Assen MotoGP heat “nothing crazy”: ‘With 20C less, the problems are the same’

Luca Marini thinks the European heatwave had little effect on MotoGP at Assen on Friday, when ambient temperatures were in the mid-30s in the afternoon.

Conditions were certainly hot for MotoGP on Friday, certainly by the standards of Assen, with the ambient temperature at 35C in Practice, and track temperature pushing up towards 50C.

But Luca Marini thinks the heat had little effect on the track conditions, despite a high number of crashes in the second session, including one for Alex Marquez that brought out the red flags and one for Fermin Aldeguer that sent the 2025 Indonesia winner to hospital.

“Not so much, not so much,” Marini said when asked if the heat was affecting grip levels at the normally mild Assen.

“I think the heat is nothing crazy, sincerely.”

Marini was then asked if the ambient heat was affecting the bikes or the riders, but he again said no, saying that even with much less ambient temperature the feeling on the bike would be similar.

“Nothing, zero,” Marini said. “For me, even if it is 20C less, the problems are a little bit the same while we are riding. 

“So, I think the tyres are working well, even in this hot temperature, but also the [asphalt] is just that we are on the limit, and because the gap is so tight, so we are pushing so much, so hard, and it's easy to crash, because we are always going beyond our limits.”

If there was a problem with conditions on Friday it was with the surface of the track, which Marini said has a few bumps that could be improved in the future, but the Honda HRC rider was fairly casual about that as well.

“For me, the track is in a good condition, maybe there are some bumps that they can fix for the future, but everything is normal,” he said.

“I think it's just that we are going to our limit, everybody is in a good shape in this period of the season, so we are pushing.”

He added: “There is one [bump] that is a little bit not nice in turn seven.

“On the inside kerb in seven, going there, you want to lean and touch the elbow, but if you do this, you take the bump and lose the front, and it's easy to go out like [Moto2 rider] Lunetta did, that he lost the front and he was staying there trying to save it. 

“But you know that there is the bump there, so every time you make a little bit up one degree the bike, down again – okay, part of the circuit.”

Finding grip: “This morning I was struggling a lot”

Marini’s own day was one of progression, in his opinion, even if he found himself down in 18th at the end of Practice, having improved his rear grip from FP1 to Practice.

The Italian wants to improve high speed stability for Saturday, though.

“This morning I was struggling a lot with the rear grip, while this afternoon, no, so nice,” he explained.

“We will try something to improve the stability for tomorrow morning, but because in the fast sector – [turn] six and seven but especially last sector – is missing a little bit of stability and missing some corner speed, in my opinion.

“Because of the stability, [...] we cannot lean aggressively because the bike is still moving and we need to wait a little bit more compared to our opponents.”