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:
Comments