Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes was not going to let a bit of water get in his way during the World Superbike free practice session at Assen. The Brit set the fastest lap time after fifteen minutes, and remained on top of the timesheets throughout, and clocked a lap time of 1’58.957.
The opening session was red flagged with less than four minutes remaining when Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam crashed on turn seven, and was taken to the medical centre, with a suspected leg injury. The Brit was having a solid time out on track until he crashed and was even second in the timings at first, but did end the session fifth fastest with a time of 2’01.112, before he hit the gravel.
Aprilia Racing’s Sylvain Guintoli managed to complete eleven laps of the Assen circuit, but could not manage to get to go as fast as Sykes and he set a lap time of 1’59.438.
GoldBet BMW team-mates Welshman Chaz Davies, and former MotoGP racer Marco Melandri were setting equally fast lap times, but it was the Italian who proved to be just that little bit quicker, with a time of 1’59.696, closely followed by Davies who was the fourth fastest this morning was a time of 2’00.728.
Injured Fixi Crescent Suzuki rider Leon Camier had a steady, progressive session, as it was only yesterday that he was declared fit to take part today. The Kent rider was just inside the top twenty times, but in the final minutes managed to make his way to eighth on the time sheets, with a time of 2’02.638, and ended the shortened session just behind French team-mate Jules Cluzel, but in front of Ducati Alstare rider Carlos Checa.
Aprilia Racing’s Eugene Laverty just narrowly missed being in the top ten of the time sheets, and ended the session in eleventh. But because of the wet conditions out on track, not every rider managed to get as many lap times completed as they wanted. Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea did manage to get out on track, but quickly came in as the weather conditions worsened.
