Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) powered to the provisional pole at the end of the first day of action at Assen. The Texan, a total newcomer to the Dutch track, set an impressive time of 1 minute 38.747 seconds, four-tenths of a second away from last year’s record time of Bayliss in qualifying, but which was obtained on qualifying tyres. Spies was the only rider to dip under the 1’39 mark, but the session was a hard-fought affair as behind the Yamaha there were 15 riders in the space of 1 second.
Second time of the day went to Jakub Smrz (Ducati Guandalini), a fraction ahead of the four-cylinder machines of Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare) and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda). Fifth place went to Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), the first Italian in the standings, while a convincing Regis Laconi (Ducati DFX) and the other Suzuki Alstare machine of Max Neukirchner, together with Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) make up the provisional front row.
Troy Corser put in another positive performance on his BMW S1000 RR to take the eleventh quickest slot, one position in front of the championship leader Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), who lapped in a good race pace. Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike) crashed out towards the end of the session, while Assen proved to be an unfortunate circuit once again for John Hopkins (Stiggy Racing Honda), who crashed heavily in the morning’s free practice session. The American dislocated his left hip in the crash and will miss the race. Tomorrow a decision will be taken on any eventual further measures and how long he needs for recovery.
World Supersport
Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) was quickest off the mark in Supersport today. Following the disappointment of Valencia, the Spanish rider gave further confirmation of his prowess and progress in the Netherlands as he powered to a time of 1 minute 41.650 seconds in free practice. The only other rider close to Lascorz was Valencia winner Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport), two-tenths off the pole pace. The front row was completed by rapidly-improving Italian Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini) and Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda). Row 2 went to Australian Garry McCoy with the first Be1 Racing Triumph, with Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda), Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Dutch rider Barry Veneman (Hoegee Suzuki) alongside. 2008 champion and Assen race winner Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) could only manage the ninth quickest time.
Superstock 1000
The opening Superstock 1000 session was dominated by Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda). On his team’s home track, the Frenchman was immediately on the pace, setting a 1 minute 42.775 seconds at the start of the session, a time that never came under threat from his adversaries. Second-placed Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare) was exactly one second behind, with Dutchman Raymond Schouten (VD Heyden Motors Yamaha) 1.2″ away. The overnight front row was completed by Italian Davide Giugliano with an MV Agusta. Last year’s European Superstock 600 champion Loris Baz (MRS Racing Yamaha) looks to be getting into his stride with seventh quickest time, while Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox Junior Team) couldn’t go any higher than ninth place.
Superstock 600
Belgium’s Vincent Lonbois (MTM Racing Yamaha) set the fastest time of the day in 1 minute 45.039 seconds in the Superstock 600 free practice session. Yamaha totally dominated the day’s proceedings with eight YZF-R6 machines in the top 10 positions. Second place went to Valencia winner Danilo Petrucci, with Frenchman Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Racing Yamaha) and Britain’s Gino Rea (Ten Kate Honda) right behind. Dutch rider Joey Litjens (VD Heyden Motors Yamaha) gave the home crowd something to shout about with fifth quickest time ahead of Italy’s Marco Bussolotti (Yamaha Trasimeno).
— Ducati Report
The Ducati Xerox Team concluded the first day of the race weekend at the TT Circuit of Assen in warm, dry conditions. The two factory riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio completed the early afternoon free practice session among the fastest ten riders; Noriyuki did not experience any particular set-backs while Michel felt he was suffering from a lack of rear grip.
Later on, in the first qualifying session, nearly all of the Superbike riders were faster than they had been in the practice. Fabrizio continued to suffer from the same grip issues at the start but then found a solution on the latter part of the session that he felt more comfortable with, allowing him to register the fifth fastest time of the day. His team-mate Haga closed in twelfth position but remains positive ahead of tomorrow’s second qualifying. The fastest 16 riders today lapped in under 1m40 and all within a second of each other, with the exception of Spies who was the only man to duck under 1m39.
