TT Assen

MotoGP 2017 Round 8

Marquez and Pedrosa ready for Assen, round 8 of one of the closest Championships ever

The Repsol Honda Team is ready to return to action for two back-to-back races, the TT Assen on 25 June and the German GP on 2 July, which will be followed by a four-week summer break.

Approaching the TT Assen, the World Championship standings see Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in third and fourth places, respectively, just 23 and 27 points off the leader Maverick Viñales. With Andrea Dovizioso second at -7 from the lead and fifth-place Valentino Rossi at -28, this is the closest top-five spread, after seven races, since current points system was introduced in 1993.

Both Repsol Honda riders have good memories from Assen, with Dani having taken his first Grand Prix win (2002 – 125cc) and Marc having celebrated victories in all classes.

At the TT Assen:

Marc Marquez has 4 wins, 1×125 (2010), 2xMoto2 (2011 and 2012) and 1xMotoGP (2014), plus an additional 3 podiums and 2 pole positions.

Dani Pedrosa has 1 win, 1×125 (2002), plus an additional 7 podiums and 2 pole positions.

Marc and Dani stood together on the Assen podium in 2014 (Marc 1st and Dani 3rd).

Marc Marquez 93

“We’re coming off a positive race and a promising day of testing in Catalunya, so we’re looking forward to getting back on the bike and to continuing on the same level in the next race. I like Assen. We’ve had some exciting races there, and many good memories. Of course the weather is always unpredictable and makes things change very quickly, so we must be ready to adapt as we did in 2014 and last year. That, coupled with the fact that every race this season also seems quite unpredictable, means we’ll have to keep totally focused and work particularly hard beginning Friday morning to find a good setup for our bike and tyres, with the target of fighting for the podium in the race.”

Dani Pedrosa 26

“This weekend we head to the Dutch TT fresh from a podium in Catalunya. This is a race which usually requires great concentration in order to be prepared and deal with every situation the weekend may throw at us! You never know how much dry-track time you’ll get there and having to try several tyres during the weekend you must fully exploit every session. It’s a fast track that I like and we’ll push from Friday morning ready to make our best to be able to fight again at the front on Sunday”.