Alcoba And Foggia On Moto3 Front Row At Assen
TT Circuit AssenJeremy Alcoba (Indonesian Racing Team Gresini Moto3 Honda NSF250RW) scored the first pole position of his Grand Prix career at Assen today.
The 19-year-old Spaniard left his best until last, snatching pole at the very end of the Q2 qualifying session. He will be joined on tomorrow’s front row by third-fastest Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW), whom Alcoba chased during his pole lap.
Alcoba’s performance was particularly impressive considering that this is his first visit to Assen, a notoriously difficult circuit to learn. The youngster has yet to win a Grand Prix, so this is his best chance yet.
Foggia, less than three tenths slower than Alcoba, will be chasing his second victory of the season, following his first success at Mugello last month. The 20-year-old Italian also finished third in last Sunday’s German GP, less than three tenths behind the winner.
Honda’s third fastest rider today was 24-year-old Argentinean Gabriel Rodrigo (Indonesian Racing Team Gresini Moto3 Honda NSF250RW), who will start from the second row after qualifying sixth. Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW) and Foggia’s team-mate Xavier Artigas (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) were eighth and ninth quickest.
Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) missed graduating to the Q2 session by a tenth of a second. The 18-year-old from Setagaya struggled to produce a super-fast one-off lap or qualifying, so he will start his first Moto3 race at the super-complex Assen circuit from 20th on the grid, but he has a better race pace, so he hopes to latch onto the back of the lead group and see what he can do during the 22 laps.
This weekend Takuma Matsuyama (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) once again joins the Moto3 full-timers as a wild-card rider, working hard to learn as much as he can. The 16-year-old from Chiba did well today, bettering his pace significantly.
Andi Farid Izdihar (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) will start the race alongside Matsuyama. The 23-year-old Indonesian would almost certainly have achieved a better grid position if he hadn’t started his final run too late to record a flying lap.
Following tomorrow’s ninth race of the 2021 season the Moto3 grid gets to enjoy a five-week mid-season break before the action recommences in August with the Styrian and Austrian GPs on 8th and 15th August.
I’m really happy to be on pole because pole position was a goal we have focused on this year. Many weekends we have been on the front row, but we’ve never take pole, so it’s incredible to do this before the summer break. I rode my first qualifying laps alone but to take pole I needed a slipstream, because I’m bigger than the other riders. I followed Foggia to get my best lap time – he gave me pole here and I helped him to a podium last weekend in Germany!
I’m happy with third spot, because starting from the first row of the grid will give us more options in the race. I can't wait to race here! So far, it's been a great weekend. Many thanks to the team and to my family.
Since yesterday, I’m struggling a lot, even if today my feeling was a little bit better. I’m not fast enough, but the data shows that my pace is quite good when I go alone. In qualifying I did a good lap time on my first run, but I lost all the options to do better when we fitted a new tyre for the second run because we couldn't do one flying lap. About tomorrow, the fast riders are so far ahead, the gap is big, but I'll try to be in the group and we will see.
In FP3 I improved my best lap time by almost two seconds. It's normal, because this is my first time in Assen and today I had more clear references. We’ve managed the day quite well. For tomorrow my goal is to continue improving learning from the best.
In FP3 I improved more than a one second from my best time of yesterday. In qualifying, I missed the first outing, struggling to do a good lap time. And in the second outing we lost the option to profit from the new tyre because we started too late and couldn't do a complete lap. Tomorrow we have another chance to have the best setting to try my best in the race.
