Round Four – Assen, the Netherlands, 17-19th April 2015
Qualifying and Superpole – 18th April
Conditions: Dry
Niccolò Canepa took his Hero EBR 1190RX machine to 17th place on the grid after Superpole at Assen and he will now start from the sixth row for Sunday’s two FIM Superbike World Championship races. He set a 1’37.273 best lap in Superpole 1.
Having suffered with a fever early in the weekend Canepa is now well on the road to recovery and it showed in his performance. He is still looking for a final race set-up before the two 21-lap WSB events on Sunday, to be held at the 4.542km long circuit in the Netherlands.
Team rider/manager Larry Pegram could not learn the finer details of the Assen layout in time to make the Superpole cut and he now starts from 22nd place on the grid after regular qualifying.
Pegram has found the Assen circuit much changed form the one he raced on many years ago but has made real and consistent improvements in his lap times since the first practice session on Friday.
The Assen circuit has been dry for the riders and teams but has also provided windy conditions on day one and very cold track conditions on day two. Official track temperatures were only 8°C in the final timed practice session this morning before Superpole, rising to only 26°C in Superpole itself.
Larry Pegram
“I keep improving my lap time but I am just limited in my ability to learn circuits. I do not learn tracks that quickly and it is definitely making me suffer here. The bike was good, the guys have done a good job, I go faster every time I go out on it, but it just seems like I need a couple of extra practices. Tomorrow in the first race hopefully I can get faster, so that in the second race I can get better. Niccolò has been sick all weekend and it definitely affected him on the first day. Now he is starting to come back around. He did a really good job in Superpole, almost three seconds quicker than last year. Sometimes we get greedy with him because we want him to do even better but we do not realise how much improvement he has made over last year’s times. He is doing a good job.”
Niccolò Canepa
“We are losing time in the long corners because I cannot keep the line and I run wide. We have improved a lot from yesterday and we intend to fix it for tomorrow. From this morning to this afternoon we have also made things better and I did my best time with a race tyre. I think that is pretty good for tomorrow. We still have to make another step in the set-up for the races but if we make it I think I can arrive in the points. That is our target.”
