- Championship leader Bulega tops Assen practice as Ducatis take 7 of top 10.
- BMW’s Petrucci and Yamaha’s Vierge lead the pack behind the Panigales.
- Local stars Veneman and Buis take 1-2 on the World Superbike grid.
Friday’s proceedings at Assen pretty much followed a ‘copy-paste’ template of the 2026 WorldSBK season so far. Yes, Nicolo Bulega topped both practice sessions, with his FP2 benchmark of 1:33.687 only a tenth shy of his all-time lap record from last year.
The runaway championship leader was over a quarter of a second clear of Lorenzo Baldassarri on the Team Go Eleven Ducati. So, don’t be shocked if Bulega shatters that pole record of 1:33.581 during the Superpole session tomorrow, among others.
Panigale power
If you’re not a Ducatisti, unfortunately, we’ve got more bad news. Seven of the top-10 spots in the combined results were occupied by Italian V4Rs. BMW’s Danilo Petrucci was the best of the rest in fourth place, over four tenths slower.
In fact, even the slowest Duc of Tarran Mackenzie managed 15th. And this despite Ducati being slapped with a 0.5kg/h fuel flow reduction by the FIM at the latest concession checkpoint, along with Bimota. Dominant enough? We think so too.
Petrucci’s solid outing wasn’t without its troubles, as both he and teammate Miguel Oliveira suffered crashes in FP1. Alex Lowes led Bimota’s charge in P7 as factory mate Axel Bassani could manage only P12.
Xavi Vierge was Yamaha’s best rider in fifth place, but over half a second faster than the next best YZF R1 of Andrea Locatelli. A race winner here last year, ‘Loka’ will be looking for a much-improved performance on Saturday and Sunday.
Honda were backmarkers again as replacement rider Jonathan Rea and rookie Somkiat Chantra ended P19 and P21, respectively.
Home heroes and record-breakers
Moving on to the support classes, it was Dutch delight in World Sportbike as Kawasaki’s Loris Veneman took pole from countryman Jeffrey Buis by just 0.006s. And Kas Beekmans was less than half a tenth away from making it an all-Dutch front row. Talk about fine margins!
In the Supersport category, Lucas Mahias beat French compatriot Valentin Debise to Superpole P1. This was the 37-year-old’s 10th WorldSSP pole position.
WorldWCR saw Maria Herrera smashing her own all-time lap record to clinch pole ahead of Beatriz Neila. Her 1:47.031s was almost 0.6s faster than her 2025 marker and continued her P1 grid slot momentum from Portimao.
More pulsating action awaits fans as the weekend’s first raceday goes lights out tomorrow.
WorldSBK Assen Saturday Schedule
| Event | Category | UK Time (BST) |
| Warm Up 1 | WorldWCR | 08:00 – 08:10 |
| Warm Up 1 | WorldSPB | 08:20 – 08:30 |
| Free Practice 3 | WorldSBK | 08:40 – 09:00 |
| Warm Up 1 | WorldSSP | 09:10 – 09:20 |
| Tissot Superpole | WorldSBK | 10:15 – 10:30 |
| Race 1 | WorldWCR | 11:00 |
| Race 1 | WorldSPB | 12:00 |
| Race 1 | WorldSSP | 13:00 |
| Race 1 (21 Laps) | WorldSBK | 14:30 |
