Assen 500: Provisional Qualifying

Suzuki Castrol have dominated qualifying for Monday's Assen 500 round of the World Endurance Championship, with Vincent Philippe almost two seconds faster than the second rider in his group, and Keiichi Kitagawa 1.6 seconds clear in his group after the first session. Vincent Philippe: "I could maybe have gone a little faster in the second session, but we wanted to concentrate on a race set-up. We tried different settings on two different bikes; the sensations were different but I am happy to race either one."

Second place went to Team Suzuki Nederland, with Barry Veneman putting in a time over a second quicker than the next fastest rider in his team. Yamaha Austria No.7 sent their number two rider Gwen Giabbani out with the third group to take advantage of the less crowded track, allowing him to lap a tenth of a second quicker than his team mate Igor Jerman, taking third place in the process. Yamaha Austria No.77's Thomas Hinterreiter was fourth and Yamaha Phase One Endurance's Andi Notman fifth.

Having riders who can lap in similar times is very helpful for an endurance team, but Bolliger Kawasaki have a trio who are particularly closely matched. Their riders Marcel Kellenberger, David Morrillon and Patric Muff were all within a tenth of a second of each other during the first qualifying session. Morillon went faster in his second session, moving up to eighth place behind Marko Rohtlaan on the Shell Endurance Academy Yamaha and Tim Rothig on the Bridgestone Bikers Profi Suzuki.

The Assen 500 race takes place on Monday the 28th of March.

Provisional Qualifying Positions