Slick tyre compounds available:
Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Soft, Medium
Using medium compound front and rear
Bridgestone slicks, LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet snatched the top spot for the
first time this year in the closing minutes of the hour-long free practice session.
The Frenchman finished just 0.005
seconds ahead of Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (using the medium compound slicks)
in the closest gap of the season, equal to that between Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo
during qualifying for the French GP.
Also using the medium compound Bridgestone
slicks, Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner was third, just 0.035 seconds adrift of de
Puniet. The top eleven riders were split by fewer than 0.7 seconds.
The weather for free practice, held
on Thursday in Assen rather than the normal Friday slot, remained dry and
sunny, giving the teams the opportunity to conduct valuable running on
Bridgestone’s soft and medium compound slicks in consistent track conditions.
By the end of the session, the
medium compound Bridgestone slicks were favoured for their increased stability.
Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager
Motorcycle Race Tyre
Development
“We had the chance to gather more good
data from our soft and medium compound slicks today in conditions that were
consistent and at a more normal temperature than we experienced in Catalunya. During
the session we saw riders using both tyre options and both worked well in these
conditions showing a good overlap of each tyre’s operating range. The stability
given by the medium compound slicks is better which is why they were preferred in
these conditions at this track.
“Assen is a flowing circuit which is
why the temperature of the shoulder area of the tyres is quite high on both the
fronts and rears. Almost all the corners here are high-speed and riders enter
them trailing the brakes, especially the front, which loads the front of the
bike more and is the reason that the front tyre shoulder temperatures are
higher. However even in these conditions I am happy with the consistency of
both compounds.”
“Assen is a flowing circuit which is
why the temperature of the shoulder area of the tyres is quite high on both the
fronts and rears"