P1 – Alex Lowes – Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
“The weather has been a bit damp and while you always prefer to ride in the dry, I feel quite good. It’s the first time that I’ve ridden the Yamaha in the wet and we made a few changes but my feeling was quite good. I’m happy and hoping for better weather tomorrow, but if it’s wet I’ve got good speed so hopefully we’ve got all the bases covered.”
P2 – Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team
“Though some guys had an incredible pace from the start, I was struggling to get the ZX10R to turn into the corner. We had some problems but fair play to my crew they worked frantically to improve the bike. Grip was an issue for us but I feel that we’re a lot closer to where we need to be. We need to fine tune the general setup slightly and get some assistance from the electronics package but overall it’s not a bad way to end the first day at Assen. The temperature was an issue today for us but I’m happy and relaxed for tomorrow’s race.”
P3 – Sylvain Guintoli – Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
“The bike has a lot of mechanical grip and the feeling was good straight away from the first laps. We were strong today because of the grip and also we have two riders who have a lot of experience in the wet. Alex comes from racing in the wet in Britain and it’s no secret that I always like riding in the wet too. We did a good job today.”
P4 – Michael van der Mark – Honda World Superbike Team
“It’s been a long time since we rode in the wet so I went out and step by step went faster and then I got a little bit too happy and from one lap to another I went too fast into a corner and crashed. The team did an awesome job to get me out for the last ten minutes and on the last lap I improved, so I was happy that after the crash I improved my lap time. This afternoon it was wet again but slowly drying, and I was making progress. I had some problems with the grip and it’s still not really fixed but I’m sure it will be if it’s wet tomorrow. Then I made a silly mistake and I knew it was raining on the back, and I tried to do the corner the same like when it was drying and I crashed again. P9 is not really what I wanted but I’m happy to be in Superpole 2. I know what I did wrong so hopefully I won’t do the same again!”
