Assen, FP2: Weather chaos, cancellations, Bautista’s best time / Superbike World Championship

The weather would actually be better in Assen on Friday. It was cold all day and the temperature was around ten degrees and it continued to rain. In the first practice session of the morning, it took more than half an hour before the last Superbike rider took to the track while the patches were still wet. BMW star Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest time with 1:35.684, which was, however, about two seconds slower than the lap record and therefore of little significance.

The second practice session in the afternoon also started with small steps on the track, as it was clear that the conditions were going to get better every minute. Half the route was dry, the other half was at least wet. At the same time the sun was shining and facilitating the normal training activities for a while.

After 15 minutes, Michael Rinaldi was leading the timesheets, but at 1:36.666 the Italian on the Motocorsa Ducati was a good second slower than Razgatlioglu in the morning.

World Championship leader Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) set a first lap time of under 1:36, followed by Jonathan Rea (Yamaha) and Rinaldi. Eight of the 23 drivers had run their career bests. At the halfway point of the 45-minute session, Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) set the fastest time so far this weekend in 1:35.473 minutes.

With 16:52 remaining, the second practice session was stopped because the air fence had come loose from its anchor in turn 8 and had to be repaired again. But before the session could continue, heavy rain fell from the dark clouds on the track. Time improvements were impossible to achieve. A few pilots took advantage of the current wet conditions for wet training.

Alvaro Bautista, who leads the combined time list ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Remy Gardner (Yamaha), remained the best time. However, neither the cycle times nor the order are meaningless.