Octagon

Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) and his 29 Supersport colleagues found their path to progress on the second day halted by a wet and changeable track surface, and thus his Friday best of 2:05.736 moves from provisional pole to actual pole time. Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) give the Dutch team a dream 1-2 on the grid, with Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) third, despite experiencing a big crash in the morning of the second day.

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha Belgarda R6) was a crowd pleasing fourth on combined times; the Alstare Suzuki duo of Katsuaki Fujiwara and Stephane Chambon in fifth and sixth place respectively. A good weekend for the Dutch so far sees Barry Veneman (Esha Kobutex Honda TKR) seventh and Ten Kate powered Honda van Zon rider Iain Macpherson (a former Assen race winner) in eighth. The top Kawasaki qualifier proved to be Pere Riba, in 14th.

Karl Muggeridge

CBR rider Karl Muggeridge will start tomorrows 16 lap race from second place on the front row here at the Assen TT circuit in Holland.

Due to today’s wet weather conditions Muggas like everyone else wasn’t able to improve his yesterdays qualifying time but was the fastest man in the morning free practice and in this afternoon’s qualifying in wet and intermediate conditions and took 2’09.656 one second off second fastest Sebastien Charpentier.

Muggas comments: “The grip here in Assen is pretty good in the wet and it was a lot of fun out there. We’ve found some good settings for dry, wet and intermediate conditions and got the right tyre selections for all of them as well.

"It helped a bit that we had the chance to get some laps in here at the Endurance Race in July as well as at the Rizla Racing beginning of August. So we already had some sort of idea which direction to go to.

"We are definitely ready for tomorrow’s race, whatever conditions we will have, but it would be nice for everybody if it is going to be a dry day, to make the racing more exciting.”

Honda took one, two and three for tomorrow’s grid, with championship leader Chris Vermeulen in pole position, Muggas in second and Charpentier in third. Dutch man Van De Goorbergh completes the front row at his home event.

Suzuki

The bad weather at Assen today meant there were no changes at the top of the leaderboard, so the grid positions were the same as yesterday. So, Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Katsuaki Fujiwara and Stephane Chambon will start tomorrow's 16-lapper from the second row of the grid in fifth and sixth places respectively. Although conditions improved in the afternoon, the track was still wet enough to prevent any rider improving their lap times and so most teams used the tow sessions today to try and find a good set-up in case of a wet race tomorrow. Series leader Chris Vermeulen
(Honda) will start from pole position, with Karl Muggeridge (Honda), Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) and Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha) alongside on the front row.

KATSUAKI FUJIWARA - 5th, 2:06.932 - "Today was very difficult because of the conditions and it wasn't possible to go any quicker. The new section of the track is difficult in the dry and I had to take it easy there in the wet. I hope tomorrow will be dry so that I have a chance to push hard. Whatever happens it's going to be sixteen very hard laps."

STEPHANE CHAMBON - 6th, 2:07.131 - "Today was OK and I didn't have any major problems - just the weather which meant we couldn't improve our lap times. There is a bit too much movement on the bike for my liking at the moment despite us trying some different settings. I don't think our changes made much difference today. I would prefer a dry race tomorrow and I know I need to make a good start and stay in touch with the leaders. But it's not going to be easy and I think it'll be difficult to get a podium - though that will not stop me from trying my best!"

Kawasaki

After a dry first day of qualifying at Assen in Northern Holland the second and final qualifying period was held on wet but drying track conditions. In these circumstances none of the 30 rider field were able to improve on their times from the first day, and thus the official Kawasaki factory entries Pere Riba (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) and Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) will start Sunday's 16-lap race from 14th and 16th places respectively.

Unable to test at Assen prior to race weekend, the team spend day one working through chassis and engine set-ups for one of the longest and most demanding tracks in racing and were hoping for a second dry day to push towards the front row places.

However, the rain meant that most of the second and final 45-minute qualifying session had the Kawasaki Racing Team attempting to formulate a wet set-up in readiness for the possibility of more rain on raceday. Riba in particular worked his way through as many set-ups as he could but the nature of the changing track surface made the team's job a tough one.

"I wanted to try many different settings on the bike after yesterday, but today the track is wet and it was not possible," said Riba. "I worked on a wet set-up but the track conditions were changing all the time and that made it difficult. I hope that is dry and we will get the opportunity in warm-up to try out some of the changes for a dry track."

Foret also went through the frustration of being unable to improve his best dry time, and thus starts from an unusually low berth on the grid, making his task a difficult one on raceday. "I am starting from the fourth row so it may be better for me if it is wet again tomorrow," said Foret. "I only did a few laps this morning. I tested different wet tyres and I found one very good full wet. Tomorrow's race will be difficult because there is only one racing line around most of the track and it can be hard to pass."