Round Three – Assen, the Netherlands 17-19th April 2015
Opening Day Practice – 17th April
Conditions: Dry
After two session of practice during the opening day of the FIM Superbike World Championship at Assen Niccolò Canepa and Larry Pegram finished up 20th and 22nd respectively.
In windy but dry conditions Canepa battled the effects of a fever to score his provisional Superpole qualifying spot, working with his Team Hero EBR crew to improve set-up at the 4.542km circuit. He will continue this work of matching the machine to the circuit on day two, and hope for good weather to improve his first day best lap time of 1’39.511, set in the afternoon session.
For Pegram, Assen was virtually a new circuit, with so many modifications having been made over the years since he last rode a WSS machine here, just before the turn of the millennium. The high winds today did not help his attempt to find an improving pace on the fastest sections but Pegram is confident he can move forward on the second day once he learns the circuit fully.
Larry Pegram
“For me it was just a day trying to learn the track again. They have made so many changes since I was last here that it is a totally different track. It’s brand new for me basically, so I am just learning it and unfortunately, not quickly, enough. We have from tomorrow to Sunday to learn it some more. It is also really windy today which made it worse but it is what it is and we have got to learn the layout and get going.”
Niccolò Canepa
“It is very windy out on track and we have to work hard with the set-up of the electronics and the chassis. This track is different from Aragon and we have to adjust the bike to make it work here. At every track we have to find a new set-up, gearing and other things. It just takes us some time to do that. We are already working to understand the small issues we have with set-up and working to fix them for tomorrow. I think we can. I also have a fever and I did not feel at 100% but I was OK for practice. I hope tomorrow will be an improvement and I have to say that I feel better today than I did yesterday.”
