Kawasaki’s Loris Baz had one hell of a World Superbike qualifying session at Assen this afternoon, not only did he clinch his debut pole in the class, he pulverised the best lap record that has been held for four years after his impressive 1’34.357 lap at the Cathedral of Speed.
The Frenchman is still unsure how he managed to put down such a time, but his recent run of good form has left him full of confidence. He was even able to out pace his team-mate, Tom Sykes to take the number one spot on the grid. Baz is currently second in the overall championship standings and has a ‘good feeling’ ahead of the two races tomorrow.
“I am not sure why my lap time was so good but I had been feeling good all weekend and I was just missing one or two tenths from yesterday. I managed to do a good race simulation this morning but I was missing nearly every lap one or two tenths,” said Baz.
“I think at the beginning of Superpole I improved maybe six tenths over my best lap of the weekend. So I think we found something with my bike on a race tyre. Superpole was just perfect. I knew it was going to rain so I just pushed as hard as I could and I am really happy with this performance.
“I think we are better with a qualifier just because of all the changes we made in set-up this year. Also I feel I had less pressure when this moment comes. I really enjoyed the fast lap today and I really enjoyed the bike. Everything is about confidence because the bike is working well and every time on the bike you build confidence.
“When you have this confidence at the beginning then you know that you can always come back to a good point. I think that is the key, that we are fast everywhere. Being on the podium twice in Aragon made me very confident for all the season.”