Michel Fabrizio 1m39.2s
“I am feeling fairly happy with today’s performance. I am losing a few tenths, all in the first split and that has to be resolved tomorrow. I think we’ve already identified a rear tyre solution for the race but we’re still unsure as to the front. I had some grip problems with the front today but towards the end of the qualifying the feeling I had with the bike began to improve so we hope that we can continue to make improvements tomorrow too.”
Noriyuki Haga 1m39.6s
“It’s been a fairly positive day and I’m feeling comfortable. The only real problem is that we have good rear traction that means we are consuming tyres too quickly. So tomorrow we need to find a way to increase the life of the tyres without losing grip. So although I wasn’t fastest today, the Race is Sunday and as far as I’m concerned, the sessions on Friday are for finding solutions for the race. Tomorrow I aim to qualify at the front of the grid.”
TIMES: Spies (Yamaha) 1m38.7s; 2. Smrz (Ducati) 1m39.0s; 3. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m39.1s; 4. Checa (Honda) 1m39.1s; 5. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m39.2s; 6. Laconi (Ducati) 1m39.2s….. 12. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m39.6s
— Ten Kate Report
Carlos Checa today put his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade on the provisional front row for Sunday’s two fourth round 2009 World Superbike Championship races at Assen in Holland.
America’s Ben Spies was fastest in today’s hour-long qualifying session, with Jakub Smrz and Yukio Kagayama joining him and Checa in the top four, while the 13 fastest riders were separated by just one second.
Checa’s team-mate, Jonathan Rea, was eighth fastest today, as the Dutch Ten Kate team continues to work hard for good results at its home round.
Carlos Checa – P4, 1’39.141s
We have tried to test many new things today, including a longer exhaust, which I felt quite a good connection with. We have ended up with two possible solutions and I am pretty happy with the race set-up with both. The tyres are working well and, although there is still a bit of chatter, it’s nothing like as bad as it was in Qatar and Valencia. I’m happy with my position at the moment and I am quite confident that we will be able to improve the feeling of the bike even more tomorrow.
Jonathan Rea – P8, 1’39.359s
I have to say that it’s been a really positive day. The guys have worked so hard since Valencia and we arrived here with the main issue fixed, so I really have to thank the team for putting in such an effort. There are a couple of smaller problems that have now been uncovered, but I’m confident that we will be able to iron those out tomorrow. I was able to put some consistently good laps together towards the end of the session, when I did my quickest lap, so I’m happy. The CBR is really fun to ride again!
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
It’s been a good start to the weekend. We had quite some parts and settings to test here at Assen – a lot of them have brought positive improvements to the bike and we still have some more to test tomorrow. Even though it’s still early days in the weekend, everyone in the team feels a sense of relief after Valencia and the atmosphere has lifted.
Hannspree Ten Kate Honda riders, Kenan Sofuoglu and Andrew Pitt, finished inside the top ten in today’s opening free practice session for the fourth round 2009 World Supersport race at Assen in Holland on Sunday.
The session was topped by Spain’s Joan Lascorz as the Ten Kate duo continued their development of Honda’s latest evolution of the multiple championship-winning CBR600RR.
Sofuoglu and Pitt – seventh and ninth fastest respectively today – have a further free practice and a single timed qualifying session tomorrow afternoon to determine final grid positions for Sunday’s 22-lap race at the 4.55km Dutch circuit.
Kenan Sofuoglu – 7th, 1’42.428s
Again, it was not easy today having only one session to try to learn more about this new CBR. We tried a few different set-ups and finally got close to something that allowed us to take third place in Valencia. I am missing something in acceleration out of corners at the moment, but, if we can get the set-up better, this will not be too much of a problem.
Andrew Pitt – 9th, 1’42.655s
The bike is still running wide, like in Valencia, so we’re trying a few different things to get that sorted. The other problem we have is that, once again, there is really only one sensible tyre choice. The alternative is just too hard and not really an option, so we’re having to ride around on old tyres to avoid running through our allocation.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
We’ve tested both bikes with different set-ups today, which has resulted in a lot of work in the single hour that the Supersport riders get now on a Friday. However, we have found the direction to go and out principal objective in tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying session will be to get both riders on the front row.
| SBK QP1
1 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’38.747 |
SS FP1
1 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’41.650 |
