With the bike set up perfectly on race tyres, and Pitt running in the top five, the rear end chatter problems only materialised when the reigning World Champion switched to the softer compound rear tyre necessary for a flying qualifying lap.

'I just can't go any faster at the moment,' said a dejected Pitt. 'the race tyre feels great, but for some reason the softer compound rear seems to throw the whole set-up of the bike out, resulting in a lot of rear end chatter through the turns. Although I lose out a little on acceleration, one of the areas in which the ZX-6R is strongest is in the corners; but the chatter problem meant that I wasn't able to use that advantage this afternoon. Obviously I'm disappointed with my qualifying position, but we'll be taking a close look at the data downloaded from the bike this evening and, hopefully, we'll be able to come up with a solution to the problem before tomorrow's final qualifying session.'

James Ellison arrived at Assen full of confidence after his ninth place finish at Oschersleben a week ago. The 20-year-old reigning European Superstock Champion ended the opening qualifying session in 21st place, but is confident of improving on this position tomorrow.

'That was a good session for us,' said Ellison. 'I like the Assen circuit, but I think I was trying too hard this morning, as I managed to lap two seconds quicker once I'd started to relax a bit this afternoon. Conditions are pretty windy, especially out at the back of the circuit, which is making braking for the turns difficult; sometimes the wind is really strong and you arrive at the corner going too slow, and sometimes it's virtually non-existent and it's tough to get the bike stopped in time.'

'I'm pretty happy with the way the bike works around here. We've raised the ride height slightly since Oschersleben and that's definitely made a big difference to the way it changes direction and holds a line through the turns. After testing a number of rear tyres today, I just need to get my head down tomorrow and see what I can do about moving myself a bit nearer to the front of the grid,' he added.