Van der Mark second fastest on opening day at Assen

[totalmotorcycle]

#VanderMark second fastest on opening day at #Assen



Dutch rider Michael van der Mark set the second fastest time in today’s practice sessions at Assen in the Netherlands in preparation for Sunday’s third round World Supersport race on Sunday.

Even though the Pata Honda rider was unable to improve his lap time in this afternoon’s warmer and drier conditions, the 21-year-old put his Honda CBR600RR in a provisional front row place just eight hundredths of a second behind Frenchman Florian Marino.

Van der Mark’s Pata Honda team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti ended the day 12th fastest but the Italian is positive about adjusting his braking style for tomorrow’s qualifying to suit the characteristics of the 4.542km Dutch circuit.




Michael van der Mark - P2, 1m38.989s

I had a good feeling today which started immediately when I got on the bike this morning. The set-up felt really good for the first free practice and then we put in a new tyre 10 minutes before the end of the session. I made a really nice lap time that was faster than my qualifying time last year, so that was pretty good! We changed some things on the bike for the afternoon because we had one or two little problems. Although I didn’t really make a fast lap time, we found some really good race pace and consistent lap times, which were coming quite easily. This is good for the race but I think for qualifying we just need to find a bit extra on the setting to push for one really fast lap.





Lorenzo Zanetti - P12, 1m40.057s

The weekend started not too bad this morning. Everything felt quite OK this morning, and this afternoon I got quickly to the same lap time as this morning. I don’t know why but, when I wanted to push and improve the time, it didn’t come. It started to get difficult to ride because normally I like to ride with a lot of brake pressure, but maybe it doesn’t suit this track. Maybe we can change something on the bike for the track and also find something in me so that we have a solution for tomorrow.





Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Michael was fast in the first session, which came surprisingly easy, without too much adjustment on the bike. We worked on race pace this afternoon but he was unable to improve on his morning time. It was only by a tenth or so, and it’s been a pretty good start for him. The morning was OK for Lorenzo and this afternoon we continued with the used tyre. He struggled to get a rhythm with it and also, when we put in a fresh tyre at the end, he wasn’t able to improve. We have some work to do there and hope for dry weather tomorrow in order to help him move forward.






Weather
Sunny


Air
19°C


Track
33°C


Humidity
60%






Free Practice Results - Results

1 Florian Marino 1m38.903s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
2 Michael van der Mark 1m38.989s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
3 Jules Cluzel 1m38.992s FRA MV MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
4 Kenan Sofuoglu 1m39.419s TUR KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
5 Kev Coghlan 1m39.514s GBR YAMAHA DMC Panavto-Yamaha
6 Patrick Jacobson 1m39.644s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
7 Roberto Tamburini 1m39.811s ITA KAWASAKI San Carlo Puccetti Racing
8 Ratthapark Wilairot 1m39.844s THA HONDA Core PTR Honda
9 Jack Kennedy 1m39.845s IRL HONDA CIA Insurance Honda
10 Marco Bussolotti 1m39.854s ITA HONDA Team Lorini
12 Lorenzo Zanetti 1m40.057s ITA HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team