A great show at Assen saw 80.000 spectators going home happy – from the most fascinating track of the season.
This great weekend had good weather, despite the fears that we would not have when coming here. Good performances on the track started with Vermeulen’s Superpole on Saturday. Unlucky Regis couldn’t race and may not be present in Lausitz, due to an arm injury.

Race1
TRACK CONDITION Asciutto HUMIDITY 58%
TRACK TEMPERATURE 28° AIR TEMPERATURE 22°

Race one was won by Chris Vermeulen showing strong authority on his Honda Ten Kate machine, during a day that was proving to be a good one for them. JT and Haga tried to ruin Ten Kate’s plans but they couldn’t and had to be content with arriving on the podium ahead of the leader of the championship, Troy Corser, in some trouble here, although still leading the Championship.

Race 2
TRACK CONDITION Dry HUMIDITY 33%
TRACK TEMPERATURE 33° AIR TEMPERATURE 22°

A great show from the very beginning with many great overtakes and astounding action throughout: after the first lap the order was Haga, Pitt, Toseland, Kagayama, Vermeulen, Corser and Muggeridge, fighting and changing their positions in every corner.
A few laps later the three were showing they were faster than the others, so they went on fighting and inflaming the public until the very end. Chris beat Haga by only 0.085 seconds.

Happiness in the paddock: Haga is celebrating 100 races with Yamaha and his fifth podium in a row, Vermeulen a double on his team’s home track and taking 24 points out of Troy’s lead, Toseland is again on the podium after a bad Brands race weekend.
The championship once more proves to be fascinating and fought at a very high level. We can find the championship standing with four different bikes in the first four places (later Walker is 7th and here couldn’t race because of a fall in race one’s early stages)

The times achieved this weekend are also interesting: in comparison with last season the track has been changed and it’s slow. Despite this, Race 2 in ’05 was only 2 secs. slower than Race2 in ’04 and faster than Race 1 (05), even if it was warmer. As happened in Brno, this was a result of Pirelli improvements, specifically designed for high temperatures.

With three races still to go Charpentier is World Champion in Supersport. The French rider finished 2nd behind Foret, and has showed a good capacity, both for riding ability and maturity, keeping his mind on achieving the most important goal of all.
“I’m very happy for today and for the Championship,” said Pirelli Racing Manager, Giorgio Barbier. “The race was once more a good one and I think the result is right. Sebastien is definitely a good rider and with this season he has showed he achieved the right maturity as a Champion. He grew up in Honda teams (with two years on the Klaffi set-up) and was able to dominate the season with great authority.”

The Pirelli relationship with Ten Kate started before the control tyre era, way back in 2000, when Muggeridge gave us the first victory in Brands Hatch. Then we won in 2002 and 2003, while from 2004 Ten Kate is one of the development teams for the World Championship tyres (every manufacturer has its own and Ten Kate is Honda’s).”