Maverick Viñales continues strong form on day one at Assen

The first day of free practice session of the Assen GP was very positive for Team Calvo who achieved the second fastest time with their rider Maverick Viñales. The Catalan rider lead for most of the session in which he battled with his championship rivals.

Maverick maintained a great pace until it started raining four minutes from the end. Tomorrow’s forecast predicts rain which the team will use to work on the KTM’s wet setup.

Maverick’s team mate Ana Carrasco finished 26th but she’s much more content with this than on previous occasions because she liked the circuit from the first moment on. Tomorrow, both riders will attempt to secure the best possible grid position for Saturday’s race.

#25 Maverick Viñales – 1.44.038 – 2nd place / @maverickmack25
We’ve been trying many things and improved things a lot compared to Montmeló. The setting is much better and we can keep our pace and therefore I’m happy. As always we’ve been working towards the race setup and at the moment everything’s going well. We’ll see what the weather does, but in case it’s wet tomorrow we’ve got the dry setup pretty much spot on. If it rains we’ll go out and ride as much as we can to also prepare a wet setup in case in rains on Saturday.

#22 Ana Carrasco – 1.46.089 – 26th place / @AnaCarrasco_22
I like the circuit a lot, it’s probably my favourite so far and that’s very positive. This morning we started straight away with good work and in the afternoon we improved by almost a second, and every time the bike is better and better. I feel very comfortable, these lap times come easy to me and I believe I can have a good race here. If it rains tomorrow, we’ll have to start from scratch, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m told the grip on track is very good in the rain, but it’ll be the same for everyone.

Pablo Nieto (Team Director) / @pablonieto22
It’s been a very positive day because being in the top three is always important. I’m happy because Maverick has a good pace and we’ve been working very well towards the race setup. At the end of today’s session it rained and they say that it could rain tomorrow, therefore it’s been important to get a good dry setup. Ana has made a step forward, she likes the circuit, and if she doesn’t have problems or makes any mistakes, I believe we could see her a lot further up the ranking.

Source : Team Calvo