FIM Supersport World Championship Assen, Netherlands April 16 Final Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Luca Scassa, Italy (Yam YZF-R6), 1:38.008 2. Sam Lowes, Great Britain (Hon CBR600RR), 1:38.289 3. Broc Parkes, Australia (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:38.647 4. Fabien Foret, France (Hon CBR600RR), 1:38.870 5. Florian Marino, France (Hon CBR600RR), 1:38.945 6. Chaz Davies, Great Britain (Yam YZF-R6), 1:39.007 7. David Salom, Spain (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:39.191 8. Roberto Tamburini, Italy (Yam YZF-R6), 1:39.483 9. Robbin Harms, Denmark (Hon CBR600RR), 1:39.726 10. Massimo Roccoli, Italy (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:39.752 11. Gino Rea, Great Britain (Hon CBR600RR), 1:39.872 12. James Ellison, Great Britain (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.153 13. Alexander Lundh, Sweden (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.281 14. Miguel Praia, Portugal (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.589 15. Vittorio Iannuzzo, Italy (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:40.691 16. Vladimir Ivanov, Ukraine (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.828 17. Ronan Quarmby, South Africa (Tri Daytona 675), 1:40.834 18. Ondrej Jezek, Czech Republic (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.935 19. Kervin Bos, Netherlands (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.028 20. Jos Van Der Aa, Netherlands (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.126 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: PARKALGAR HONDA’S Sam Lowes scored second on the grid for tomorrow’s third round of the World Supersport Championship and has race winning potential. Miguel Praia on his Parkalgar Honda will start from 14th after improving his lap time so he is optimistic for the race, which starts at 1330CET tomorrow, Sunday 17th April at the Assen circuit in Holland. Sam: “I am really happy, Scassa and I definitely have a gap on the rest of the field and if anything, my race pace is a little bit better than we showed in qualifying. Tyre wear will be an issue here and my Parkalgar Honda manages its tyres well so we can race right to the end. I rode plenty more laps and made changes to the balance of the bike. Every session I have got better and better and we are in good shape for the race – my Parkalgar Honda is balanced, handling well and looking after the tyre. This is my third front row of the year, that’s mega!” Miguel: “My confidence continues to build and 14th is not so bad, the grid here is very fast. I’ve improved every session and we know what direction we need to take the Parkalgar Honda for the race to make further speed. I am always a better racer than qualifier so I hope to get a good start and to be fighting for the top 10.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “Great performance by Sam, seven minutes to go he was fastest but we didn’t want to use another tyre so we have more options for the race. We were pipped at the end but it’s a great job by Sam and the team. “Miguel improved again and is on good form. He might have liked to be higher up than 14th but there is a tremendous depth to the field, he has a chance for a top 10 finish.” More, from a press release issued by PTR Romania Honda: PTR ROMANIA HONDA’S Robert Muresan slashed his lap times in practice and qualifying but will start a distant 28th on the grid despite the progress for the third round of the World Supersport Championship at Assen in Holland. Robert struggled for pace at the fast flowing track yesterday but after taking on board the team’s direction he was able to cut his lap times, however, the fierce competition means that he is further down the grid than he hoped. The race starts at 1330CET tomorrow, Sunday 17th April. Robert: “In the morning everything was OK and I was 1.7secs faster than yesterday. We had made some suspension changes and they worked. This afternoon was not so good as we missed a lot of time on track due to a technical problem and then the engine felt much slower. Qualifying 28th will make for a very hard race but I am confident we can make the engine work and then do my best in the race.” Simon Buckmaster, PTR Romania Team Manager: “We should be doing better than this as a team – and Robert should be higher up the grid as a rider with his potential. We will be making changes for warm-up and the race to start in a new positive direction tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha ParkinGO Team: Luca Scassa gives the encore, repeating the pole position of Donington Park even in Assen. The italian rider place himself among the favourites for the race tomorrow on the historic TT Circuit. Lowes and Marino on Honda and Parkes and Salom on Kawasaki, seem the major competitors beside the team mate Chaz Davies, that despite the unlucky slip during the final practices proved to have an extremely good rhythm. Chaz, that last year ended fourth on this track, has the goal of the first victory in the category. Luca Scassa – Yamaha YZF R6 #9 – “When results come one after another everything seems easy. But it’s all merit of the great job done by the team, for which I want to thank my engineers that today managed to solve every problem on the bike, giving it back to me able to score a time only a few second’s fraction lower compared to the record on this track. i don’t think that the race tomorrow will be one where I could run off, but I will be at the start to try to gain another win.” Chaz Davies – Yamaha YZF R6 #7 – “I’m sorry for the slip. I’ve lost the front at the turn 6 when I was trying to improve my time. I’m sure to have all it takes to play a good race, today we found a setting that we’ll show my way of riding at the best.” Giuliano Rovelli – team owner – “After the previous two wins the risk for Luca was to get here without enough concentration. He, instead, showed to hold the pressure and the pole position is the proof. I’m sorry for the slip occurred to Chaz, that prevent him from be next to his team mate on the first row. Our competitors are really close so I think we’ll join a really hard fight froom the start to the finishing line”. