Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea left it till the chequered flag appeared to set the fastest lap of the morning – a 1’36.549 in the first World Superbike free practice session at the TT circuit at Assen.
It’s the home round for his team, so the Northern Irishman made sure that he made an impact, and out-paced Kawasaki’s Loris Baz and Ducati’s Davide Giugliano to take the spoils.
Initially it was Rea who set the pace, only for Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli to go quicker. But Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes then clocked a 1’37.074 to get the better of both riders to top the timing screens with eighteen minutes remaining.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes then decided he wanted to challenge for a place in the top three, and after fifteen minutes clocked a 1’37.179 to go third. But that was only to last for a few seconds as Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty went one-three hundredths of a second faster, pushing Huddersfield’s finest to fourth.
Baz must have decided that he wanted to get one over his team-mate and did just that – with a 1’36.912, and was the first rider to lap inside the 1’36’s – knocking Lowes down to second in the process. Ducati’s Davide Giugliano had a steady session and didn’t make any threats to the top five – until there was four minutes of track time left. He lapped a 1’36.804 to place him second. At the same time Rea was on course for his quickest lap of the day so far – a 1’36.865. But he was one-six hundredths of a second too slow to beat the Ducati but went up to third.
But the Isle of Man’er was not to be defeated and as the chequered flag came out he went over the line to set the fastest time of the morning, a 1’36.549 followed by Baz and Giugliano.
At the end of the session Sykes failed to make it into the top three, missing out by one tenths of a second, with Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty rounding off the top five. The Irishman was one-four hundredths of a second faster than his rookie team-mate Lowes, and the Derby based rider ended the morning in sixth, with the Aprilia duo of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli behind him.
Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam completed the top ten followed by Ducati’s Chaz Davies. Alstare’s Christian Iddon had a positive session, and was only 0.6 seconds off the pace of Davies and ended the morning twelfth quickest and the second fastest Evo bike, behind Althea Racing’s Niccolo Canepa, who placed ninth on the time-sheets. BMW Italia’s stand-in rider Leon Camier finished in fifteenth with a 1’38.465.
