Assen: Rain turns SSP World Championship Superpole into a toy / Supersport World Championship

As of this year, the Supersport World Championship has only one free practice session and the Superpole will take place on Friday afternoon. Because of the reduced practice time, pilots spent most of the 40-minute qualifying session starting their bikes. But because it had previously rained in FP2 in the Superbike category, conditions changed every lap.

In chaotic conditions in free practice, Öncü (Kawasaki) set the fastest time of 1:44.919 minutes, but it also rained in the morning and the result was worthless. After 20 minutes on Superpole, Glenn van Straalen (Yamaha) closed the time table with a time of 1:46.900 minutes.

To evaluate: The pole record comes from last year, set by world champion Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) in 1:36.900 minutes!

Just as the conditions improved and enabled fast lap times, another heavy downpour fell on the TT Circuit with 20 minutes to go. Earlier, Stefano Manzi (Yamaha) had topped the timesheet with a time of 1:45.203. Only a few pilots remained on the runway to train in wet conditions.

The conditions were not ideal until the end and almost every driver was on the track in good time to record a solid lap time. Only 17 of the 34 participants were within the 105 percent barrier. From Raffaele De Rosa (QJ Motor) in 15th place the gap is more than 5 seconds, from 23rd place it is 6 seconds.

Ten pilots Kate Manzi and van Straalen along with Ducati ace Adrian Huertas will start from the front row. Marcel Schrötter was fourth best in his MV Agusta and Tom Booth-Amos would be the best Victory driver in seventh place.

Swiss Marcel Brenner (Kawasaki) was only 32nd. Below is Öncü, who fell and was left without time.