WORLDSBK.COM - bis 20.06.2011

[WORLDSBK.COM]

Giorgio Barbier, Racing Director Pirelli Moto, sums up the second round of the 2011 Superbike World Championship from the point of view of the championship's one-make tyre supplier.

"It was a fantastic day of competition for Pirelli all around the world. Pirelli Moto shone at the first European round of WSBK on the same day as its 4-wheeled side debuted as official tyre supplier for Formula 1 in Australia. Adapting to the very cold track and with no data available because there was no race last year, Pirelli's efforts to develop new compound solutions for an early spring race in the UK rang true when Checa (Ducati) set a new pole time of 1m28.099s on Diablo Superbike qualifying tyres that were new for this race. The majority of SBK riders in Race 1, including winner Melandri (Yamaha), selected the Soft (SC1) front and the new Mid-soft rear tyre, whose warm-up was hindered slightly by the cold track (6°C), but still offered strong consistency having seen Yamaha, Ducati and Aprilia bikes register mid 1m29s through lap 23. Second place finisher Smrz (Ducati) ran the softer (SC1) rear tyre in Race 1 in spite of the fact that low temperatures were not favorable to the soft compound. A 12°C rise in track temps for Race 2 and the softer tyre was confirmed by Checa (Ducati), Fabrizio (Suzuki), Lascorz (Kawasaki), Laverty (Yamaha) and Xaus (Honda), with Checa's race pace breaking into the 1m28s and leaving seven manufacturers in a row for the final result. For the cold weather and unpredictable track conditions, SBK riders were offered 4 front and 4 rear Diablo Superbike tyre options, two developed for this track, and similarly in Supersport with an all-new line-up of 3 front and 3 rear Diablo Supercorsa tyre options, accounting for over 3700 tyres transported. The race action was incredible, with so many battles for position, but most importantly Pirelli now have strong data on the performance of these new cold solutions, a key improvement area for our technical team and a requirement for any future races in these conditions."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

PTR Romania Honda is the newest team to start the World Supersport Championship with the talented Roby Muresan piloting a Honda CBR600 machine to what he hopes will be victory in the 12-round series. Muresan, from Arad in Romania, is just 20 years of age and has landed a dream ride in his own team operated by World Championship frontrunners Performance Technical Racing (PTR).

Running as PTR Romania Honda, the team is the only Romanian entry in the major motorcycling World Championships and its first track action was this weekend at Donington Park. The team has backing from Ursus, Asirom, The Romanian Tourist Board and PTR to date. It aims to build support within Romania in 2011 before targeting the World Championship in 2012.

Muresan declared: "It is a dream come true for me to be racing in the World Supersport Championship - the team is the best out there and that gives me a fantastic chance to show what I can do and put Romania firmly on the world motorcycle racing map. I am a racer and want to score strong points right from the outset and have a clear aim to be challenging for race wins soon. Thank you to Ursus, Asirom, The Romanian Tourist Board and all the current sponsors who have helped to make this happen."

Unfortunately Muresan's debut was thwarted by clutch problems throughout practice and qualifying and after a Sunday morning warm-up crash he did not start the Donington race.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Following his lengthy recovery from a massive accident while a Supersport World Championship rider last year at Silverstone, Joan Lascorz is now almost back to full fitness, while after a long period of preparation and testing the all-new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is showing a lot of promise. In the hands of rookie WSBK rider Lascorz, it only took until the second round of the year to show that man and machine are valuable additions to the overall contest.

First time out in Australia Lascorz demonstrated he had some good pace in his locker, but his right arm was not recovered enough to allow him to race at full pace causing him to have a double no score. At Donington last weekend Joan still had some issues with strength and endurance in race one, but an intense session with his physical trainer and then some small but key changes to his machine set-up allowed him and the new Kawasaki to join the top five club very early in the season. With seven competitive manufacturers in the class this year that was no mean feat, and a good omen not only for Joan but for all five regular Kawasaki riders in the championship this year.

