Spies Takes Pole at Assen, Haga 4th after Fall
Yamaha Italia’s Ben Spies has taken pole position for tomorrow’s Round 4 of the World Superbike Championship at the famous Assen circuit in the Netherlands. Xerox Ducati rider and championship leader, Noriyuki Haga will start in 4th place.
Spies continued his run of qualifying form, even on circuits he hasn’t ridden on, to take the top position clearly being able to set scorching laps in a qualifying setup. Haga had a set back, losing the front end of his machine in free practice just minutes before qualifying was due to commence.
Despite this, Haga remains confident he can take it to Spies in a race setup and challenge for the win in both races. Ducati teammate Michel Fabrizio qualified 5th and fellow Ducati pilot Jacob Smrz will start from the front row tomorrow in 2nd place.
Noriyuki Haga 1m38.2s
“Unfortunately at the end of the free practice session I came off; I lost the front for no particular reason gong into the corner which was a bit of a surprise but anyway I wasn’t hurt and it did not affect my performance in Superpole. I’m not so happy with the level of grip but I think that it is something that we can resolve in the morning. We will see tomorrow in the warm-up. For the tyres there is only one option for tomorrow so we are sorted there. I can tell that tomorrow we’ll have two tough races as the times are all very close but I feel we are in a position to fight to win both.”
TIMES (Superpole)
1. Spies (Yamaha) 1m37.6s
2. Smrz (Ducati) 1m37.7s
3. Haslam (Honda) 1m38.0s
4. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m38.2s
5. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m38.2s
6. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m38.3s
7. Checa (Honda) 1m38.6s
8. Sykes (Yamaha) 1m38.7s
Source: Ducati
Try These Related Posts:
