Superpole Assen: Rea explodes Baz’s record, Davies explodes with rage
Hounded by Sykes and Davies yesterday afternoon in Assen, Rea dominated the Superpole this morning and broke the Superbike track record of our compatriot Loris Baz … But by hampering "Chazie" in his final lap, "Johnny" has pretty pissed off his big rival. Roll on the race !
The Dutch sky is loaded with heavy black clouds in places, but the sun is beating down on the Assen track this Saturday morning! The World Superbike riders take advantage of ideal conditions to argue – argue with Rea ?! – the fourth Superpole of the 2017 season…
In Superpole 1, Stefan Bradl remains stuck in his pit at the start of the session. His Fireblade n ° 6 only leaves the Honda box at the end of the fourth minute, while his little comrades do a series of quick laps: during the first "run", Randy Krummenacher, Xavi Fores and Nicky Hayden compete for the first two places, synonyms of qualification in Superpole 2…
After a quick passage through the pits, the drivers set off for a second time and the same three men fight to be at the top of the timesheet. In the final loop, Alex de Angelis and his # 15 Kawasaki join the fight, but Fores’s # 12 Ducati and Hayden’s # 69 Honda get the SP2 ticket. !
Krummenacher and his n ° 88 Kawasaki Pucetti must be satisfied with the third fastest time in SP1, therefore thirteenth place on the starting grid this Saturday noon. Two ZX-10Rs will accompany them in the 5th row: Pedercini n ° 15 from De Angelis and Go Eleven n ° 40 from Ramos..
Bradl finally obtained only 16th place on the Dutch grid. The only German driver on the grid (taking into account Markus Reiterberger’s package for the end of the season) will start in front of Leandro Mercado on his Aprilia n ° 36 and Rafaelle de Rosa on his BMW n ° 35 (the old n ° 21 of " Reiti "precisely). Russo, Jezek and Badovini will settle in the last row.
In Superpole 2, Tom Sykes sets the best time of the first outing … but he is only three hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate, double reigning world champion and wide leader of the 2017 championship: Jonathan Rea, "who else? "
Qualified narrowly in SP2 (10th fastest of the first day), Marco Melandri places his official Ducati n ° 33 in third place in the provisional classification, ahead of Eugene Laverty‘s Aprilia Factory n ° 50, the second Ducati from the factory by Chaz Davies and MV Agusta Reparto Corse n ° 2 by Leon Camier…
The ten pilots return to their boxes and put on a new soft tire on their machine. the ruthless "JR" passes the overdrive on his first launched lap and explodes the track record for a Superbike (1 ‘34.357), held since 2014 by our "Green Giant" Loris Baz !
Tom Sykes manages to get ahead of the "Number One" of the discipline on the first three quarters of the course but loses his meager lead in the last section due to a small error. The n ° 66 still takes a comfortable second place on the grid…
Chaz Davies finished the session with the third fastest time, but almost a second behind the leader! In the closed park, the tone rises between "Chazie" who considers to have been hampered in his last lap by "Johnny", and the latter who thought to have sufficiently deviated from the ideal trajectory … The dispute will be settled during the race !
The second row is occupied by three other official Italian machines: Aprilia n ° 32 by Lorenzo Savadori, Ducati n ° 33 by Marco Melandri and Aprilia n ° 50 by Eugene Laverty. If we don’t expect them to be able to keep up with the pace of the leading trio in the race, they should give us a great show..
Qualified on the third row, Xavi Fores and Michael van den Mark will certainly spice up the race. Thanks to the support of its public and its perfect knowledge of "its" track, VDM could even hoist its new R1 on the podium, without even benefiting from a decline in form of Sykes – still disturbed in the stomach -, or fall ( s) from Davies and / or Rea ?!
The "Spanish Elvis" Jordi Torres steals ninth place from the American Nicky Hayden for a handful of hundredths of a second! The "Kentucky Legend" took the podium in the first round last year with the old Fireblade. It seems impossible to do this year with the news…
Two English drivers complete the fourth row: Leon Camier on the only F4 on the field and Alex Lowes on the second factory R1, which tested the bitumen twice yesterday! The n ° 22 of the official Yamaha team will have to calm things down during the race. The latter will begin in a few minutes … Report to follow live on MNC: stay connected !
Superpole World Superbike Netherlands 2017
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