Joan stated, "Things were better in the second race than the first. I made a change for the second race and from the beginning the bike was very easy and the tyre did not want to spin so much. The team did a good job so I am very happy to take a fifth place. It was also easier for me to ride in the second race, despite my old shoulder injury, because my physical trainer worked on it, loosened it up and I had no arm pump in race two. There has obviously been a big improvement since Australia. Two races in the points and a top five, not a bad end to the weekend."

Joan is now working to be fully fit and prepared to the next round, at Assen, on 17 April.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert - Liberty Racing) had a torrid time at Donington, and found out the reason why when he undertook more medical tests on the Monday after the races. His crunching crash in Australia had resulted in fractures to his hand and ankle, despite previous medical checks that indicated otherwise.

As Sylvain describes, "I spent all of Monday trying to find out why I had so much pain during the weekend in Donington. After some more X-rays and an MRI scan in Manchester, these are the conclusions of my doctors in UK. There are two fractures on my hand, one of which is quite bad. Fortunately, the bones have not moved and I should get better and better without surgery. There is also a fracture on my ankle that is not healed and is at risk of non-union. The bones have not moved. This means I will have to wear a support for 10 days and get some rest. More exams will be made after the Assen race to make a decision about surgery or not."

Sylvain was third placed qualifier in Australia and he expected to be a front-runner too, were it not for his big crash. He had to watch his team-mate Jakub Smrz make a good play for the win in race one at Donington last weekend, before Melandri caught and passed "Kuba" very near the end, so we can expect Guintoli to get back to full competitiveness just as soon as is humanly possible to make use of what is clearly a very competitive package.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The connection between Leon Haslam and Donington Park is well known and well documented and last weekend Haslam got the chance to return to the track he almost literally grew up at.

Despite his intense efforts, including a recovery from a massive near-high side in race one, Haslam stuck with the task manfully and came very close to scoring a much desired podium in race one, despite a far-from perfect machine set-up. Said Leon "It has again been a hard fought weekend for us, but we have definitely made clear improvements from Australia. In race 1 we had some issues, which were similar to those I experienced in Phillip Island, so we made some changes for the second race and it was a real improvement, especially in the second half."

He was not to be able to make the most of his better set-up after a moment of drama put him backwards for a time. "I made a mistake in the early laps of race 2, which dropped me back a number of places, but I was happy I was able to fight back and finish strong. We will now work hard to be ready for Assen."

Leon retained third in the championship after his two strong Donington rides.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Infront Motor Sports, the worldwide Promoter of the FIM Superbike World Championship, launches today (Thursday 31st March 2011) the tender procedure for the awarding of the exclusive tyre supply contract for the FIM Superbike and Supersport World Championships, the Superstock FIM Cup 1000 and the UEM Superstock 600 European Championship for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 racing seasons.

The tender is open to qualified tyre manufacturers who can demonstrate top level international experience and know-how in the supply of racing tyres within the framework of professional motorcycling racing championships.

The interested companies can contact Infront Motor Sports, Mr. Paolo Flammini, CEO, by sending a fax to +39 06 50966460.

Infront Motor Sports reserves the right to evaluate the standing of the applicants before providing specific information about the tender.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The inaugural European Junior Cup revved up for the first time last weekend under sunny skies at Spain's Guadix circuit. The series pre-season training camp saw racers from 10 countries draw lots for their Kawasaki Ninja 250R race motorcycles before proceeding to enjoy 2 days of exclusive track time under the watchful eye of series coach, former WSBK racer Simon Crafar from New Zealand.

In between sessions the teenage racers received instruction in machine set up, race craft and safety aspects, before joining Simon individually on track for a video bike recording and review. The weekend culminated in a race-start simulation, and with close racing guaranteed all the young riders are now eagerly awaiting the first round of the series at Assen (April 15-17), where it forms part of the Superbike World Championship event weekend.

