Qualifying three

Christian Iddon 1’52.261

Tommy Bridewell 1’52.672

Alstare Juniors wildcard rider Christian Iddon ended up bagging his maiden pole, in what is his first race weekend in the MCE British Superbike class with his new team, in wet conditions at Assen this afternoon.

The Stockport lad was racing in World Superbikes a few weeks ago, but his Bimota Alstare team were forced to pull out because of homologation rules, which paved the way for Iddon to take part this weekend for the Junior team.

A 1’52.261 on a wet track was enough for Iddon to start from the number one spot on the grid, with Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Tommy Bridewell rounding up the third row. The American racer was close to pole, but was a tenth off the time set by Iddon after a 1'52.392.

The Devizes Swearbox was the highest Showdown rider on the timing screens as it was a bit of a disaster for Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne. He crashed in Q2 and the current championship leader has to start from the fourth row in race one tomorrow, leaving him with a difficult task to fight for the win on Sunday.

Byrne was not the only title fighter to crash, as Kiyonari fell whilst on a hot lap at Madijk, but had already done enough to start on the second row, after a 1’52.778. Joining the Japanese rider is Quattro Plant Kawsaki’s Dan Linfoot and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes – making up a title fighting second row.

Q3 was a wet qualifying session as the heavens opened right at the end of the second qualifying outing, leaving the final session extended to a total of twenty minutes - to include some time to practice in the rainy conditions on wet tyres. But at the end of the outing the track did dry up in some areas as the dark clouds slowly moved away for the TT track.

It was a great qualifying session for Riders Motorcycles BMW’s Martin Jessopp, who made it through to Q3 for the first time this year, and qualifies on ninth on the grid to bag his best start of the season. RAF Reserves Honda’s Peter Hickman will head up the fourth row after only having one minute of track time in Q3. His team were in a race against time to get the bike ready for the final qualifying session after his crash in Q2.

Qualifying two

Peter Hickman 1’38.093

The rain flags started to appear at certain sections of the track as drops of rain started to fall from the sky - which happened right at the beginning of the session. After five minutes out on track it was Hickman who set the pace with a quick 1’38.093 ahead of Brookes and Linfoot.

Meanwhile Hickman was going around for another fast lap but he ended up crashing at Ruskenhoek, but literally seconds later Byrne fell in the same place, on the slippery surface. But the Lambeth born rider won’t have chance to challenge for pole as he was only the 12th fastest rider in Q2 at the time of the incident, so he will start race one from the fourth row.

The Milwaukee Yamaha pairing of Brookes and Bridewell managed to have a big moment out on the track in the same place as Hickman and Byrne, but the team-mates managed to hang on as the back end of their bikes nearly came away from them. Hopkins was teetering very close to the elimination zone but managed to hold off the challenge from Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland.

The Northerner couldn’t find the added pace to join his team-mate in the final qualifying session. Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Waters, Bathams' Patric Muff, Metcher and Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring were also out of contention of a provisional pole position.

WD-40’s Barry Burrell, Rapid Solicitors Kawsaki’s Stuart Easton and GBmoto Kawsaki’s James Ellison, who is still healing from a leg injury, all failed to make it into Q3 too.

ELIMINATED

Westmoreland

Byrne

Waters

Muff

Metcher

Mainwaring

Burrell

Easton

Ellison

Qualifying one

Ryuichi Kiyonari 1’37.282

With twelve minutes remaining the session was red flagged after Anvil Hire Tag Racing’s substitute rider, Kevin Valk crashed at Madijk and is being assessed by medical staff at the circuit. The Dutch Superbike rider was riding in the place of the crocked Richard Cooper, who is nursing an arm injury.

But soon Q1 was back underway and it was Kiyonari, Byrne and Linfoot leading the way. But John Ingram soon joined Valk in the gravel minutes later, after crashing at Stekkenwal.

Pirelli National Superstock 1000 contender Lee Jackson tried a last lap dash to make it into the top twenty times, but the Buildbase BMW teenager couldn’t edge out PR Racing’s Jed Metcher.

He joined FFX Yamaha’s Filip Backlund and Gearlink Kawsaki’s Ben Wilson in the drop zone. In the end only one-one thousandths of a second separated Lincolnshire lads Jackson and Wilson.

Wildcard rider Joe Burns was never in contention of making it into Q2, but wasn’t the only one to lap times that were not good enough of processing to the next qualifying session. Ingram, Ponsson, Zanetti and Mason also failed to go through to the second stage.

ELIMINATED

Backlund

Jackson

Wilson

Burns

Ingram

Ponsson

Zanotti

Mason

Carr

Lo Turco

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