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Top Three In Qualifying For Parkes Broc Parkes will start the 21-lap WSS race at Assen from third place on the 30-strong grid after a good practice showing at the classic Dutch circuit. David Salom, his team-mate, starts from row two. Good weather and improving track conditions today allowed Parkes and his experienced team to push on in the final session and improve the opening day best time by almost one full second. Salom battled hard but could not match his speed over one single lap to his strong overall race pace and consistency. The Supersport track record was not broken as track temperatures were typically ten degrees lower than in 2010, but most of the top names in Supersport are packed into the top two rows, including Parkes and Salom. Broc, currently placed second in the championship, is out to make up ground on Assen pole man and series leader Luca Scassa, while Salom is only one point away from third place in the rankings. The Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki team riders, Massimo Roccoli and Vittorio Iannuzzo qualified tenth and 15th respectively. Broc Parkes: “We did pretty good in qualifying and my real aim was to be on the front row. We made a bit of a step up today compared to the first day, and the bike seems pretty good. We are still working on one sector of the track where we losing a bit of time but we are fast in the others. Overall my lap times are consistent so that is the main positive thing – and what should count most on raceday. It will be hard tomorrow because there will be a lot of guys fighting at the front, so there will be some elbows sticking out!” David Salom: “We are not so bad for race pace but in qualifying today when I braked the bike did not want to enter the corner quite so easily. It was better on day one, so we will move towards the set-up of the first day in warm-up tomorrow and see how it works out. It has been more of an issue for one fast lap than for the race distance and I think our race pace should be not so bad. In fact, our race times and consistency are good. We just need to look at the track temperature tomorrow to make a final tyre choice.” More, from a press release issued by Bogdanka PTR Honda: JAMES Ellison will start tomorrow’s World Supersport race at Assen from twelfth on the grid having improved on yesterday’s time by half a second – but the Bogdanka PTR Honda rider expects to be a lot further up the field in the race. His Polish teammate, Pawel Szkopek, bettered his Friday’s time by more than a second but it was still only good enough for a 22nd grid position with Bogdanka PTR Honda’s Superstock 1000 rider, Marcin Walkowiak, 25th on the grid after a big crash in practice. James Ellison: “We found the direction to go with the bike midway into the qualifying but it was too much to change in one session. The starting position is disappointing as this bike deserves to be a lot higher but we’re confident that the changes we’re going to make for tomorrow will work and we will have a good race.” Pawel Szkopek: “I was expecting a bit more today after the morning practice but even if the starting position is not what I’d expected, I’m happy with the work we’ve done today. I’m having more fun on the bike, feeling better and more consistent on used tyres so I think we can have a good race.” Marcin Walkowiak: “I lost the front in the fastest corner of the circuit and I really don’t know what happened. I would just like to apologize to the team for destroying the bike and I hope that I can make amends for that tomorrow in the race.” Simon Buckmaster: “James knows what he needs to do to make improvements and although the third row of the grid is far from ideal, we expect him to be in better shape tomorrow and challenging well inside the top 10. “Pawel has crashed again this weekend and he understands that losing track time hurts his performance. He is improving and must target getting into the points in the race. “Marcin totally destroyed his bike in a qualifying crash early in the session. That is not a great start and he will have his work cut out tomorrow, he needs to focus on building his effort. A top 20 finish is a realistic target.” More, from a press release issued by Ten Kate Honda: Fabien Foret fought his way back to the front row in this afternoon’s final World Supersport qualifying in readiness for tomorrow’s third round race at Assen in the Netherlands, as Italian rider Luca Scassa secured pole position. Foret’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate Florian Marino was unable to improve his time from yesterday, which put him in provisional pole position. The 17-year-old had to be satisfied with fifth place overall for a second row start in the 21-lap race around the 4.452km sweeping Assen circuit. Foret lost a lot of time in yesterday’s free practice and opening qualifying session as he re-acquainted himself with his Honda CBR600RR after an injury-troubled start to the 2011 season. However, the 2002 World Supersport champion is happy to be back on the front row and is looking for a small improvement to the bike in warm-up tomorrow morning to fight for his first points of the year. Fabien Foret P4 At the end of the day it’s always good to be on the front row. Yesterday we went in the wrong direction but I wasn’t able to tell if it was me or the bike. In the afternoon, I knew it was definitely the bike but we ran out of time in qualifying. This morning it was definitely better but we were still missing something. The changes we made this afternoon just caused me to lose a little bit of the feeling from earlier and, to be safe, we went back to this morning’s setting and used fresh tyres to put the bike in the best position possible. Tonight we’ll look for something to try in warm-up to make the CBR a little bit more comfortable and make a consistent race tomorrow. Florian Marino P5 I knew that it would be difficult to keep the position I was able to find yesterday but I am still disappointed with my performance today. None of the ch anges we made allowed us to improve the bike and we didn’t go in a good direction. Yesterday I just rode the bike on my own and everything felt really easy. Today, we made a lot of changes and I was really trying but it didn’t work and the feeling was different. There was less grip on the rear and the bike didn’t turn as I wanted. I think we’ll go back closer to where we were yesterday and try to stay positive. I’m in a good position after all and I’ll do everything I can to make a good race tomorrow. Ronald ten Kate team manager It’s good to see Fabien back on the front row with us, even though his injuries are still holding him back a little. There’s still some work to do but we missed out a lot yesterday with his set-up, so overnight we’ll still need to find something to keep him up at the front during the race. Of course, Fabien pushing up to the front row has re legated Florian to the second row in fifth place and I can understand his disappointment. But tomorrow is race day and that’s when pace really counts. There are some issue that we still need to address and we’ll look at those tonight.