In the photo (from left to right): Tom Busch (Germany), Loris Hunt (England), Daniel Mettam (New Zealand), Miguel Aranda (Spain), Qays Hashmi (Pakistan), Jean-Francois Demoulin (France), Brandon Kyee (USA), Daniel Teixeira (South Africa), Matt Davies (Australia), Sylvano DeAguiar (South Africa), Amelie Demoulin (France), Ross Patterson (Northern Ireland).

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Nearing the end of his long period of recovery from knee surgery, Kawasaki Racing Team rider Chris Vermeulen came back to competitive track action at Donington, for a time at least. He was withdrawn from the races themselves to help his long-term injury recuperate fully before undertaking an entire race weekend.

That full comeback should take place at Assen in two-week's time, at another circuit he knows well. Chris is currently riding a 600cc Kawasaki machine in Spain to help him make steady improvements in a pressure-free fashion, and he spoke to us about his hopes for the next weekend.

"I do not expect it to be easy physically but I expect to be able to compete for the whole weekend," said Chris. "The hard thing is doing three days back-to-back then on the third day it will be two long races. That is going to be the hard thing physically but mentally I have not raced for a long time, almost nine months I think since I actually raced. Just spending time on the Superbike recently I have done a total of around 60 laps, half of them at Cadwell Park. But I am excited to come back for a full weekend. Realistically, I do not think we are going to set the world on fire but hopefully we can get something out of the bike and show a bit of potential and some speed again."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Following his maiden World Superbike win at Donington Park, WorldSBK.com caught up with Italy's Marco Melandri, who rides the No. 33 factory Yamaha YZF-R1 for the Yamaha World Superbike Team. Melandri is a newcomer to World Superbike, having spent the past seven seasons in MotoGP. Prior to moving up to MotoGP, he won the 250cc World Championship for Aprilia in 2002. After taking his first World Superbike podium with a third-place finish in the second race of the season opener in Philip Island, Australia, Melandri won the first race of the second round at England's Donington Park and backed it up with a second-place finish in the second race. He currently stands second in the championship standings with 72 points, 19 points behind current leader Carlos Checa.

You have spent more than a decade riding purpose-built race bikes and prototypes. How difficult has the transition to production-based bikes been, and how have you had to adapt your riding style to suit your new Yamaha?

"The biggest difference is the weight of the bike and the braking, I think everything else is relatively similar and I haven't had any difficulty adjusting. The only big difference is having to adapt your riding style that is used to MotoGP tyres, to a style more adapt for our Pirelli Superbike tyres. "

In the first two rounds, you often appear to be stronger than the others entering corners. Can you please explain your apparent strength going into corners on your Yamaha?

"I think that's just down to getting the right balance and having a good feeling with the bike. I feel my R1 is working perfect with my style of riding, so I feel very comfortable on it and am confident entering into the corners."

Is your background as a 250cc rider been an advantage or disadvantage in coming to grips with the production-based Yamaha?

"I think it was an advantage. I believe riding a two stroke bike is always the best way to learn how to use the throttle and therefore my experience on a 250 cc really helped me to master that."

Now that you have contested two rounds in the Superbike World Championship after spending seven years in MotoGP, please talk about the level of competition in the two series.

"WSBK is more competitive. I think many different bikes, manufacturers and riders are in with a good chance of winning a race. And that makes it so much more exciting. In MotoGP however, only 2 or 3 riders are really in with a chance of winning, so every race is always the same. You go there and you try you hardest, but in the end of the day, you are just a number."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The largest branch of the Pedercini Team has already had a busy start to the season as Roberto Rolfo and Mark Aitchison have competed in the Superbike World Championship races at Phillip Island and Donington. For the rest of the Pedercini push Assen will be the first round of the season and thus the team decided to have the public launch as a full unit on 2 April, in Monzambano, Italy, near Lake Garda.

