Day two of the second Supersport World Championship round has concluded at the TT Assen Circuit in The Netherlands, with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Can Oncu and Yari Montella competing first in the Superpole and then in the first of the weekend’s two races.
Yesterday, Oncu (1’37”958) was a frontrunner, finishing second in the practice sessions, while Montella (1’39”025) placed thirteenth in the combined standings, also due to a tyre issue towards the end of the second session.
Superpole played out this morning in cool, sunny conditions. Oncu improved on his best of yesterday, finishing second with a fastest time of 1’37”357. Montella was more unlucky, crashing early on and unable to find the right moment to exploit the fresh tyre. His best time of 1’38”785 saw him position just eighteenth. With these results, the Turkish rider lined up on the front row of the grid and the Italian from the sixth for the afternoon’s 18-lap race.
Having made an excellent start, Oncu was fighting in the leading group when he unfortunately suffered a crash on lap five. He was unhurt but was nevertheless forced to retire. Montella got away well when the lights went out and this allowed him to climb back up the field. He continued to make progress until lap fourteen, when the race was brought to an end with a red flag, due to an incident involving other riders. Montella therefore crossed the line in twelfth place.
In the championship standings, Oncu lies twelfth with 16 points while Montella is fourteenth with 13. Tomorrow will see them both compete in the second and final race making up this second WorldSSP round at Assen.
TT Assen Circuit – The Netherlands – Supersport World Championship
Superpole: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Oncu (Kawasaki) – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 5) Van Straalen (Yamaha) ……. 18) Montella (Kawasaki)
Race 1 – 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Van Straalen (Yamaha) – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Cluzel (Yamaha) – 5) Caricasulo (Ducati) ……. 12 ) Montella (Kawasaki)…… DNF) Oncu (Kawasaki)
Can Oncu
“I was very fast in Superpole and scored a front row start. I also made a good start o the race and was fighting in the front group when I unexpectedly lost traction at the front and crashed. I was unable to continue unfortunately. I’m really sorry because today we had the potential to score an excellent result, but we were unlucky. Thanks to my technicians for all their hard work.”
Yari Montella
“Today definitely wasn’t our lucky day. First I crashed in Superpole and then I was unable to make a clean lap that would allow me to improve. In the race, I made a good start and got into a strong rhythm that allowed me to move up. But my progress was stopped by the red flag, without which I could have scored a better result. The positive thing is that we’ve understood where to work to improve and so we’ll try to make up for today in tomorrow’s races.”
