Cloudy conditions and intermittent rain characterized day two of this third WorldSBK round at the Assen TT Circuit. In yesterday’s practices, Tito Rabat worked hard with his team to adapt his Ninja ZX-10RR KRT Factory Replica to the Dutch track.
This morning, he was back out for Superpole, which ran on a fully wet track. This was the first time the Spaniard was riding the Ninja in the wet, the rider placing twenty-second with a time of 1’48”996.
With this result, Tito lined up on the seventh row of the grid for the first of the weekend’s races, which took place on a wet track this afternoon, the rain only stopping a few minutes before the race start. On a track that gradually dried out, the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider was unable to find the right feeling with the tyres and bike and preferred to retire.
Tomorrow the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider will compete in the Superpole Race and the second and final Superbike race of this third WorldSBK round.
TT Circuit Assen
Superbike World Championship
Superpole: 1) Rea (Yamaha) – 2) Razgatlioglu (BMW) – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Lowes (Ducati) – 5) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 6) Gardner (Yamaha) ……… 22) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Race 1 – 1) Spinelli (Ducati) – 2) Razgatlioglu (BMW) – 3) Bautista – 4) Gardner (Yamaha) – 5) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 6) Rea (Yamaha) – 7) Van der Mark (BMW) ……… DNF) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Tito Rabat
“The difficult track conditions affected today’s Superpole and race. In qualifying, I tried to adapt to the rain tyres that I’d never used before with this bike. In the race we opted for slick tyres, which proved to be the right choice, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find good feeling with the bike on a track that went from wet to dry, and I preferred to retire. For tomorrow we hope the weather improves so that we can score better results. Big thanks to the team as they’ve so hard again today.”
