For this round the team undertook the long sea crossing between Harwich and Holland before driving onto the circuit at Assen. With the journey over, we were able to unpack and rest for Thursday before the main practice day and meeting started. It was great to be at such a historic track and to experience an international GP track outside of the UK.
Thomas started the weekend with free practise on Friday morning; taking time to learn the track as this was the first time Thomas had ever ridden at Assen. The day was bright and dry with near perfect conditions and Thomas made the most of the session completing 16 laps and finishing in ninth position. He felt really confident and knew he could improve on his position in qualifying.
Qualifying took place later the same day and as expected Thomas made significant improvement in his own lap time, finishing in 6th position for the first race.
Saturday started wet and overcast but as the day went on the track dried out. 40 minutes before the race started a rain cloud moved over the circuit and the team made a quick change over to the wet settings. Thomas headed out and lined up onto the grid, the decision was made to stay on the wet setup as in places it was still too wet, but he knew that by the end it would start to dry. Thomas got an impressive start into the first corner but on the brakes lost grip and was pushed back into 6th place. The rest of the lap went well and Thomas found his rhythm moving quickly through the pack and into 4th place. On the first few laps he struggled with the setup due to the limited practise in those conditions, but pushed hard for the rest of the race and was able to make up time on every lap; unfortunately the chequered flag beat him before he could make up any further positions! The team was very happy with this result for race one and Thomas’ last 3 laps where the fastest he had done during the race which meant he would start 3rd on the grid for race two.
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