During the event the team's Superbike riders Mark Aitchison and Roberto Rolfo were in attendance with their full race versions of the Ninja ZX-10R. Then the three Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riders - Italian Marco Bussolotti, Argentine Leandro "Tati" Mercado and Aussie Bryan Staring - unveiled their new Kawasaki Ninja in its nice aggressive colours.

It was also a good opportunity to introduce the Italian Superstock 1000 and Superbike championships riders. In the Superstock Italian championship Team Pedercini will line up with the same riders as the FIM Cup while in Superbike the riders are Marco Borciani (two-times Italian Superbike champion) and Fulvio Faccietti.

Team owner Donato Pedercini said of the evening: "It is a day to celebrate, with our team reaching 18 years of age. Everything is in place for us to have a good season this year. The team have been working hard in the first two Superbike races. We have a competitive line-up both in Superbike and the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and I am sure that we will be celebrating the kind of results that we know the team is capable of."

Lucio Pedercini, himself a well-respected WSBK rider before he began to focus on team management full-time, stated: "I am happy that we are able to work this year with two riders of the calibre of Rolfo and Aitchison, while in Superstock our riders are young but very competitive and eager to win. We think this will be a good season for us. Kawasaki have given us a great bike and we are looking forward to Assen and can't wait to get on track for the third race of the Superbike and the first race of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The Ten Kate Junior Team has recently been gearing up for the opening rounds of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and the UEM European 600 Superstock Championships which both get underway next week at Assen.

Team riders Michael van der Mark (photo) from the Netherlands and Italian Luca Verdini made progress in recent testing at Valencia and Aragon, the Dutchman aiming for the best settings on his Honda CBR600RR machine, while Verdini focused on getting used to his new Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and the team.

Superstock 600 rider van der Mark declared: "It takes some time to get back the feeling after the long winter break. We tested a lot of different settings, but more important I made a lot of mileage to get back in my rhythm. At the tests things went better than expected."

Luca Verdini, who makes his debut with the Dutch team in Superstock 1000 after coming close to winning the Italian CIV title last year, added: "I'm very happy after the first tests. The cooperation with the team is perfect. It feels like we've been working together for years. The Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade is tuned very well and so is the base set-up. Of course, the real work starts yet but right now I'm very satisfied."

Team boss Ferry Schoenmakers, who has been a stalwart of Superstock racing for many years with his Ten Kate Junior team, was also confident for the season ahead after his riders' first outings: "We are very happy after the first tests of 2011. It's always exciting to see how it goes with the riders and the team after a long winter. Fortunately we have had no problems and both drivers were able to complete the full testing program. Hopefully we can keep this upward trend going."

Last weekend the team took part in the first round of the Dutch championship at Assen, with Luca Verdini in Superbike and Michael van der Mark in Supersport, both on their Superstock-spec bikes.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Eugene Laverty has excelled in many areas since he first came into the WSBK fold after two fruitful years in WSS racing. At Donington he was also on course for good raceday results but a big crash in race one almost scuppered his weekend in its entirety.

Despite his painful impact with the tarmac for the second time during race weekend, Laverty escaped with bad bruising and eventual inflammation of some of his joints. A mild concussion was the main legacy. He stated after a period of recovery at home, "It was a rough weekend but it had started off so well on Friday. I had some big crashes as well which did not go down well, but I will be back to normal at Assen, back to where we left off, challenging again."

Laverty was lucky to escape with only bangs and bruises, and took all possible steps to ensure the effect of his head knock would be minimised. "The main problem was concussion," he stated. "I had a lot of little bangs here and there on my body, but no breaks. I have been sleeping quite a lot, and concussion is never good, but I have kept on top of it by resting and now I am back to training again. It was important to let my body recover and you need to give these things some time. I will have two quiet weekends at home before Assen. It'll all be OK, and I am back in order now. If the weather is like last year at Assen everybody will be happy."

