Assen WorldSBK/SSP/300/R3 Friday Times – Quotes – Notes – Images

WorldSBK 2024 – Round Three
Assen – Friday

On a tricky opening day at a wind-swept TT Circuit Assen, it was Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) who set the pace.

The weather changed multiple times throughout the day, with rain giving way to sunshine before reverting back to rain once again.

Bautista, the winner of the last four Superbike races at the Dutch Round, completed 26 laps of the 4.555km circuit to end the day two-tenths of a second faster than Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team).

Alvaro Bautista – P1

“It was a very complicated day because of the weather conditions and the heavy rain limited the grip on the track. It was also not easy to ride with the strong wind. But in the end, we have to adapt because these are situations that all riders have to face. However, I am satisfied because, despite these difficulties, the feeling with the bike was good. Hopefully, the weather will be more consistent tomorrow.”

Having not changed to new tyres until moments before a rain shower, Toprak was one of the few riders not to improve their lap time from the morning session in the afternoon.

Toprak Razgatlioglu – P2

“The bike is turning well but the braking is not yet 100 per cent. We are working on this now with the engine braking too. The electronics are working great and in general, I’m happy. I had a used tyre at the start of FP2 and when I put in a new tyre it started to rain after two laps and then there was the red flag. I didn’t improve my lap in FP2 but the feeling is very good. We are very fast and the grip from the track is really good. It’s not easy in WorldSBK because everyone is very fast but I’m ready for the fight and for the win. We are ready to race in all conditions.“

Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) ended the day third fastest and top Yamaha ahead of Michael Rinaldi.

Remy Gardner – P3

“It was not an easy day with the weather, but we enjoyed some valuable track time on slick tyres even though the tarmac was not still completely dry. Conditions were tougher in the afternoon with the wind, but we managed to improve and that’s a positive thing, although there’s still work to do. We’ll try to get more laps on the SCX tyre in the FP3 if we have a dry session, but I liked the feeling during the few laps I did in the FP2. Races and qualifying won’t be an easy deal anyway with the weather changing so quickly, we should be ready for everything.”

Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) was fifth fastest in both sessions but completed just 18 laps over the course of the day. The changeable conditions limited running, and the six-time World Champion will be hoping for a change of fortunes after a difficult start to the season. Rea is a 17 times winner at the Dutch Round.

Jonathan Rea – P5

“The conditions today have been not ideal for setting up the bike. We never really had a full dry circuit, in Free Practice 2 it was a bit better in the beginning but with really strong gusts of wind. Every circuit I’m coming to this year, I still feel like I’m re-learning it with the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK but here in Assen I had a positive feeling straight away. I felt like it was quite easy to get to a quick lap time but to keep improving became more difficult especially with the changing conditions. We haven’t done many dry laps but everyone is in the same boat, so tomorrow we have to look at what the weather forecast is. Fortunately, we were able to get out at the end of FP2 just to check the wet set-up to give the guys some more information, as I haven’t spent a lot of time on the bike in wet conditions. I think we can make a good step with our set-up from that. The key of tomorrow will be weather and tyre choice, but today we only used one set of wet and one set of dry tyres so we didn’t get much tyre testing done.”

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Championship leader Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) is riding for the first time since undergoing surgery for compartment syndrome and was sixth fastest. The Italian was less than half a second slower than his team-mate Bautista.

Nicolò Bulega – P6

“My first objective was to understand what the condition of my arm was after the surgery and from the very first laps I was happy with the feeling I had. I am still not 100 percent but that is not a big problem. For the first time, I rode the Panigale V4R in very special conditions, which helped me gain some experience.”

Home hero Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was ninth fastest.

Alex Lowes – P7

“We can’t look at the position in this afternoon’s session because I went out with the tyres from this morning’s FP1 session, just to set a couple of laps. When I went back out later there was a red flag due to a damaged safety barrier. It then started to rain so I never got to make a proper lap this afternoon. But, it was important to get a few laps in during the rain at the end of FP2. We don’t know what the weather will do tomorrow but I was one of the quickest guys in those conditions. So, to be fast in the dry this morning and then fast in the rain this afternoon means it has been a good day.”

Dominique Aegerter – P10

“We had quite a busy day with the weather, but we still managed to make some good laps both on dry and wet conditions. There are still some things we need to work on, but it was nice to be back and I’m confident we can have a good weekend. I hope the weather will stay stable throughout the weekend, but we’ll try to be ready for every condition. We’ll be working hard tonight to find new solutions and be faster tomorrow.“

Andrea Iannone – P11

“I’m very happy to be back at Assen, it’s a track that I like. It’s more difficult to lap in these weather conditions with low temperatures and rain but I think I can be competitive on this circuit. Overall I’m satisfied with today, the feeling and the grip of the tyres, especially with the Rain, surprised me positively. I hope I can have a good qualifying tomorrow!”

Xavi Vierge – P16

“There wasn’t much track action today due to the bad weather. We made a change to the bike setup after the Barcelona round, and this morning the feeling honestly wasn’t that bad. After spending some time in the garage waiting for conditions to improve enough to warrant going out, I decided to make a long run because the track conditions were improving lap by lap, and I preferred to stay out to better understand the bike’s response. I wasn’t disappointed with the feeling. We continued to follow our working plan and made another significant change to the bike for FP2, but conditions essentially prevented us from obtaining any accurate feedback. The surface was patchy, so we chose to start with the same used tyres we’d used during the morning. When the time came to put in new ones, the rain returned. It’s a pity because we were looking forward to obtaining data for that setup change, but it is what it is, and conditions are the same for everyone. It looks like tomorrow’s conditions will be similar, so we must be ready for whatever comes our way.”

