World Superbike Championship leader Jonathan Rea ended the first day of running at Assen fastest of all, edging nearest rival Chaz Davies by just a tenth of a second in FP2.
Rea looked strong in this morning’s first hour long session, but was unable to improve on his best effort in the closing stages and slipped behind team-mate Tom Sykes. The Northern Irishman wasted no time when FP2 got underway, shooting to the top of the timesheets early on.
Focusing on race pace, lapping consistently underneath the lap record, Rea turned up the wick for a qualifying run at the end of the session and managed a 1m35.383s.
Ducati’s Davies and Sykes put Rea’s fastest lap time under some pressure in the dying seconds, but missed out by 0.112s and 0.149s respectively. Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres was a further three tenths adrift in fourth, with Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori brushing of his earlier technical issue to complete the top five.
Leon Camier dragged his MV Agusta to a place in Superpole two in sixth spot, Eugene Laverty capping off a good day for Shaun Muir’s Milwaukee Aprilia outfit in seventh.
Michael van der Mark did not improve on his time from this morning, but was still eighth fastest on combined times and will therefore head into SP2 tomorrow. Yamaha team-mate Alex Lowes suffered a fast crash at Turn 15 20 minutes in having just leaped up to fifth on the timesheets.
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Lowes’ team were unable to get his bike back out again but he will still joing van der Mark in SP2 tomorrow after finishing the day ninth overall. Marco Melandri completed the top 10 on the second of the Aruba Ducatis.
Puccetti Racing’s Randy Krummenacher will be disappointed to have missed out on direct passage into SP2 having sat inside the top 10 for some time in FP2. The Swiss rider ended the session 11th ahead of Xavi Fores, who was forced to park up early with a mechanical issue.
Friday at Assen proved to be another difficult day for Honda, with both Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden failing to get their Fireblade’s into the top 10, the pair over a second off the pace down in 13th and 14th. Alex De Angelis was unable to replicate his FP1 heroics and ended the day in 15th.
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