Alstare Bimota’s Francis Batta believes it will not be long before his riders Christian Iddon and Ayrton Badovini will top the World Superbike Evo tree, and depose the likes of Nico Canepa and Leon Camier.

Badovini was second behind Canepa in race one and Iddon third in race two at Assen. The pair had a crash each in tough conditions but stuck it to the raft of Kawasakis which were meant to dominate the class.

“We suffered two crashes, but fortunately neither Ayrton nor Christian were hurt - and that is the main thing. The team did a fantastic job rebuilding Christian’s bike in such a short time and he was able to start the second race, said Batta.

“Of course, we would’ve all preferred dry conditions today, but this is Assen and rain is no stranger here. We’ve learnt a lot this weekend and our knowledge of this new bike is increasing very steadily and so I don’t think it will be too long before we are the top Evo bike. This is our goal and we will do everything we can to achieve it.”