A recent addition to Pol Espargaro’s Tech3 Yamaha is an exhaust in the style of the factory bikes. Rossi and Lorenzo have this style of oval grille, though the design of their Akrapovic unit is different from this Sakura version. Teammate Bradley Smith still had the old style pipe at Assen, shown below.

The silencer section of Smith’s bikes is a Sakura version of Akrapovic’s previous design, the pipe not being round like a circle, but something like a rounded triangle. It requires a different heat shield, and the end of the pipe extends beyond the cover several inches.

Looking at these pipes reminds me of something a mechanic told me years ago. The label on a given piece of equipment may have nothing to do with where the piece was created or who designed it. The decal is sometimes more of a marketing deal than a sign that a bike is using gear actually made by the company the logo indicates. Or so I was told.

Three time world champion. Second in premier class three times. Third in premier class three times. 25 MotoGP race victories. One of the nicest riders in the paddock, if you aren’t grilling him in a press conference or TV interview. But if it weren’t for bad luck, he’d have no luck at all.

In Qualifying Practice 1, Aleix Espargaro gambled that his time would hold up with nearly five minutes to go in the session. As the clock ticked down, he had second thoughts and put the helmet and gloves back on to return to the track. But by the time he was ready to go, there was not engouh time for an out lap before the checkered flag dropped on the session. Lucky for him, he did move on to QP2 and ended up second only to Valentino Rossi.

With a 3 year contract directly with Honda, the almost Moto3 champ who skipped Moto2 has, in theory, plenty of time to mature and adjust to the big bike. But some in the paddock were expecting more than Miller has delivered this season. He went into Saturday hoping for a good result.

With Honda’s seamless gearbox not needing the clutch for up or down shifts, starting the engine and starting a race are about the only times the clutch lever is actually used.

For our fourth look at Assen, race day images.

Photographs: ©2015 by Scott Jones / PHOTO.GP – All Rights Reserved

[mgallery keyword=”Assen”]