Laverty found out a probable reason for his offs after looking at all the available data. "We learned after the weekend that we had a tyre temperature problem. It was something we only realised after the weekend, and it explains the crashes really. I had been telling the guys that it felt that there was something on the rear tyre. After four laps I figured that it could not have been a cold tyre, because the first three laps were OK, but I fell on the fourth lap and it was like ice; it was colder than on any other lap. Some of that we can change a bit with set-up but also in the way that I ride. That is something I have learned as well. If conditions are like that then I never imagined that the tyres would get so cold, so it is something I can focus on to get some more force into the tyre, be a little bit more aggressive. Naturally I am smooth in my riding style."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The 34 year-old Dutchman Barry Veneman has been chosen by the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team as replacement for the injured James Toseland, who is continuing his recovery in view of the forthcoming rounds of the Superbike World Championship.

Veneman has a fair amount of international experience to his name, and as he knows well his home circuit, which is also one of his favourite, he is in a position to offer support to the team in setting up the bike for the Dutch Round from April 15-17.

His experience also extends to a season in GPs on a 500 cc two-stroke machine, and 64 races in World Supersport. In addition with a Suzuki in 2010 he won the Le Mans 24 Hours race in the FIM Endurance World Championship.

Veneman has already notched up considerable mileage on the BMW S 1000 RR, with which he has already raced, and will race in 2011 in the IDM German Superbike Championship, as well as taking part in several development test sessions with the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

After two rounds Italian Luca Scassa is leading the Supersport World Championship with maximum points and with his morale sky-high. The Yamaha YZF-R6 looks to be a cut above the rest and his Kawasaki and Honda rivals look to be struggling in his wake. WorldSBK.com spoke to the Yamaha ParkinGO in the run-up to this crucial third round.

"The Netherlands is a special place for me," declared the 28 year-old from Arezzo. "One of the first Superbike races I saw was at Assen in 1998 with that great battle between Chili and Fogarty! The old track was fantastic, full of banked curves, without any visual reference points or kerbing: it was truly the ‘Cathedral' of motorcycling. Unfortunately today the track has changed a lot."

Any thoughts already about the world title?

"After two rounds and two wins, we come to Assen as everyone else's target: the win in the first race might have come about by chance but in England the ParkinGO team totally cleaned up! I'm in the lead of the standings with maximum points and I'm pleased that in the last race Chaz also showed he could easily fight for the win. But for sure our rivals are not giving up. Kawasaki will be wanting to make up for their disappointing results and Sam Lowes will be there as well after his technical problem at Donington."

How will you approach bike set-up at Assen?

"We'll continue with the development of the Bitubo suspension to find the ideal set-up and get a perfect feeling with the bike: every time we go out on the track we improve and I hope it'll continue like that in the Netherlands. Everything's going really well, I want to thank Giuliano Rovelli (in the photo with Scassa) and the entire team for the incredible support they're giving me and I hope what I'm doing on the track can continue to produce excellent results in the next few races. I'm happy, fast and on top form. Hopefully it'll continue."

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

World Superbike fans will not only be able to enjoy the entire championship experience on Eurosport's traditional satellite TV channels throughout the 2011 season, but also directly from their personal computer, on Eurosport Player, Eurosport's online web TV application.

As well being able to watch extensive coverage of all World Superbike and World Supersport rounds live on Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and on Eurosport HD, and all the Superstock 1000 events live on Eurosport 2, sports fans can also sign up for a subscription package with Eurosport Player.

Eurosport Player provides subscribers with:

* streaming of both Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels

* Player exclusives: Superbike, Supersport, Superstock 1000 and Superstock 600 races not shown on the TV channels.

* "on demand" contents with an extensive archive of videos, including Superbike, Supersport and Superstock events available up to 7 days after the first broadcast. No matter if a SBK fan misses a race: they can catch up on the day's events up to 7 days later thanks to the Eurosport Player's library.

