Though the weather forecast was not encouraging, there was no real sign this morning of the eventful day the World Superbike field would ultimately be in for at Assen, the day having begun with clear, blue skies, albeit combined with freezing temperatures.

But Assen is Assen and the weather often plays a big part here. Today was no different, Race 1 eventually postponed until Sunday, due to snow no less.

Before that, the Superpole qualifying session saw Ryuichi Kiyonari crash heavily towards the end of the session. He was subsequently declared unfit to race, a precaution taken due to the fact he was experiencing dizziness. The Japanese rider will try to compete in tomorrow’s rescheduled race programme.

Leon Camier qualified in eleventh place, unable to complete his final very fast flying lap because of a red flag waved less than two minutes from the end.

With the weather hopefully staying fine tomorrow, the new schedule for Sunday will see warm-up taking place at 09:00am, Race1 at 11:00am, in place of the Superpole Race, and Race 2 at 2:00pm.

Leon Camier 2

11th 1'35.920

“I think the postponing of Race1 was 100% the right call. Even this morning it was only about 4 degrees with track temperatures of maybe four or five degrees. That meant that even in the dry it was pretty sketchy, and we saw Cortese having a big high side in qualifying and Kiyo also crashing out. Maybe if it had been perfectly dry we could have raced, because the Pirelli tyres are behaving really well in cold temperatures. But nothing could have worked in the conditions we had today, and with the track even just a little wet, it would be really impossible to ride safely. In a situation like that, as soon as you touch the kerb or something, you don’t get a second chance. So, from the riders’ point of view it was really not safe and Dorna did a good job in taking this decision. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to race and do well, because we’re feeling better with the bike here and will do our best to score a better result.”

Ryuichi Kiyonari 23

16th 1'36.879

“There is not much to say. Conditions were tricky out there today. I was pushing hard to improve my lap time towards the end of qualifying when I suffered a crash which left me badly bruised. I was not feeling great, and so even before the decision came to postpone race 1, we had already decided that I would sit out today, rest up, and try to be ready for tomorrow.”

WorldSBK 2019
Qualifying Round 4   Netherlands

Superpole QP

Snow
Track Temp
5°C
Air Temp
4°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati Ducati 1'34.740
2 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 0.082
3 Reiterberger Markus 28 GER BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 0.088
4 Lowes Alex 22 GBR Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 0.195
5 Haslam Leon 91 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 0.346
6 Sykes Tom 66 GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 0.415
7 Davies Chaz 7 GBR ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati Ducati 0.548
8 Rea Jonathan 1 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 0.790
9 Torres Jordi 81 SPA Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki 0.955
10 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR Turkish Puccetti Racing Kawasaki 1.104
11 Camier Leon 2 GBR Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda 1.180
12 Cortese Sandro 11 GER GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 1.435
13 Laverty Eugene 50 IRE Team Goeleven Ducati 1.482
14 Barbera Hector 80 SPA Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki 1.566
15 Delbianco Alessandro 52 ITA Althea Mie Racing Team Honda 2.088
16 Kiyonari Ryuichi 23 JPN Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda 2.139
17 Melandri Marco 33 ITA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 2.302
18 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA BARNI Racing Team Ducati 2.481
Location Information

“The Cathedral” of motorcycle racing as it is known colloquially, the TT Circuit Assen has been hosting WorldSBK races since 1992, and celebrated its 25thanniversary as a Superbike venue in 2016. TT Circuit Assen

Pole Position Left
Length 4.542 Km
Corners 18
Right Corners 12
Left Corners 6

Records

Pole Record 1'33.505 (174,87 Km/h) J.Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, 2017)
Race Record 1'34.880 (172,34 Km/h) J.Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, 2017 RC1)
All Time Record 1'33.505 (174,87 Km/h) J.Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, 2017)
2019 Race 1 Winner Alvaro Bautista (Ducati panigale V4 R)
2019 Superpole Race Winner Cancelled due to weather conditions
2019 Race 2 Winner Alvaro Bautista (Ducati panigale V4 R)