Today marked the first day of racing at the TT Circuit Assen in The Netherlands for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing and rider Tom Sykes as they compete in round three of the Superbike World Championship.
Yesterday the English rider and his technical staff worked hard to find the best setup for their Ninja at the historic Dutch track and in the two free practice sessions Tom set a time of 1’36”547. This morning the track was partly wet for FP3 following rain overnight and so Sykes completed only a few laps, not wanting to risk a crash.
The Superpole took place in the late morning, establishing grid positions for the afternoon’s race. The Englishman put in a time of 1’35”152, but despite improving significantly on his best of yesterday, Tom had to settle for twentieth place, which translated into a spot on row seven of the grid for race 1.
Having made a good start, Sykes was making up places but was unfortunately forced to retire ten laps from the end owing to a technical problem with his ZX-10RR.
Tomorrow Sykes will compete in both the Superpole Race and Race 2.
TT Circuit – Assen – The Netherlands
Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 5) Gardner (Yamaha) ……. 22) Sykes (Kawasaki)
Superpole: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Rea (Kawasaki) – 3) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 4) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 5) Redding (BMW) – 6) Locatelli (Yamaha) …………. 20) Sykes (Kawasaki)
Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Rea (Kawasaki) – 3) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 4) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 5) Bassani (Ducati) – 6) Aegerter (Yamaha)…. DNF) Sykes (Kawasaki)
Tom Sykes
“I don’t have much to say. This morning in FP3 the track conditions prevented us from working on our bike. I improved in Superpole but not as much as I’d hoped. Although I started further back on the grid, I pushed right from the start and was working my way up when a technical problem forced me to pit. Today was difficult, despite our best efforts. We hope to do better in tomorrow’s final races.”
