It was a positive first day of the Dutch TT for Team San Carlo Honda Gresini, with Alvaro Bautista continuing his good recent form in free practice at Assen and Michele Pirro able to close the gap to the top CRT riders Espargarò and De Puniet. The Spaniard and the Italian were fourth and fourteenth fastest overall, with qualifying due to take place tomorrow and the race on Saturday.
Alvaro Bautista ( 4th 1’ 35” 008 ) "It has been a positive first day, which was important for me because this is my first time here with this bike and I don't have great memories of this track in MotoGP. It was like riding a completely new circuit for me this morning and we also had a setting in the bike that I didn't like so much, so in the afternoon we went back a step with the setting and tried the harder tyre. We had to work on the bike a little bit because it was moving around in corner exit and we also made some improvements to the handling. We have work to do but I am happy with the start we made today."
Michele Pirro (14th 1’ 37” 057) "Today provided further confirmation of the progress we are making every time we go on the track and now we are very close to being able to show our full potential. As always I have great faith in the team and they are helping me find those few tenths to join the fight with Espargarò and De Puniet. We are getting closer and I am sure we'll be there soon."
Fausto Gresini "The first day was proof positive that Alvaro has a great feeling with the bike. We took a major step forward in the Barcelona test that was confirmed with the performance at Silverstone and today was another example. Alvaro is fast and consistent now and the determination he is showing, along with the guys in the team, is a source of great satisfaction for me. When things are working like this it makes life much easier. I am also very happy with Michele's result today. He continues to outdo our expectations, riding well and giving great feedback to the engineers, which galvanises the whole team. We are getting close to the top CRT, which proves that our project is developing in the correct way."
Honda Gresini Press Release
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