Following a Friday of mixed conditions, the sun was back above the legendary TT Circuit in Assen for Saturday’s action at the Dutch Grand Prix. Although temperatures were dropping again just shortly before Qualifying in the afternoon, the track stayed dry and offered perfect conditions today.
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s Andrea Dovizioso started with some better feelings into this weekend, having found slight improvements recently. In this morning’s FP3, the Italian managed to go 1.304 seconds quicker than on Friday and could even go a step ahead in Qualifying, where he cut off further 0.337 seconds. He eventually landed in seventh position in Q1, missing out on Q2 by just 0.459 seconds and will begin tomorrow’s 11th race of 2022 from the sixth row on the grid.
Meanwhile, Darryn Binder still needs to adapt to one of his favorite circuits aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine. The MotoGP rookie basically lost FP1, which was taking place in full wet conditions and could just start to work on his sensations in the dry at the end of FP2 yesterday. Yet he improved his lap time by 0.614 seconds this morning compared to Friday and in Qualifying, broke even the 1:34 mark, going nearly another second faster than in FP3. He’ll still have to catch up from the end of the field tomorrow when the red lights go out at 14:00 local time, but was already getting closer and closer to the front runners.
