The first day of World Superbike practice sessions at Assen was cold and rainy and the weather conditions hampered everyone, except for Tom Sykes who didn’t seem bothered by the weather conditions nor was he afraid to take any risks as he was the fastest rider both sessions.
However Aprilia riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty were second and third on the timesheets albeit much slower as they experienced the new 17in Pirelli wet tire, which in all probability they won’t be using anymore this weekend as the weather is expected to clear up tomorrow and on Sunday – but at Assen you never know.
Guintoli is considered somewhat a wet weather specialist after he took first ever World Superbike victory when he was riding for Effenbert Liberty during last year’s Assen round which was wet.
Today was the second time that the Frenchman rode his Aprilia in the wet after testing at Jerez, confirming his good feeling with the RSV4.
“I’m pleased with our work today since we are in second place without really trying for a quick time.
This is the second time for me on the RSV4 in the wet and these sessions will probably not be much use to us for tomorrow and Sunday, but it is always good to gain experience in all the different conditions.
I had the same good feeling in the wet that I already had during the tests at Jerez, and even though the rest of the weekend will be a completely different story I’m happy with these two sessions”, said GuintoliEugene Laverty decided it wasn’t worth the risk to pull a couple of fast laps due to the tricky conditions, but he was still third fastest and satisfied with his provisional qualifying position.
Laverty said, “Today the most important thing was not to make any pointless mistakes since it would seem that the rest of the weekend will be dry.
This was our first real test with the 17 inch rain tyres and we are in the top three, so if it rains for any of the coming races we know we’ll be ready.
If the weather forecast bears out tomorrow we’ll beginning working in view of the races, so on our long distance pace, aiming for a good result in Superpole so that we can do well on Sunday”.
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