Manufacturer’s ups and downs at Assen
Which team should you keep an eye on in The Netherlands?
Aprilia have won twice at Assen, with Eugene Laverty in Race 2, 2013, and Sylvain Guintoli in Race 1, 2014: which was their last podium finish here. Last year the best Aprilia results were provided by Lorenzo Savadori: 6th in Race 1 and 4th in Race 2.
The best result for BMW at Assen was recorded by Marco Melandri in the first 2012 Race: 4th. Last year Jordi Torres came close to repeat it in Race 1, finishing 5th with Markus Reiterberger not far behind in 7th. They struggled in the wet in Race 2 as the best-placed BMW was Karel Abraham in 14th.
70 podiums in Assen for Ducati machinery: the second-best record in history behind the 76 scored in Misano by Ducati. Their wins tally is equally impressive: 25 which is again, inferior only to their Misano total of 28. Ducati weren’t able to win here in the last four years/nine races, which is this their worst drought at the Dutch track. The last Assen win for Ducati came in Race 2 in 2012, where they locked out the podium with Sylvain Guintoli in 1st, Davide Giugliano in 2nd and Carlos Checa in 3rd.
The 3rd place seems to be an all-Honda affair in recent times in Assen, as in the last four races held here the third spot was always occupied by a Honda bike: three times by Michael van der Mark and once (Race 1 last year) by Nicky Hayden. They were also in 3rd in 2014 Race 1 with Jonathan Rea, who went onto win the second race. Since 2004 they have scored at least one podium per race weekend here.They are second only to Ducati for wins here: 15 to 25.
The combined performances of Tom Sykes in qualifying and Jonathan Rea in the races made Kawasaki an unbeatable machine in Assen: they won the last 4 races held here and recorded pole in the last 5 race weekends. Their string of 5 poles was recorded only once in the past in this track: from 1992 to 1996 by Ducati. The last time a bike manufacturer won more than 4 straight races at Assen was in 1997 Race 2-1999 Race 2, when Carl Fogarty won four races and Frankie Chili one (1998 Race 1).
Yamaha have won twice at Assen: Noriyuki Haga claimed Race 2 in 2000 and Ben Spies won from pole in Race One, 2009. James Toseland was the last Yamaha rider on the podium here with a second and a third in the 2010 races. Last year Alex Lowes was the top scoring Yamaha rider around Assen with an 8th in Race 1 and a 7th in Race 2.
Last year in Assen MV Agusta recorded their best WorldSBK result: for the first time they were able to secure a top 4 finish with Leon Camier.