Iker Lecuona – P17

“Today, we focused on improving feeling with the bike after a first exit this morning revealed some setup issues. There were some chattering problems to solve, as well as a general lack of feeling with the bike. Conditions didn’t help of course, because we had to wait some time to start the session both this morning and this afternoon, but I felt better after we made some changes following FP1. I was able to improve on my previous best lap time with used tyres, which is a positive development for us because it allowed us to gather some good data. When the session restarted after the red flag, we didn’t switch from the ‘flag-to-flag’ setup to a full wet setup, and I found it tricky to ride the bike, especially due to the strong winds and strange track conditions, with half of it full wet and half almost dry. So, we didn’t have chance to make any further progress really. That said, we’ll see if the weather tomorrow allows us to exploit the small improvements made for the dry setting.”

Andrea Locatelli – P18

“It was a strange day, honestly! To say that we understand something completely from today is not true, because we rode in many different conditions: the track was dry at the end of FP1, then we started with the dry set-up at the start of FP2 with the used tyre from FP1 before it started raining. It’s difficult to understand when it continues changing, but in the end in the wet I was happy, the feeling was good and the lap time was not too bad. Let’s see, it was just the first day. I hope for more consistent weather, either raining or dry, but here it looks impossible to have normal weather! We don’t have a lot of data, but we will see what we can do for tomorrow and try to be ready in every condition.”

Axel Bassani – P19

“Not a really fun day because we did not do a lot of laps. We had a really hard tyre on the front in FP1 and the feeling was not so good because the track was cold and there were some wet patches. We went out in FP2 with used tyres at the beginning and when I went back out to set a faster lap there was a red flag – and then it started to rain heavily. We tried a couple of things on the front and rear suspension set-up but it is not easy to understand with the used tyre. Tomorrow, I just want consistent weather. If it rains then it should rain all day, not rain then dry, rain then dry again.”

WorldSBK Friday Combined Practice Times

WorldSBK Championship Points

WorldSSP

Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) timed his Superpole session to perfection. The Italian was able to claim the second pole position of his World Supersport career after a heavy downpour hit the TT Circuit Assen moments after he set the fastest time of the Supersport Superpole session.

With the session having started in wet conditions Manzi was one of the first riders to switch to slick tyres and almost immediately having set his fastest time the rain came down once again. Manzi claimed the pole position as a result with his Ten Kate teammate, Glenn van Straalen, alongside him on the front row of the grid.

The perfect day for the Dutch team came in stark contrast to the Championship leader, Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team). At the time of the rain shower the Italian had yet to set a time in the session. He would eventually limit the damage to 11th on the grid. Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) rounds out the front row of the grid for Race 1 tomorrow.

Stefano Manzi – P1

“To have an advantage of one second in Superpole is due to the conditions of the track. Some riders were using rain tyres, others were using dry tyres, some other riders used both tyre. It was a strange session and even on my fast lap the first sector was bad because I had a lot of traffic. At the end of the session riders were improving but my lap time was good enough for the pole position so I’m very happy. I’m happy for my team and my teammate that we were first and second. We have started the team’s home race in a good way.”

WorldSSP Superpole

WorldSSP Championship Points

WorldSSP300

On a drying track Fenton Seabright (Kawasaki GP Project) claimed the second pole position of his Superpole 300 career. In ever improving conditions the 21 year old was able to time his lap to perfection to set the fastest time at the end of the 25 minute Superpole session.

The changing track conditions caught out Jeffrey Buis (Freudenberg KTM-PALIGO Racing) in the closing stages and the reigning World Champion will start from the fourth row of the grid. The resulting yellow flags also cost Julio Garcia Gonzalez (KOVE Racing Team). Having set the fastest time in the session the 17 year old was relegated to 28th on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race of the weekend.

WorldSSP300 Superpole

WorldSSP 300 Championship Points

FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup

Brazilian rookie Mario Salles took his first pole position in the R3 bLU cRU World Cup on Friday at the TT Circuit Assen despite a crash and extremely difficult track conditions.

FP was held in torrential rain for the 16 competitors, but all came through the session without issues or crashes. The Brazilian duo of Salles and Eduardo Burr proved their wet weather pace with by finishing the session first and second ahead of Japan’s Shoma Yamane in third. Dutch rider Indi Schunselaar enjoyed a good first outing at home, taking sixth.

Full wets were on for the afternoon’s Superpole and the Brazilians were ready to go. Salles had a dramatic start to his session when he crashed at Turn 9, he then continued the session with no clutch lever and managed to set the fastest time, earning his first pole position just ahead of his compatriot Burr. Australia’s Cameron Swain put in a great performance and came very close to beating Burr, finishing just +0.008 behind in third. Barcelona podium sitters Dawid Nowak and Gonzalo Sanchez both suffered crashes towards the end of the session but were declared fit for tomorrow’s Race 1.

Mario Salles – P1

“I felt really good at the start of the session but on the second lap I ended up falling and my clutch lever broke. I went into the pits but there was nothing I could do and not much time, so I decided to go for it. I put my faith in the fast lap and did my best and I’m very happy to achieve my first pole in the R3 World Cup. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow, rain or shine!”

FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup Superpole

FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup Points

Assen WorldSBK Schedule (AEST)

2024 WorldSBK Calendar