The Repsol Honda Team enjoyed a positive day at Assen on Thursday as the first two practice sessions for the 77th running of the Dutch TT were completed in mercifully dry conditions. Nicky Hayden built on the progress made during practice at the British Grand Prix last weekend and once again figured consistently towards the top of the timesheets. The 25-year-old World Champion was third fastest aboard his RC212V in both one-hour sessions, finishing the day as the top runner on Michelin tyres and just 0.286s behind the pace-setter Casey Stoner. Assen is a track the American likes very much, and with good reason – the 4.555km (2.830-mile) circuit being the scene of Hayden’s dramatic last-gasp win in 2006.
Dani Pedrosa also made a promising start to the weekend, setting a lap time good enough for fifth place overall and only 0.393s back from the fastest time. The 21-year-old Spaniard looked on course to climb higher still until the ultimate sector of his last lap in the afternoon when a mistake at the final chicane cost him precious tenths. The times today were only a little off the pace of Nicky Hayden’s Assen lap record of 1m 37.106s set on the 990cc RC211V on his way to victory last year. With rain forecast to dampen the historic circuit at some point during practice and qualifying on Friday, today’s dry track time was a valuable start for the Repsol Honda Team.
Nicky Hayden – 3rd 1m 38.114s“I really like the Assen track and things went relatively smoothly today with no major dramas. The package we’ve got with the RC212V works pretty well here straight out of the box and we’re not too far away from getting a pretty good dry race set-up. Tyre choice is going to be really important of course and we tried to put in as many laps as we could in today’s two sessions because the weather looks really bad for tomorrow. We might catch a break on Saturday for the race though, and it might be dry. It’s been a decent start to the weekend and we’ll look at the data we gathered today and hopefully we can sweeten the machine up a little bit more. I enjoyed riding out there today so we’ve just got to keep the momentum going.”
Dani Pedrosa – 5th 1m 38.221s“We did a lot of work today on the machine set-up and tyre choice because the weather forecast says we might lose some dry practice time tomorrow. The RC212V feels quite good here and not really too different to the 990cc machine from last year – you notice the power is lower, but not too much, and the lap times are already pretty close. The practice sessions went reasonably well and I made a fair improvement from the morning to the afternoon. However, I made some mistakes in the afternoon session which lost me some time and so my final lap times were not as fast as they should have been really. We’ll continue to make adjustments to the machine tonight and come ready for whatever the weather gives us for tomorrow’s sessions.”
Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager“Both riders are quite near the top again today which is a good start for the team. Nicky was consistently quick today and he’s brought the speed he showed in practice at Donington to Assen and his performance level is continuing to rise. He is the top rider on Michelin tyres today which can only help to increase his confidence still further. The times here are close, especially as this is a longer lap than at Donington and some of our rivals are looking very competitive, so we cannot relax for a moment. Dani is also looking quite good here and I think he would have been in a higher position at the end of the afternoon session if he had not run off the track at the end of his final lap. The weather looks as though it can change very quickly here so we’ll have to be on our toes.”
Combined Free Practice Times:
1. Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 37.828s
2. Randy De Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 38.040s
3. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team 1m 38.114s
4. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 38.148s
5. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team 1m 38.221s
6. Makoto Tamada - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 1m 38.256s
7. Colin Edwards - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 38.341s
8. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 38.436s
9. Shinya Nakano - Konica Minolta Honda 1m 38.444s
10. Alex Barros - Pramac d’Antin Ducati 1m 38.485s
11. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 38.600s
12. Sylvain Guintoli - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 1m 38.650s
13. Carlos Checa - Honda LCR 1m 38.733s
14. Alex Hofmann - Pramac d’Antin Ducati 1m 38.846s
15. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 39.152s
16. Marco Melandri - Honda Gresini 1m 39.259s
17. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 39.751s
18. Kurtis Roberts - Team Roberts 1m 40.835s
Free Practice conditions:
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 13ºC
Track: Dry / 26ºC
Humidity: 77%
2006 Race Result:1. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team 42m 27.404s
2. Shinya Nakano - Kawasaki Racing Team + 4.884s
3. Dani Pedrosa -Repsol Honda Team + 7.525s
4. Casey Stoner - Honda LCR + 7.555s
5. Kenny Roberts - Team Roberts + 8.078s
6. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 17.065s
7. Marco Melandri - Fortuna Honda + 18.09s
8. Valentino Rossi - Camel Yamaha Team + 23.951s
9. Carlos Checa - Tech 3 Yamaha + 29.027s
10. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 31.627s
11. Makoto Tamada - Konica Minolta Honda + 32.841s
12. Alex Hofmann - Ducati Marlboro Team + 34.143s
13. Colin Edwards - Camel Yamaha Team + 40.412s
14. Randy De Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team + 1m 03.648s
15. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team + 1m 17.303s
16. Ivan Silva - Pramac d'Antin MotoGP + 1 lap
17. Jose L. Cardoso - Pramac d'Antin MotoGP + 3 laps
James Ellison - Tech 3 Yamaha + 23 laps
Circuit length: 4.555km (2.830 miles)
Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1m 37.106s - 2006
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