“After the two days of training, I went into the race today with the conviction that I wouldn’t be able to do much,” stated Stefan Bradl after 13th place at the Dutch TT in Assen. «But at least I brought home three points; I’m also happy for the LCR team. But we don’t have a single strong point on our bike at the moment. In addition, I tried three different chassis and an impressive number of different components here over three days. That didn’t allow me to build up a feeling, and you shouldn’t be surprised if you get a bit confused during this non-stop testing on a GP weekend. »
An eight-time world champion like Marc Márquez is not immune to such feelings, who in the last five days of the GP with his Honda RC213V caused seven crashes due to the hopeless technical confusion and therefore had to forego participation in the race twice on Sunday.
“I also have to say that overall my feeling for the tires was non-existent,” sighed the 33-year-old Bavarian. “I never got the necessary trust here in the three days, that was strange. There was no point where I could feel where the limit was with these tire compounds. Normally you can drive with 95 or 97 percent risk, but I got stuck here at about 75 percent. I rolled around more than I drove fast, it was more like ‘riding’ than ‘racing’.”
Some drivers complained that Michelin didn’t seem to have expected temperatures of 28 and 29 degrees when the Frazosen chose the tire allocation for Assen. «Yes, yes, I see it the same way. That was also a huge problem for us at Honda. Taka Nakagami was the only Honda rider to take the medium tire with only Folger. But this medium hasn’t been the same medium mix as it used to be for a few months now. Something has changed with this compound; I crashed with it on Saturday in FP3. This allocation is not good for us.”
“We’re just not making the progress we need. We need something serious if we want to catch up again,” Bradl said. “Now we have a five-week GP break. We’ll see what that happens. The only positive thing today was that I started quite well and made up a few positions on the first lap. I came back from the first lap in 16th place. That was fine. But then I was only fodder for the pursuers; they swallowed me one by one. All I could do was drive on and come to terms with the situation. I knew I had to keep calm and accept this situation as it is. It’s not easy for a racing driver from the mental side.”
MotoGP results, Assen (25 June):
1. Bagnaia, Ducati, 26 laps in 40:37.640 min
2. Bezzecchi, Ducati, + 1.223 sec
3. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, +1,925
4. Brad Binder*, KTM, +1.528
5. Martin, Ducati, +1,934
6. Alex Marquez, Ducati, +12.437
7. Marini, Ducati, +14.174
8. Nakagami, Honda, +14,616
9. Morbidelli, Yamaha, +29.335
10. Augusto Fernández, KTM, +33.763
11. Savadori, Aprilia, +35.084
12. Raul Fernandez, Aprilia, +39.622
13. Bradl, Honda, +42.504
14. Follower, KTM, +45.609
– Di Giannantonio, Ducati, 8 laps down
– Lecuona, Honda, 12 laps down
– Oliveira, Aprilia, 14 laps behind
– Bastianini, Ducati, 20 laps behind
– Viñales, Aprilia, 23 laps behind
– Quartararo, Yamaha, 24 laps down
– Zarco, Ducati, 24 laps behind
– Miller, KTM, 25 laps back
*= one place back (“track limits” offence)
Results MotoGP Sprint Assen (24 June):
1. Bezzecchi, Ducati, 13 laps in 20:09.174 min
2. Bagnaia, Ducati, +1.294s
3. Quartararo, Yamaha, +1.872
4. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, +2.245
5. Brad Binder*, KTM, +4.582
6. Martin, Ducati, +5.036
7. Vinales, Aprilia, +5.876
8. Bastianini, Ducati, +10.102
9. Alex Marquez, Ducati, +10.525
10.Marini**, Ducati, +10.556
11. Miller, KTM, +11.191
12. Nakagami, Honda, +11,473
13. Zarco, Ducati, +15.439
14. Augusto Fernandez, KTM, +17.754
15. Morbidelli, Yamaha, +19.508
16. Savadori, Aprilia, +19,664
17. Marc Marquez, Honda, +19.916
18. Raul Fernandez, Aprilia, +20.583
19. Oliveira, Aprilia, +24.269
20. Lecuona, Honda, +24.727
21. Follower, KTM, +32.056
22. Bradl, Honda, +35.372
– Di Giannantonio, Ducati, 10 laps behind
*= got 3 sec penalty
**= got 0.5 sec penalty
Championship status after 16 of 40 races:
1. Bagnaia, 194 points. 2 Martin 159 3 Bezzecchi 158 4 Binder 114 5 Zarco 109 6 Marini 98 7 Miller 79 8 Aleix Espargaró 77 9 Quartararo 64 10 Alex Marquez 63 11 Morbidelli 57 12 Viñales 56 13 Rins 47 14 Augusto Fernández 42 15 Nakagami 34 16 Di Giannantonio 34 17 Oliveira 27 18 Bastianini 18 19 Marc Marquez 15 20 Pedrosa 13 21 Savadori 9 22 Folger 9 23 Raúl Fernández 8 24 Pirro 5 25 Petrucci 5 26 Mir 5 27 Bradl 5
Constructors’ Championship:
1. Ducati, 285 points. 2. KTM 153. 3. Aprilia 121. 4. Honda 89. 5. Yamaha 82.
Team World Cup:
1. Prima Pramac Racing, 268 points. 2. Mooney VR46 Racing 256. 3. Ducati Lenovo Team 222. 4. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 193. 5. Aprilia Racing 133. 6. Monster Energy Yamaha 121. 7. Gresini Racing 97. 8. LCR Honda 84. 9. GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 51 10 CryptoDATA RNF 39 11 Repsol Honda 20