Team Suzuki Press Office – September 19.
Bennetts Suzuki's Christian Iddon will start from 10th on the grid for tomorrow's opening race at Assen and round 10 of the MCE British Superbike championship, despite a crash in the second qualifying session.
Iddon had been on the pace all weekend, and was inside the top-three in yesterday's two free practice sessions. After comfortably progressing from Q1, Iddon had set the sixth-fastest time in Q2, but unfortunately crashed halfway through the session.
Despite the crash, Iddon had still posted the eighth-fastest time come the chequered flag, but with his Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000 too damaged, he was unable to make it out for the final session to fight for a spot on the front two rows of the grid.
Christian Iddon:
“Completely my own fault that. We'd set a time that was good enough for Q3 and I was trying a few things on the way back around with my riding style and ways to exploit the bike's strong points even more. All I did was run wide and was running the kerb, so to avoid a crash I stood it up and ran onto what I thought was green painted asphalt, but what was instead wet Astroturf. I could have committed to the corner but thought it safer to run on, but as soon as I touched the Astroturf I was on my backside. A stupid, needless crash that's cost us. It's frustrating because we've been up there in every session really; and we should have been on the third, second, maybe even the front row. But I've made it hard work. The bike's working well though and I feel good, the guys have done a good job, so we'll keep working this evening and hopefully get some good results tomorrow.”
Josh Waters progressed from the opening qualifying session in eighth place and was pushing hard for a top-10 grid-spot in Q2, but just missed-out in the closing stages of the session and will start from the fourth row in 12th place.
Josh Waters:
“We've made some good steps with the GSX-R1000 this weekend. We tried a few things in practice and we've posted some good lap times. In Q1 I managed to put a good time in to get through to Q2 in eighth place. Sadly I just missed out on Q3 in the closing minutes, but the potential is there this weekend and if we can get a good start I think we can move ourselves further up the field and get a couple of strong results.”
Martin Halsall - Team Owner:
“There's that bad luck again. Christian had been looking strong all weekend and the team had been working hard with the new developments we've had to test, and we've found a good direction to go in with the set-up for the GSX-R1000. He set a good time in Q2 that was good enough to secure a spot in Q3, but he's just made a small mistake when trying new things to hopefully improve his lap-times further and instead it's cost us. It's a shame as it's made the job more difficult tomorrow, but we know the pace is there and he's been up there in every session.
“Josh has narrowly missed out on a top-10 grid spot but it shows the progress that's been made and I think there's more to come from him again tomorrow. The team has some more ideas for morning warm-up and other bits to try before the first race, so we're confident in the package and the developments we've made; and we are looking for some good results tomorrow."
Qualifying Result: 1. Josh Brookes, 2. James Ellison, 3. John Hopkins, 4. Michael Laverty, 5. Shane Byrne. 10. Christian Iddon (Bennetts Suzuki). 12. Josh Waters (Bennetts Suzuki).
