Kawasaki Intermoto's Florian Marino will start the World Supersport race from the number one spot on the grid at the TT circuit at Assen tomorrow, in what is his maiden pole in the class.
The Frenchman set a time that was only two tenths of a second off the outright lap record at the Dutch circuit – and was able to successful hold off the charges from Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark, and Mahi Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu. CIA Insurance Honda’s Jack Kennedy and DMC Panavto-Yamaha’s Kev Coghlan will start the race from the second row.
At first it was Yakhnich’s Jules Cluzel who was the first rider to set the race-pace, but that was only to last a few seconds as Van Der Mark did a 1’38.410 to go on provisional pole at his home track, and was quickly followed by the triple champ, Sofuoglu - after twenty minutes..
With less than fifteen minutes of track time left Coghlan put in a 1’38.792 that pushed him from sixth to third fastest, but was pushed down to a possible second row start after Marino put in a solid 1’38.106 to go fastest overall, breaking the best lap record held by Sofuoglu back in 2010 by two tenths of a second.
But the rain started to fall in some sectors of the Dutch track, with thirteen minutes of track time remaining. Soon after the flags appeared many of the rider’s decided to go back to their garages.
While most of the riders stayed in the pits Van Der Mark was on course to snatch pole from Marino, but got held up with other rider’s on track, and remained second overall. With two minutes till the end of the qualifying session the white flags were put away and the rider’s began to up their pace again.
A last lap dash by Sofuoglu was fast – but not fast enough to topple Marino and had to settle for second on the grid after a 1’38.225. But the Turkish rider was not the only lad to clock his quickest lap just as the chequered flag appeared - CIA Insurance Honda’s Jack Kennedy came from no where to lap a 1’38.762, that shot him straight into the second row.
The Dubliner was one-three thousandths quicker than Coghlan who was pushed to sixth, but still remains on row two – which is headed up by Yakhnich’s Jules Cluzel. Marino’s team-mate, former MCE British Superbike contender PJ Jacobsen and CIA Insurance Honda’s Raffaele De Rosa complete the top ten. Com Plus Racing’s Fraser Rogers will start the race tomorrow from 24th on the grid.
