32.818secs, being one of only three riders able to break into the 1:32s. Morbidelli, finished Friday in 14th place (1min 33.963secs), and tomorrow will have to look for a direct spot in Q2 in FP3.
The two PETRONAS Yamaha SRT riders will have tomorrow another 45 minute session – FP3 – in which to confirm their presence in the fight for pole position. Qualifying will take place at 2:10pm local time (Q1) and 2:35pm (Q2).
#21 Franco Morbidelli
“I struggled a little today. I wasn’t fast on the quickest parts of the circuit. I need more stability, because I couldn’t attack the corners the way I would have liked. We will try to find out where we can find speed. In comparison with Barcelona, we are further behind the frontrunners, but we have a lot of room for improvement. I’m not very consistent with the hard tyre, so we have to understand what is happening. Little by little we have improved the set-up today and there’s more to come. Assen is a track that I like and that I’ve always been good at, so we’re already focused on tomorrow.”
#20 Fabio Quartararo
“Today was a positive day even though I think it’s the toughest circuit of all those I’ve ridden at with a MotoGP bike so far, with a lot of quick changes of direction. In the afternoon we tried some small changes to the set-up and also put on used tyres in the afternoon, and the pace didn’t change. It was a good first day at Assen, so for tomorrow I hope to be on the front two rows and find out which tyre we will use in the race during FP4.”
