Fermin Aldeguer took pole position for the Moto2 race at the Motul TT Assen with a new outright lap record. Aldeguer headed home a Boscoscuro 1-2-3, with Ai Ogura and Sergio Garcia completing the front row.
More, from a press release issued by Pirelli:
With Pirelli the Moto2™ and Moto3™ riders set new records in Assen as well
Pole position and all-time lap record for Aldeguer in Moto2™, Piqueras fastest in Moto3™ qualifiers but the lap record goes to hometown hero Veijer
In the qualifiers for the Dutch GP which is raced this weekend at the TT Assen Circuit, Fermín Aldeguer (Folladore SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) in Moto2™ and Ángel Piqueras (Leopard Racing/Honda) in Moto3™ took pole position, so they’ll be starting from the first spot on the grid for their respective races tomorrow.
In Moto2™, Spaniard Fermín Aldeguer took pole position as well as setting the new track record with a time of 1’35.269. Right behind him were team MT Helmets-MSI teammates, Japanese rider Ai Ogura and Spaniard Sergio Garcia.
In Moto3™, Piqueras snatched pole position in the finale of the qualifying session, whereas hometown hero Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna) had to settle for third place after setting the new all-time lap record in the Practice 2 session on Saturday morning with a time of 1’39.703.
Outstanding performance by the tyres Pirelli chose for this GP, which are all standard and regularly sold to the general public on the market.
Giorgio Barbier
Motorcycle Racing Director
More lap records and once again with standard tyres
“Yet again, here in Assen, already on Friday, the riders set new track lap records with our tyres, only to improve today by almost a second and a half in Moto3™ and more than 7 tenths in Moto2™, so we’re talking about truly significant progress with asphalt temperatures around 50°C, so rather demanding conditions. These results take on even more significance if we consider that they were achieved with strictly standard tyres that any rider can purchase, so not prototypes intended only for a few riders. Among other things, this is not exactly a simple track either, because it is rather hard on the front tyres and this is the first time Pirelli is racing with these categories and in this period of the year, since we have always come here with the World Superbike Championship in April, with cooler temperatures. Therefore, the outcome of these first two days is undoubtedly positive. Tomorrow, the temperatures should be a bit lower than today, but that won’t influence tyre choice for the races. We expect the soft compounds to be the most popular for front and rear, with a possible prevalence of the medium SC2 just for the front in Moto3.”
Moto2™
· Fermín Aldeguer (Folladore SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) took pole position for the race tomorrow with a time of 1’35.269, a new all-time lap record. Already in the Practice 1 session Friday afternoon, the Spaniard had broken the all-time record set in 2023 by Ai Ogura using tyres in the soft SC0 compound at the rear and the soft SC1 compound at the front. Saturday morning in Practice 2, Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia/Kalex) further improved on Aldeguer’s record by 6 tenths, with a time of 1’35.341, later beaten in qualifying.
· In Practice 2, an astonishing 14 riders dropped below Ai Ogura’s 2023 track record, whereas in Q2, 9 riders did the same, in spite of asphalt temperatures around 50°C.
Moto3™
· Ángel Piqueras (Leopard Racing/Honda) took pole position in the finale of the qualifying session with a time of 1’39.746, just over the time of 1’39.703 and new all-time lap record set in Practice 2 on Saturday morning by hometown hero, Dutchman Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna), who will start from the third spot on the grid tomorrow, just behind Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia/Honda), second.
· Moto3™ was super-fast straight away from Friday morning, with Iván Ortolá (MT Helmets-MSI/KTM) already setting the new track record in free practice with a time of 1’40.610, breaking the 2023 record set by David Muñoz by more than half a second. Collin Veijer then improved it further, first in the afternoon Practice 1 session with a time of 1’40.259 and then in the Saturday morning Practice 2 session with a time of 1’39.703, a new all-time track record for the category.
· Overall, in Q2, an amazing 17 out of 18 riders dropped below the 2023 track record time, whereas in Practice 2 on Saturday morning, with asphalt temperatures below 25°C, an astonishing 20 riders did laps faster than the old record.
