Aron Canet showed signs of improvement on Saturday as he placed 13th at the end of Friday Practice, ensuring an automatic place in Saturday’s Q2, while Deniz Öncü was 16th. 

The historic TT Circuit Assen was bathed in sunshine throughout Friday with ambient temperatures a punishing 34 degrees during the afternoon Practice session.

Practice was stopped after Luca Lunetta’s crash at Turn 7 and the marshals had to retrieve his bike. After a short delay, the remaining 29 minutes were run as normal.

After a sweltering Friday, Saturday will offer up FP2 to both Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders at 9:25 local time before qualifying gets underway at 13:40.

Aron Canet, 13th – 1’36.473 

Having had four days to reset after Brno, Aron immediately looked more competitive at Assen. The Spaniard was sat in the top ten for most of FP1 before finishing eleventh.

It was a similar situation in Practice. The Spaniard was sat in seventh place with 15 minutes remaining.

It was a highly competitive session in which one second covered the top 22 riders. Despite finishing just 0.3s off pace setter David Alonso, Aron was pushed back to 13th.

“We’re not so far from the top” 

Aron’s comments:

“It was a good day. Our performance last weekend wasn’t what anyone wanted. So, it was nice to see my name further up the order for a lot of today. The times are incredibly close so we’re not so far from the top. We need to improve for tomorrow but we’ve done a big step forward compared to the last race.” 

Deniz Öncü, 16th – 1’36.668 

Deniz started the day in solid fashion, setting the 18th quickest time in FP1, just over one second of the fastest time.

The Turkish rider showed plenty of consistency during Practice before and after the red flag, posting seven laps in the 1’37s.

The 22-year was able to lower his lap time considerably in the closing minutes as he jumped to 16th with his first 1’36s lap of the day.

“The position today isn’t good but the gap to the front really isn’t so much” 

Deniz’s comments:

“We finished the first day here in Assen. It was very difficult with the hot track conditions, especially as it was very hot. I just have to keep my head down and keep working. The position today isn’t good but the gap to the front really isn’t so much. I’m really angry at myself as today was an opportunity to show my talent as it was so hot and I’m usually good in these conditions. But anyway, let’s keep going. I’ll never give up and I’m confident we’ll start showing some good speed soon.”