Rea ups his game to secure provisional pole at Assen

Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea secured provisional pole position at Assen today when he posted an impressive 1.36.035s best on his last lap of the hour long qualifying session.

After struggling with grip and feeling at three points on the circuit yesterday the team worked hard on his bike set-up to resolve the issues which led to him slashing his day one lap time by one second.

Jakub Smrz held onto second position despite not improving on his day one lap time and it was the same for Aprilia man Max Biaggi in third. Troy Corser continued to show his affiliation with the Assen track in fourth as did Noriyuki Haga who jumped to fifth onboard his privateer PATA Aprilia.

Leon Haslam used the softer ‘A’ tyre to move to sixth but actually spent the majority of the session working on race set-up and tyre life. The factory BMW rider posted over 20 laps on a potential race tyre and is confident that with some minor changes he can be competitive in the two races.

Marco Melandri and Michel Fabrizio were another two riders who failed to improve their lap time meaning they slipped from the provisional front row to seventh and eighth place respectively.

Carlos Checa improved his time to take ninth as did Leon Camier in 11th. Eugene Laverty continued to work on understanding his R1 on worn tyres in 12th with Tom Sykes unable to better his day one best in 13th.

Superpole to determine the final grid positions gets underway at 15.00 local time.

1.  Jonathan ReaHonda (Castrol Honda) 1’36.035 CBR1000RR
2.  Jakub SmrzDucati (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) 1’36.058 1098R
3.  Max BiaggiAprilia RSV4 (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 1’36.287 Factory
4.  Troy CorserBMW S1000 (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1’36.322 RR
5.  Noriyuki HagaAprilia RSV4 (PATA Racing Team Aprilia) 1’36.368 Factory
6.  Leon HaslamBMW S1000 (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1’36.455 RR
7.  Marco MelandriYamaha YZF (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 1’36.494 R1
8.  Michel FabrizioSuzuki (Team Suzuki Alstare) 1’36.550 GSX-R1000
9.  Carlos ChecaDucati (Althea Racing) 1’36.596 1098R
10.  Ruben XausHonda (Castrol Honda) 1’36.643 CBR1000RR
11.  Leon CamierAprilia (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 1’36.728 RSV4 Factory
12.  Eugene LavertyYamaha (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 1’36.729 YZF R1
13.  Tom SykesKawasaki (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) 1’36.747 ZX-10R
14.  Joan LascorzKawasaki (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1’36.841 ZX-10R
15. Sylvain  Guintoli1’37.005 Ducati 1098R (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing)
16.  Ayrton BadoviniBMW (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) 1’37.186 S1000 RR
17.  Maxime BergerDucati (Supersonic Racing Team) 1’37.272 1098R
18.  Chris VermeulenKawasaki (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1’37.501 ZX-10R
19.  Barry VenemanBMW S1000 (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) 1’37.569 RR
20.  Roberto RolfoKawasaki (Team Pedercini) 1’37.676 ZX-10R
21.  Mark AitchisonKawasaki (Team Pedercini) 1’37.794 ZX-10R