World SuperBike 2001 - Round 12 - Assen

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) continued where he left off at Oschersleben with provisional pole for Sunday’s penultimate round of the World Superbike Championship at Assen, Netherlands.

Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) scored his first WSBK win in Germany just a few days ago, and the 23-year-old from Spain was brimming with confidence as he set a new unofficial lap record of 2’02.409 around the 6.049 km TT circuit, knocking half-a-second off Chili’s 2000 qualifying time. “The bike was really good, the tyres also”, declared Xaus. “We’re concentrating hard and the team is working well. I want to keep like that for the rest of the year and want to do the same as Oschersleben. After winning in Germany, I feel quite relaxed now. We did a lot of work on race set-up and I have already set good times on both qualifying and race tyres”.

Troy Corser - 2nd - "I'm pretty happy with today. It wasn't fun when the track was dry in some places and wet in others, but we had to get on with it in case it got worse. Fortunately the afternoon session was dry and we were able to get on and work towards a good set-up. The track has quite good grip in the wet, but when it's raining hard here, it's difficult to see where you are going, if you are behind anybody, because a lot of spray comes up. I'm hoping for a couple of dry race, bur we'll have to see what happens. My injuries are pretty much OK now. Most of the soreness is gone and I'm ready for a couple of good races on Sunday. Oschersleben was supposed to be the start of my full-on attack on the last three rounds, but the crash in qualifying ruined that idea. So, now I'll just have to concentrate on four podiums in the last four races."

Championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) was third quickest after struggling to find an adequate set-up for his 996R in the first part of the one-hour session, but eventually improved to finish provisional third for tomorrow’s final qualifying. The 32-year-old Australian’s time was 2’03.329, just a fraction of a second behind Troy Corser (Aprilia), with chief rival Colin Edwards (Honda) down in ninth. “We started off with last year’s settings and changed them round a bit”, said Bayliss, “but the bike felt a bit unstable for the first part of the session and maybe I wasn’t with it either. Unless you feel good on the bike, it’s hard to go fast. But then I managed to get things right, and set quite good times on both race and qualifying tyres.”

James Toseland - 4th - “Everything went really well today, the bike is superb and I’m enjoying the Assen circuit. This is the second-last round of the season and I’m just going to make the most of what’s to come. Hopefully, I can come away from this weekend with results to be proud of."

Neil Hodgson - 7th - "It’s a bit of a disappointment, but tomorrow’s another day. I still have another one-hour qualifying and then Superpole to make up ground. Tomorrow’s Superpole is going to be a special event for Ducati. So far they have secured 99 pole positions since the first championship event in 1988 and tomorrow could be number 100. I think it would be an honour to secure Ducatis one hundredth pole position."

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards was 9th quickest and happy with his progress on the opening day as the world champion concentrated his efforts on machine set-up.

Edwards explained: "Everyone threw the qualifying tyres in to guarantee a time in case it rains tomorrow but I was happy testing a few suspension settings while the track was dry. If it's wet tomorrow then at least I'm into Superpole and still in with a chance of getting pole position."

He continued: "We've made some progress today and in this morning's wet session we more or less got a lap time as good as any here last year in the wet so we have achieved something today. Who knows what weather Sunday will bring so it's a case of trying to be well prepared for anything."

Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M) was eleventh quickest with a time of 2’04.633. The American felt a bit sluggish in Friday qualifying but the 27-year-old Californian was confident he could improve on his showing in tomorrow’s second and final session. “It was the same as always, we usually don’t go well on Friday”, declared Bostrom. “The bike felt quite good but the rider woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! No real problems, we just need to get dialled in a bit more tomorrow”

Okada's 14th place came on the Japanese rider's first superbike ride at the Dutch track although he has won a 500cc grand prix here.

Okada said: "I wanted to take some time and concentrate on riding the superbike here and not thinking about how a 500 works around here. The rain this morning didn't really help that but we still gained from that wet session. This afternoon I was concentrating on a good feel from the machine with dry conditions in mind. If it is dry on Sunday then I want to be in good shape and in with a chance of a good result and of helping out Colin."