Free Practice 1 proved to be a somewhat lost session for the MotoGP™ World Championship, conditions far less than ideal. While wets and intermediates weren’t need, the TT Circuit Assen was very cool and still damp in a few spots. This saw times quite far off what one would normally expect of a dry session in Assen, Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) ending the first session in seventh.
"The difference is not so big but in the end I prefer my standard frame"‘The Doctor’ wasn’t worried about his position and headed into Free Practice 2 to assess the two different versions of the M1 he has for Assen. During the post-race test in Barcelona Yamaha brought along a new frame, one of Rossi’s bikes using this new frame. A best time of 1’33.595 saw him end only 0.004s behind his compatriot Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team).
Valentino Rossi: “It was a good day and I’m quite satisfied. This morning I had a small problem but in the afternoon we improved the setting of the bike and we improved my speed. In the end Iannone just beat me by 0.004s, but I’m in second place so I’m quite happy. For sure we need to continue to work. With the harder tyre for the race it will be a bit more difficult with a higher pace, and four or five riders are very fast. We need to improve but, for a Friday, it was a good performance. We compared the chassis we have tried during the Barcelona test another time. The difference is not so big but in the end I prefer my standard frame. I have more feeling in the front so we will continue with the normal one.”