Kenan Sofuoglu stormed to pole position in Assen with a new lap record, the Turkish rider going almost seven tenths clear of the field at the top of the timesheets.
The reigning World Supersport champion has come into this round almost back to full fitness and has been the man to beat for much of the weekend, topping Friday’s combined times and maintaining his lead in this morning’s FP3.
Sofuoglu shot to the top of the pile in the early stages of Superpole two and remained in control right up to the chequered flag, the Puccetti rider guiding his ZX-6R Kawasaki to a stunning 1m37.805s.
PJ Jacobsen has consistently hovered around the top three all weekend, and heads into tomorrow’s fourth round of the season gunning for his first win of 2017 from second on the grid. Michael Canducci doubled Puccetti’s celebrations by jumping up to third right at the death.
Championship leader Lucas Mahias was almost eight tenths of a second adrift of Sofuoglu down in fourth, but the Frenchman is still very much one to look out for tomorrow after displaying decent race pace in practice.
Joining Mahias on the second row in countryman Jules Cluzel and Aragon podium finisher Sheridan Morais. Luke Stapleford dragged his Triumph 675 out of SP1 to qualify an impressive seventh, with compatriot Kyle Smith close behind in eighth.
Federico Caricasulo will line up ninth on the second of the GRT Yamahas, with Kyle Ryde completing the top 10. Estonian Hannes Soomers was top European Supersport runner in 11th, whilst Britain’s Gino Rea rounded out the top 12.
Kallio Racing’s Niki Tuuli was bumped out of the top two in SP1 right at the end of the session by Soomers and will line up 13th ahead of another big SP1 scalp in the form of Christian Gamarino.
Rob Hartog headed Phillip Island race winner Roberto Rolfo and Hikari Okubo, who is riding in some discomfort this weekend after twisting his ankle in a crash on Friday. Alessandro Zaccone lines up 18th after an early fall at Turn 5.
Comments.
Loading comments…