At Assen Yamaha usually bets on home rider Michael van der Mark, but this time it’s Alex Lowes who nailed it. The Brit achieved the pole position for Race 1 thanks to an amazing last lap in 1’34.066 and the prize for this wonderful performance is Alex’s first pole position in World Superbike.
Behind Lowes, the three times World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea ranked 2nd. The Northern Irish rider took the lead in the early stages with a lap in 1’34.761 and then he went even faster till 1’34.112, but it wasn’t enough to beat Lowes and so he will start second between the Pata Yamaha rider and Xavi Forés.
Second row for Lorenzo Savadori, Marco Melandri and Tom Sykes, while Michael van der Mark will start seventh followed by Chaz Davies and Jordi Torres. Fourth row for Loris Baz, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
Race 1 will start at 13:00 local time and we’ll see 18 riders on the track instead of 19. Yes, because Jake Gagne will not take part in the first of the two races, due to the bad crash he had in FP2.
Photo Credit: Yamaha Racing