Dutch rumours that Assen is planning to host F1 in the future brought forth a negative response from most of the riders at the pre-race conference – mainly because of the way the cars create rippling bumps in the braking areas.

But there was also some sentiment involved, for ten-times Assen winner Valentino Rossi.

“I hope they don’t come,” he said.

“F1 has a lot of tracks just for cars. Here at Assen in history it has been just for bikes. So the bumps would be bad, but also for the historic side.”

Rossi, Dutch MotoGP 2018

Jorge Lorenzo was worried about what modifications would be required to make the fast corners safe for the cars. There would need to be chicanes, and barriers, where “here there is green outside the track”.

MotoGP was fresh from Catalunya, where not only a full resurface but also the elimination of the F1 chicane had been a welcome restoration of the rhythm of the track – but where Marquez pointed out that as a result of testing “there are already some bumps coming back”.

Track, Assen WSBK 2018