Eurosport Player is available in 59 countries in 20 languages across Europe. It requires a low-cost subscription of €4,90 per month, while the annual subscription is only €39,90.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

After a couple of years fighting against the limitations of machinery which was not quite at the level of the biggest teams in the Supersport World Championship line-up, Robbin Harms and his Harms Benjan Racing Team have got their latest Honda flying high in the 2011 points table.

Currently Robbin is third in the championship itself and the highest ranked Honda rider - no mean feat when you consider the vast array of talent ranged out across a number of teams and manufacturers. It all started last year, when he made a new partnership with Dutch team Benjan Racing, to allow rider and team to become more than the sum of their combined parts. We spoke to 29-year-old Dane Harms about what it took to get back into the mix at the top of this tough racing class.

"Our results have come from hard work," said Harms in the run-up to the Assen round. "The last couple of years I have been struggling with material which was far from top level factory material. Last year I made the decision myself to make a new team with the Dutch guys from Benjan Racing. We have made a good bike from the small budget we have, and I have concentrated to become a better rider, and the first two races have been very good."

For Harms and co., Assen is next, and there can be no more special place for the Benjan guys to go racing at. "It is the Dutch guy's home track next up and although there is not any more pressure, I hope we can get even better results because it is in Holland. I will do my best as always. It is their home track but I also have a lot of Danish guys coming to Assen, because it is the nearest race to Denmark. It is always a lot of fun to go there."

Robbin has been on the podium four times in his WSS career, the most recent dalliance with the top three places coming in Australia in 2008. He was very close to a podium at Donington, however, and intends to challenge for the top three places again in 2011.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The advent of a new season of European Superstock 600 Championship racing is about to get underway at Assen and this year there are 24 riders waiting to meet the challenge in this always-exciting class.

With so many young riders taking part in what is often a first ever season of international competition, the on-track action is unpredictable throughout the field. And what a field in 2011, with riders from 12 countries - including those outside Europe - all competing to emulate the feat of former champions Claudio Corti, Xavier Simeon, Maxime Berger, Loris Baz, Gino Rea and most recently Jeremy Guarnoni.

The riders in 2011 hail from Italy, Romania, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia, Spain, USA, Denmark, UK, France, Belgium and Slovakia and represent some 19 individual teams. They will run with Yamaha, Honda, Triumph and Kawasaki machinery this year, and based on the results from 2010, all of those machines should have their chance of a day in the sunlight.

Some riders, like Berardino Lombardi and Romain Lanusse, can even be considered to be seasoned veterans by comparison to some of their competitors; these include two former AMA Supersport champions of the calibre of Joshua Day (Racedays Kawasaki) and Austin DeHaven (Yamaha Trasimeno), as well as several other highly-rated youngsters such as Ten Kate Junior Team's Michael Van Der Mark, Nelson Major (Team Falcone Competition), Joshua Elliott (WMT Yamaha) from the UK and Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Sport Team) from Australia, who won last year's final round at Magny-Cours.

On machines which are very close to street spec and have to conform to very tight technical regulations, however, every rider has an even chance to shine in this star making class of competition.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) knocked Jakub Smrz (Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati) off the top slot with a lap time of 1 minute 36.035 seconds in the closing minutes of the Q2 session. Thanks to his third time on Friday, Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing) took the third quickest time, ahead of Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) who was half a second quicker than yesterday.

The same can be said for Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Team Aprilia), who was fifth, the Japanese rider finishing the session ahead of Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport). Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) failed to improve and he was seventh in front of Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare), while Carlos Checa could only manage ninth on his Althea Racing Ducati.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Jed Metcher, 21 years of age from St. Eltham in Australia, will start this afternoon's Superstock 600 opening round from the pole position after clocking a time of 1 minute 41.377 seconds, improving on the circuit best lap by a couple of tenths of a second. Alongside the MTM-RT Motorsports Team rider on the front row of the grid can be found young Frenchman Romain Lanusse (MRS Yamaha Racing France), Michael VD Mark (Ten Kate Junior Team Honda) and Nelson Major (Team Falcone Competition Yamaha).

