With the track soaked, the field was mixed up in practice for the Dutch GP, but when the asphalt dried out, the trio formed by Francesco Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaró and Fabio Quartararo took the lead. The Aprilia rider, however, had his best time cut short by a punishment resulting from a technical regulation infraction
MotoGP faced a wet Friday (24) on the first day of practice for the Dutch GP. In the morning, the track was completely soaked, to the point that the riders aquaplaned and raised doubts about the safety of the track. In the afternoon, when the rain stopped, the situation improved a little, which allowed even the slicks to see the light of day. And so it was that the golden boys of the season ended up as protagonists: Francesco Bagnaia took the lead, ahead of Aleix Espargaró and Fabio Quartararo. Or almost.
Hours after the end of practice, the FIM Commissioners Panel (International Motorcycling Federation) announced a punishment to the Aprilia rider, who used a water deflector on the rear wheel while wearing a pair of slicks, which is forbidden by regulation. Because of this, the sport's governing body cancelled all the Granollers rider's third stint times, which dropped him from second to last, more than 8s behind the leader - the difference, it should be noted, is a result of track conditions and not a performance problem.
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Judging by the balance of the day's work, Aleix has little reason to be desperate.
"It's always important to start strong, so I'm satisfied with these first two sessions. Especially in the wet this morning, I was fast and had a good feeling, even in conditions that are certainly not my favorite," commented Aleix. "With the dry track this afternoon, I could only do a few laps at the end of the session, but I was still able to find good pace, which actually surprised me a bit," he admitted.
"So we are ready to face any situation. We are always hoping for dry, a condition where we can really have fun here in Assen," he commented.
But it's not quite like that. The best times of the weekend were made with slicks on a dry track that formed with the lull in the rain. And the forecast for tomorrow's early TL3 is for a soaked track. In other words, Aleix will hardly have a chance to secure a slot in the combined top-10 to go straight to Q2.
Unlike the Noale home, however, everything went smoothly at the Ducati. With 1min33s274 on the best of his 19 laps in the afternoon session, Pecco secured the best time and was more than satisfied with the performance of the Desmosedici.
"This morning I finished 11th because I didn't have the chance to improve in the final minutes of the session, but in fact my feeling with the bike was good from the beginning," said Pecco. "The conditions this afternoon were really tricky, but we still managed to do a good amount of fast laps with the slicks tires," he commented.
"I'm very satisfied with this first day and now we keep working in this direction.
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Like everyone else, Fabio Quartararo directly benefited from Aleix's setback and moved into second place. Still, the championship leader's result had already been positive and expressed a huge leap as he went from 17th in TL1 to top-3 in the afternoon session.
"The wet track this morning was tricky, and I didn't want to take any risks," Fabio recounted. "Of course, our position was far from the first because of that," he explained.
Living a great phase, Quartararo commented that the YZR-M1 has great potential on wet tracks, but even better on dry ones.
"We know that our potential is much higher in the wet than that, but not as high as in the dry," he acknowledged. "In the afternoon, I had a great feeling, even if in tricky conditions. I usually have difficulties in this area. I'm feeling very happy and confident," he celebrated.
On the other side of the pits, Franco Morbidelli got the 17th fastest time, but ended up even worse, as he received a punishment for hindering Enea Bastianini during TL2.
"I feel good when the grip conditions are not so high. I can show my potential, but then we need to improve in other conditions. I need to use the bike better to get the maximum potential out of it," he said. "At the moment it is difficult to do that when there is grip, but the potential is there and we will keep trying," he assured.
"I'm sorry for the mistake I made. I went off the track and accidentally got in the way of Enea and I was punished for that," he declared.
Still dealing with the effects of the wrist fracture suffered in Catalunya, Álex Rins secured the third best time and, more than that, was able to do some of the work that he did not have the opportunity to do in the collective test in Barcelona.
"Today was pretty good both in the wet and the dry," said Rins; "In the morning at TL1, I felt it was quite risky because the track had a lot of standing water and the spray was bad," he said. "We started TL2 in the wet as well, but in the end it dried out, which happened incredibly fast!" he praised.
"I had a bit of pain in my wrist, but I feel like I'm progressing well. Today I also had the opportunity to test one of the aerodynamic packages, which I couldn't do at the Catalunya test. It was useful and we will check the data," he concluded.
Pecco's teammate on the Ducati, Jack Miller was 0s559 slower than the leader and reinforced that the base setting prepared at the Barcelona test worked again in Assen.
"In TL1, the conditions were challenging as there was a lot of standing water on the track, but the grip levels were not so bad, and the feeling with the tires was good," he commented. "In the last minutes of TL2, we put the slicks on using the base setting we adopted after the Barcelona test, which allowed me to be competitive in Germany. It seems to be working very well here too, and now we have to make some small adjustments for tomorrow. Overall, it was a good Friday, and now it will be important to be able to do well in tomorrow morning's TL3 as well.
The third practice for the Dutch GP of MotoGP in Assen takes place on Saturday at 4:55 a.m. (ET).GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.