Kornfeil leaves it late to end first day fastest in Moto3™

Thanks to an electric final flying lap, Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) closed day one of the Motul TT Assen as the fastest man in the Moto3™ class. The Czech rider tucked in behind VNE Snipers’ Tony Arbolino, who at the time was at the top of the timesheets, on his final lap of the FP2 session and used the slipstream offered by the Italian to maximum effect by clinching top spot.

Kornfeil’s 1:41.782 was half a second adrift of the fastest ever Moto3™ lap around the TT Circuit Assen, set by Enea Bastianini back in 2015 but the times behind him were pretty tight though. All 30 riders improved on their times from FP1, with Arbolino less than a tenth adrift in second with fellow Italian, SIC58 Squadra Corse’s Niccolo Antonelli, only a hundredth further back in third.

Continuing the Italian charge behind the Czech rider was Romano Fenati after the VNE Snipers man ended fourth quickest overall. Kömmerling Gresini Moto3’s Gabriel Rodrigo is inside the top five and needs more of the same, and a little bit more, tomorrow after being handed a six-place grid penalty after an incident in the race at Barcelona.

SKY Racing Team VR46’s Celestino Vietti was a quarter of a second away from the pace setter in sixth, ahead of CIP Green Power’s Darryn Binder and Honda Team Asia’s Kaito Toba. This morning’s fastest rider, Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia), did improve but slipped backwards to ninth place.

Winner last time out at the Catalan GP, Leopard Racing’s Marcos Ramirez, rounded out a top ten separated by just 0.534 of a second. Eleventh to fourteenth, and provisionally holding a Q2 spot, are Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing), Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai), John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) and Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race).

Therefore, outside of the top 14 ahead of the all-important FP3 session on Saturday morning is World Championship leader Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), who had a disastrous Assen afternoon. The Spaniard’s KTM machine broke down whilst exiting pitlane at the start of the session and then collided with Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alonso Lopez at Turn 4, causing the pair to crash out unhurt, in the closing stages of the session.

Top 10 combined: 
1. Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PrüstelGP) - 1:41.782
2. Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) + 0.098
3. Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) + 0.111
4. Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers) + 0.114
5. Gabriel Rodrigo (Kömmerling Gresini Moto3) + 0.197
6. Celestino Vietti (SKY Racing Team VR46) + 0.255
7. Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) + 0.276
8. Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) + 0.304
9. Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) + 0.352
10. Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) + 0.534

Click here for the full results!