Still work to do for Simon after first day at Assen

The Moto2 World Championship riders were back on board their machines at Assen today, just four days after hopping off them at Silverstone, as the sixth round of the 2010 season got underway in warm Dutch sunshine. Unlike past rounds today’s practice saw a noticeable gap between the top riders and the rest of the pack, with Andrea Iannone and Toni Elías fighting it out for the fastest time and lapping six tenths clear of the third fastest rider.

Each circuit represents a new challenge in the inaugural season of Moto2 racing and the Mapfre Aspar Team riders struggled to get to grips with Assen, finding their way forward only at the end of the opening session. Julián Simón and Mike Di Meglio both struggled to find the correct gearbox setting for their Suter machines, the Spaniard finally clocking his best time on the penultimate of 22 laps.

14th Julián Simón 1.40.626 (22 laps): “Today was a tough day – it is hard to accept but there will be days like this, when we are further back than we would like. I ran into a lot of traffic today and couldn’t get into a rhythm. The main problem was the gearbox and we still don’t have the right setting to get the best out of the engine. The rear suspension setting wasn’t perfect either and it was sliding around under acceleration. We’ll do all we can to improve the situation tomorrow, with the main objective to be on the front two rows at the very least. The most positive thing is that we got a lot of information that will help us to improve tomorrow and if we can sort the gearbox and rear suspension as we plan then we should be up with the frontrunners.”

Source: Team Aspar