Florian Alt (Honda) is planning ‘special’ tuning for his next race at Assen

The search for that all-important rear-wheel grip has always proved difficult for Team HRP and its rider Florian Alt on the Dutch GP circuit. This year was no exception. After Friday’s hot conditions – which Honda favoured – temperatures began to drop, and Alt got stuck in Superpole 1, which left him with a fourth-row starting position and a stressful race day ahead.

However, he took his starting position in his stride, and Jens Holzhauer had tweaked the set-up once more ahead of the warm-up. “It’s improved, but it’s not quite right yet,” was the rider’s verdict. “Let’s see if I can even see the lights – we’ve never been that far back before. But that’s part of the game, and we’ll just have to fight our way through now.” His view of the lights wasn’t too bad after all, and Alt settled into seventh place in Race 1 following the initial scramble. Towards the end of the race, he overtook Toni Finsterbusch, who had braked late, and crossed the line in sixth.

Things got even more heated in the second race when, after the start, Alt found himself right in the middle of the GERT56 trio comprising Finsterbusch, Jan-Ole Jähnig and former World Championship rider Marcel Schrötter. At Oschersleben, the GERT56 team had lodged a protest against the rebuild of the Honda – which had become necessary following a mass crash – carried out, according to team boss Jens Holzhauer, under the supervision and with the approval of the stewards. The protest was upheld, meaning Alt had to relinquish the points for his podium finish. The case has not yet been finally decided.

Alt took the opportunity to show his appreciation with a few impressive overtaking manoeuvres and battled primarily with Schrötter for fourth place. It didn’t stop at just one attack, and the voices of live-stream commentators Lukas Gajewski and Tommi Deitenbach rose by a few decibels on more than one occasion. In the end, Alt took fourth place home with him.

A visit to the chip shop in the paddock is planned

“Assen is always one of the trickier circuits for us, and this weekend was definitely the toughest of the season,” he said, summing up his trip to the Netherlands. “On top of that, we had our worst qualifying session in recent years, finishing 10th. We spent the whole weekend searching for grip and, to be honest, couldn’t understand why we had so little of it. We managed to take a small step forward in the first race. In the second race, there was finally a bit more grip on the inside of the corners, which allowed me to finish in fourth place. It’s not the result we want, but after a weekend like that, that’s just the way it is.”

Much like Assen, the upcoming Euro Moto race at the Nürburgring will also be a challenge for Alt in terms of grip. Yet he’s already thinking about his next outing at Assen. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures, and some extra tuning is in the pipeline. “Maybe I’ll have to eat a Frikandel Spezial at Assen next time, for maximum grip on the rear wheel,” he said with a wink.