Tom Sykes added to his impressive career Superpole win tally at Assen today, lapping close to the pole record with his best of 1’35.043, set on a qualifying tyre in the last of three Superpole sessions.
This was Tom’s second Superpole of 2013 and the 13th of his career. He had been second in combined qualifying but both he and team mate Loris Baz led the second free practice session, in dry conditions.
Sykes is the man to beat in WSBK right now, believing he has the pace to finish the job tomorrow, saying “The ZX-10R is working well and I was quite happy with my race pace, so when we put the Pirelli qualifying tyre in it was even better. I am happy to be on the front row and even better to be in pole position. I just hope we can have some dry conditions tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be faced with a bit of a fight maybe but if we can have some good luck I am confident.”
Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two third-round World Superbike championship races from the front row of the grid after setting the second-fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole sessions at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.
Rea has an impressive record at Assen, taking four wins out of the last six races on this track.
The Pata Honda rider had felt confident of challenging fellow British rider Tom Sykes for pole position, but a front-end slide early on in his fastest lap in Superpole 3 persuaded Rea, 26, that a front row start was good enough.
Rea believes tyre performance will be critical, saying, “I think we have two options we can have a look at but a lot will depend on the temperature tomorrow. I thought I could go with Tom [Sykes] this weekend and really push, but I had a big front slide in turn three and put my heart rate through the roof, so I nursed it home. Superpole’s not really my thing, but I felt really confident at the start of Superpole 3 and went out first on a race tyre. Anyway, it’s great to be on the front row for the team’s home race and I just want to send a ‘get well soon’ message to my team-mate, Leon [Haslam], who had a big crash on Friday.”
Aprilia factory riders Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli finished with the third and fourth best times respectively. Laverty takes the last spot on the front row and the Frenchman (current ranking championship leader) from the second.
Laverty was typically upbeat, saying “I’m really happy to be on the front row. Today I thought it would be difficult after the free practice sessions because, besides Sykes and myself, Rea and Sylvain were also quite quick. In the end when Tom puts the qualifying tyre on he’s basically unbeatable and Jonny put in a perfect lap, so I’ll be starting from the third spot on the grid. Tomorrow the races will also be difficult since today is the only day we’ve been able to test in the dry. Understanding how the tyres will perform and how to manage them over the race distance will make the difference. We’ll have some work to do this evening and during the warm ups tomorrow morning to be ready for the starting grid”.
Laverty demonstrated impressive drive today and will start from the front row for the seventh consecutive time. In fact, the Irishman has not failed to ride his RSV4 to the best row of the grid since the Moscow round last season (August 2012).
After winning the Bol d’Or with Kawasaki last weekend Loris Baz overcame a heavy crash at Assen on Friday to make an impressive final grid position of fifth.
Assen has provided both wet practice sessions on Friday and dry sessions today so the team are ready to face any conditions they may meet on Sunday – although all in the SBK paddock hope that Assen remains dry overnight.
1 Tom Sykes 1’35.043 (SP3) GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Jonathan Rea 1’35.639 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
3 Eugene Laverty 1’35.814 IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Sylvain Guintoli 1’35.973 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Loris Baz 1’36.166 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Davide Giugliano 1’36.326 ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
7 Marco Melandri 1’36.330 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
8 Carlos Checa 1’36.438 SPA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
9 Michel Fabrizio 1’37.570 ITA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
10 Jules Cluzel 1’36.837 (SP2) FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
11 Ayrton Badovini 1’36.937 ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
12 Max Neukirchner 1’38.561 GER DUCATI MR-Racing
13 Chaz Davies 1’37.865 (SP1) GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
14 Ivan Clementi 1’38.016 ITA BMW HTM Racing
15 Vittorio Iannuzzo 1’39.420 ITA BMW Grillini DENTALMATIC SBK Team
16 Federico Sandi 1’40.534 (SP) ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
17 Mark Aitchinson 1’41.408 AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
18 Alexander Lundh 1’42.390 SWE KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
19 Leon Camier 2’01.728 GBR SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
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