Suzuki And Foggia on First And Second Rows At Assen
TT Circuit AssenTatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) rode an excellent qualifying session at Assen today, leading the way until the final moments when he fell at speed.
The 24-year-old from Chiba was able to walk away from the tumble, still second quickest, just 0.066 pole position off pole position, and will go into tomorrow’s Dutch TT confident that he can fight for a podium finish. This is his second front-row start of the season so far – he was also second at May’s French GP – and he has finished third in two of the last three races, so he is definitely on good form.
Suzuki’s team-mate Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) tried to go with him this afternoon but couldn’t quite match his pace, his final lap putting him fifth, for a start from the middle of the second row, less than three tenths of a second off the front row. The 21-year-old Italian currently stands third in the 2022 Moto3 World Championship and needs a good result here after consecutive DNFs at the recent Italian and Catalan GPs. He finished second last time out in Germany last Sunday.
French teenager Lorenzo Fellon (Sic 58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) used a tow from the Leopard pair to lift himself into the top ten, completing the 15-minute outing in eighth place, which puts him on the third row, his third best grid position of the year.
This hasn’t been an easy weekend for Grand Prix rookies Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) and Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW). Assen is arguably MotoGP’s most complicated circuit and neither had ridden the circuit before yesterday, when both Moto3 sessions were run in the rain.
Therefore the two teenagers only really started their Assen apprenticeship this morning. Furusato tried to learn as fast as he could but he also had to be careful not to make mistakes while learning, because this is a very fast circuit. The 16-year-old from Kanoya completed free practice 26th fastest and stayed 26th in qualifying.
Aji was in exactly the same situation, with just one dry session in which to get used to the circuit before qualifying, which the 18-year-old Indonesian ended 27th quickest, 0.260 seconds behind his team-mate.
After tomorrow’s racing the Moto3 paddock can look forward to a five-week mid-season break before the racing resumes with the British GP on August 7.
I’m fine despite the crash. We were fast toay and we've got a very solid pace, so we'd like to fight for the first positions tomorrow. Let's enjoy the last race before the summer break!
A new experience today, riding for the first time in Assen in dry conditions. It is like a new circuit, and I needed much time on track to learn it. My learning space is still significant because I still make many mistakes. In qualifying, I improved but not enough. Tomorrow I will need to adjust my riding and the setting for the race.
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Honestly, I’m disappointed with myself. We tried to take some positive things, like my feeling on the bike that was better in qualifying practice. My ideal lap time was affected by a bit of traffic chaos during the session. But although this, I’m optimistic for tomorrow’s race. I’ll need to do a good start; the starting line is quite behind the first corner. I should overtake as many riders as possible on this first corner and try to have a good pace in the race.
