The winners were Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), respectively. The numbers were crunched over at the GPOne website, where a number of interesting comparisons were made. It turns out that Rea’s pace was, on average, roughly two seconds per lap slower than the pace of Quartararo, for example. The gap was closer (roughly 1.5 seconds) before the Pirelli tires under Rea predictably deteriorated near the end of the race.
Running that same pace, Rea would not have finished last in the MotoGP race, as his pace would have put him more than 10 seconds ahead of the last finisher in the Assen MotoGP, Luca Marini (Ducati).
Another interesting comparison presented itself when WSB rider Garrett Gerloff raced in both the Assen MotoGP event (aboard a Yamaha M1) and the WSB Assen race (aboard his regular bike, a modified Yamaha R1). Gerloff substituted for the injured Franco Morbidelli in the MotoGP event, and then immediately returned to Assen to race in his regular WSB role. GPOne found that Gerloff’s pace was close to identical aboard both bikes. Of course, Gerloff was far more familiar with his regular ride, the WSB R1.
So here is MD’s take on this. Riding their respective series-legal bikes, the fastest guy in WSB is roughly 1.5 seconds per lap slower at Assen (on fresh tires) than the fastest guy in MotoGP. Not that much, really (for reference, the MotoGP lap record at Assen is roughly 1:33). It begs the question of how fast Jonathan Rea would be on a MotoGP bike. Interestingly enough, Rea is rumored to be considering a move to MotoGP next year with the Petronas Yamaha team. Stay tuned on that one.
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