#AssenWorldSBK: LOOKING FOR IMPROVEMENTS AFTER OPENING DAY
The 27-year-old WorldSBK rookie completed Friday’s free practice sessions in P13.
Round four of this year’s FIM Superbike World Championship got underway in dry but too cold temperatures for this season. Stefan Bradl got an updated version of the Honda engine though which was initially planned for a later date this year. However, an engine break down during the Aragon warm up earlier this month caused this early action. Apart from this, the Honda rider endured a difficult start into the weekend in the northern part of the Netherlands.
Towards the end of FP1 this morning, Bradl crashed as the rear wheel suddenly slipped away. By the afternoon, however, he already had checked off this setback and Bradl was able to improve his feeling with the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 Superbike slightly which was underlined by a significantly improved lap time although he missed to go through Superpole2 by just 0.189 seconds.
Both races of the weekend will be broadcasted live on Austrian’s channel ServusTV. The programme is available on FreeTV in the entire German speaking area and starts on Saturday and Sunday at 12:30 pm respectively.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, Honda CBR1000RR SP2), FP1: P14 – 1´37.274 / FP2: P12 – 1´36.459:
“This morning we started with a new engine version into the weekend but we endured a few issues that required some extra work. We were able to sort them out for the afternoon session but we now have to work on the feeling and confidence with the rear which I miss at the moment. Of course, that’s not the way we wanted to start into the weekend but hopefully we’ll able to make some more progress tomorrow.”
#AssenWorldSBK – Combined Free Practice Times FP1/FP2:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1´35.383 (FP2)
2 Chaz DAVIES / GBR / Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / 1´35.495 +0.112 (FP2)
3 Tom SYKES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1´35.532 +0.149 (FP2)
13 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team / 1´36.459 +1.076 (FP2)
#AssenWorldSBK Time Schedule for Saturday, April 29th 2017 (CET)
08:45 – 09:10 FP3
10:30 – 10:45 Superpole 1
10:55 – 11:10 Superpole 2
13:00 – Race 1 (21 Laps – 81.786 km)