Michael Scott | June 30, 2018
2018 Assen MotoGP Saturday News
Moto3 Riders Hit with Penalties
Five Moto3 riders were hit with overnight penalties after yesterday’s FP2, in the continuing attempt to stop riders dawdling in practice and qualifying, hoping to pick up a tow.
A rider earns the sanction by being slow in three (not necessarily consecutive) sectors; and ramped up penalties are 12 grid places for a first offence, and the back of the grid for a second.
Adam Norrodin earned the maximum; and his Petronas team-mate Ayumu Sasaki the lesser one, earning the opprobrium of team chief Johan Stigefelt, since waiting for a faster rider is a particularly pointless exercise in free practice.
The others to be dropped 12 places were veteran Jakub Kornfeil, Kaito Toba and rookie Dennis Foggia.
Heavy Crashes at Assen
Part of the legendary status of the classic Dutch circuit, loved by riders and fans alike, is because it has sharp teeth. It showed them to at least two riders over an unusually sunny TT weekend.
In MotoGP, Moto2 champion Franco Morbidelli was ruled out for the rest of the weekend after a heavy crash at the end of the back straight in FP3.
Travelling at speed in the fourth-gear Turn 7 when he lost the front, the Italian Rossi protégé went tumbling end over end, stopping only just short of the barrier. Considering the potential, he was somewhat lucky to escape with only one fracture. But it was an injury that could prove problematic: a fracture in the third metacarpal in his left hand, and could cast a shadow over the German GP in two weeks, before the summer break.
His patron Valentino Rossi tested his luck at the same corner in FP4, but once again came out on the winning side. Not only did the rider slide harmlessly to a stop in the gravel, but so too did his factory Yamaha, rather than flipping to destruction.
On Friday, Moto2 rider Tetsuta Nagashima (Idemitsu Kalex) was also ruled out, after badly gashing a finger in a crash at the fast Ramshoek corner at the end of the lap.
New Forks for Vinales
Small things can make a big difference when the racing is so close: and the latest change that Yamaha hope will bring Maverick Vinales’s season back on track is a change of front forks.
The troubled rider has switched to the carbon-fibre Ohlins front forks that the rest of the factory riders adopted last year.
According to Yamaha’s Massimo Meregali, “he didn’t like them when he tested them last year, and because we had other problems this year we didn’t want to make any other changes while we worked on them”.
The main difference for the forks is in saving some steered weight, making direction changes marginally easier.
Triumph’s Moto2 Engine Produces Promising Results
Moto2’s 2019 engine change from Honda to Triumph got off to a promising start in tests at Aragon before the Assen GP, with reports of already competitive times at an early stage of development.
The main testing duties fell to ex-riders Alex de Angelis, Ricky Cardus and Jonas Folger, respectively exercising NTS, Kalex and KTM chassis.
Hopes are high that the engine shift will raise the mechanical standard in the Cinderella class. With 675cc against the Honda’s 600, and using three cylinders against four, torque will be higher, and the overall engine width narrower.
As importantly, the revised engines will at last have adjustable electronics, to improve Moto2’s status as a training ground for MotoGP.
Redding could Transition to Aprilia Test Tider
Plans at Aprilia to upgrade the factory’s testing team next year could prove a lifeline for current rider Scott Redding, set to lose the ride next year when Andrea Iannone comes in alongside current top rider Aleix Espargaro.
Speaking to Dorna, team boss Romano Albesiano described how the current test team was concentrating on proving durability and race-readiness of components.
“We are thinking of something more for next year,” he said.