Row 2 is made up of Alex Schacht from Denmark (Schacht Honda), the top Italian rider Dino Lombardi (Martini Corse Yamaha), Metcher's team-mate Gauthier Duwelz, and the promising Joshua Day of the Racedays Kawasaki squad.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Championship leader Luca Scassa (Yamaha ParkinGO Team) set the pole time in the Supersport class with a 1 minute 38.008s lap, his second such pre-race performance this year.

Close behind was Sam Lowes (Parkalgar Honda) with the rest of the top riders a little way back and led by Broc Parkes (Motocard.com Kawasaki). The last rider on the front row was Fabien Foret (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda).

New young star in this class Florian Marino, Foret's team-mate, was fifth in the grid rankings and Chaz Davies was sixth for the Yamaha ParkinGO team. Spanish competitor David Salom (Motocard.com Kawasaki) and Italian Roberto Tamburini (Bike Service RT Yamaha) closed out the second row, with 30 riders qualifying in total.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock) pushed his way to the front of the qualifying pack at Assen, ahead of three Italian Ducati riders.

David Giugliano (Althea Racing), Danilo Petrucci (Barni Racing Team) and Luca Baroni (Althea Racing) filled the final front row places for Sunday's race, with local rider Roy Ten Napel (Domburg Racing Honda) the top Fireblade rider.

Next up was Andrea Antonelli (Team Lorini Honda) with the best Kawasaki rider so far proving to be South African favourite, Sheridan Morais (Lorenzi by Leoni). Morais was the last rider to qualify within a second of pole.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

The first Superstock 600 race of the season was a thrilling three-rider fight all the way, with Michael van der Mark (Ten Kate Junior Honda) holding off a last chicane charge from Romain Lanusse (MRS Yamaha Racing France) and a race-long challenge from Aussie Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Motorsports Yamaha).

After 12-laps of intense competition the local 18-year-old rider enjoyed a margin of victory of 0.540 seconds from Lanusse, with Metcher almost snatching second place as an audacious move by Lanusse on van der Mark saw the Frenchman have to run wide and fight hard to keep second place.

 

 

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) secured his third pole in three race meetings with a fabulous 1 minute 35.292 second lap in the final Superpole session, leading home Jakub Smrz (Effenbert - Liberty Racing Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team). The final place on the front row for Sunday's races was taken by Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Team Aprilia).

Last year's double winner Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) went fifth fastest, and world champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) was sixth. Top Kawasaki rider was Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) but Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) lost his chance of pole by crashing in the final minutes and he now starts the races from the back of row two.

Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) and Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) just missed out on the final period of Superpole qualifying but made it into the top ten.

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

In the opening race of the Superstock season Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Ducati) held off a strong challenge from Danilo Petrucci (Barni Racing Team Ducati) to secure the win at Assen. Pole man Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock) slid back from his early challenge to go third.

Lorenzo Baroni (Althea Racing Ducati) had an eventual clear fourth but Bryan Staring (Pedercini Team Kawasaki) had an impressive ride through from 12th on lap one to give the new Kawasaki Ninja a fifth in its race debut. Andrea Antonelli (Team Lorini Honda) was the top Honda rider, sixth, having been passed by Staring late on.

 

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[WORLDSBK.COM]

Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) overcame the early battles at Assen to record his and Honda's first win of the 2011 season, beating Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) by 0.7 seconds and championship leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) by 3.5 seconds in race one.

Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike) overcame a slow start to claw his way back to fourth, just ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare). With Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) behind Fabrizio there were six different machines inside the top six places. Top Kawasaki runner was Mark Aitchison (Pedercini Team Kawasaki) in tenth. Leon Haslam, Corser's team-mate, survived a fast early crash to recover to a top-12 finish.

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