Luthi: “We found a way with the bike setup”

Thomas Luthi made a breakthrough on Friday at the Dutch GP after ending FP1 in seventh, improving in FP2 to top the overall timesheets.

Garage Plus Interwetten’s Luthi, who is looking for his first Moto2™ podium at the TT Circuit Assen since 2010 this weekend, struggled with his bike’s setup during FP1. The Swiss rider could only manage a 1’39.241 that saw him end the morning’s session in seventh, 0.866s off the pace of Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) at the top of the timesheets.

Thomas Luthi, Garage Plus Interwetten, Motul TT Assen
"To finish top on the first day looks better than it really is..."

In FP2 he and his team worked hard on making adjustments to the bike, which clearly worked, as he went on to be the only rider to break the 1’38 barrier by setting a 1’37.962. This saw the man who sits fourth in the championship standings end the day on top of the combined timesheets, 0.267s ahead of the second placed Nakagami. Luthi is looking for his second victory of the season after winning the opening race in Qatar, and will head back out on track for FP3 at 10:55am local time on Saturday morning in Assen.

Thomas Luthi: “It was a good day! I am quite happy because we were struggling in FP1, but then we found a way with the bike setup for the second practice. I have to say to finish top on the first day looks better than it really is, we still have some work to do before the race. I hope the weather stays dry, its always a little bit sketchy here in Assen, but we have to take it as it is. If it is dry we still have to work with the bike and really think about our pace over the race distance. I think this is our main goal to allow us to be faster here.”