Spies Wins Dutch Superpole at Assen - 4th WSBK Superpole Win in a Row

[Asphalt & Rubber]

*
*
*
This article comes from AsphaltandRubber.com
*
*
*



In Assen, Ben Spies took his fourth Superpole win in a row by besting the existing pole record by 7/10ths of a second, with back-to-back 1′36.6 laps. Nipping at the heels of Spies, and the only other man to break into the 1’37’s, was*Jakub Smrz and his Guandalini Ducati. Continue reading for the rest of the front row, and the Superpole results.

*

After the Superpole had concluded, Smrz said that the team had made a lot of changes to the bike before the Superpole race, which he wasn’t happy about, but he countered that his crew had done a great job to get the bike perfect for Superpole. Smrz has been fast in qualifying in previous races, but has been unable to translate that speed into a race day result. However, things are looking better for Smrz at Assen where he stated, “we made a lot of laps with a race tire, and also after a few laps the lap times were good. For now the bike is perfect in the way of race setup.”

Third fastest was Leon Haslam on the Stiggy Racing Honda, teammate to John Hopkins, who did not race in the Superpole qualifier. Joining Haslam and Spies on the front row*is Noriyuki Haga. Haga and Xerorx Ducati have been struggling with grip from the harder rear tire all weekend, and have still not completely solved the issue. But still, Haga seemed confident that the bike would be sorted in time for race day, with the warm up sessions still available to make further modifications to the Ducati.*

*

Full result of the three sessions of Superpole:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Top 8 after Superpole 3 1 19 B. Spies Yamaha YZF R1 1′37.626 * 2 96 J. Smrz Ducati 1098R 1′37.765 0.139 3 91 L. Haslam Honda CBR1000RR 1′38.072 0.446 4 41 N. Haga Ducati 1098R 1′38.202 0.576 5 84 M. Fabrizio Ducati 1098R 1′38.215 0.589 6 76 M. Neukirchner Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′38.353 0.727 7 7 C. Checa Honda CBR1000RR 1′38.640 1.014 8 66 T. Sykes Yamaha YZF R1 1′38.790 1.164 Out after Superpole 2 9 71 Y. Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′38.288 0.573 10 3 M. Biaggi Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′38.441 0.726 11 65 J. Rea Honda CBR1000RR 1′38.510 0.795 12 55 R. Laconi Ducati 1098R 1′38.521 0.806 13 31 K. Muggeridge Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′38.802 1.087 14 67 S. Byrne Ducati 1098R 1′38.811 1.096 15 11 T. Corser BMW S1000 RR 1′38.906 1.191 16 9 R. Kiyonari Honda CBR1000RR 1′39.079 1.364 Out after Superpole 1 17 33 T. Hill Honda CBR1000RR 1′39.387 1.441 18 24 B. Roberts Ducati 1098R 1′39.390 1.444 19 56 S. Nakano Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′39.569 1.623 20 111 R. Xaus BMW S1000 RR 1′39.643 1.697 *

Source: MotoGP Matters



Visit Asphalt & Rubber for more articles like this one