Leon Haslam mastered the tricky weather conditions at Assen to secure his first British Superbike Championship pole position in eight years.
With the weather constantly changing around the iconic Dutch circuit, riders were torn on which tyres to choose. A variety of slicks, intermediates and wets exited pit-lane, with those on dry tyres instantly regretting their decision as they returned to pit-lane.
Haslam committed to a fast lap early in the session to post a 1:43.717, putting him 0.812s clear of the field. Haslam’s last pole position before today came at Donington Park in 2018.
Ryan Vickers, winner in four of the last five races, qualified second for Honda Racing UK, whilst Danny Kent put his Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha R1 third on the grid.
Championship leader Kyle Ryde will start Race One from fourth after a calculated session saw him steadily improve in the closing stages. Ryde lost some time on his final flying lap after almost running into the back of Max Cook on the exit of the final chicane.
Ryde’s closest title rival Scott Redding will line-up alongside him on the Hager PBM Ducati , with Jason O’Halloran completing second row.
Rory Skinner and Storm Stacey qualified seventh and eighth respectfully, with the former having to go through Q1. Glenn Irwin and Cook completed the top 10.
Ilya Mikhalchik ended his qualifying session in 11 th ahead of Rhys Irwin, with a struggling Bradley Ray, Lee Jackson and Joe Talbot rounding out the top 15.
The Q1 session was hit by rain midway through, leaving Christian Iddon outside of the Q2 spots. As a result, Iddon will start the opening BSB race from 16 th on the grid.
The returning Andrew Irwin will line-up alongside Iddon on the sixth row, with Fraser Rogers qualifying 18 th for TAG Honda.
Josh Brookes and Luke Hedger qualified 19 th and 20 th respectfully, with Eugene McManus, Scott Swann and Richard Kerr completing the grid. Swann returns to the superbike class with TAG Honda following the departure of Charlie Nesbitt.
The first BSB race of the weekend at Assen is scheduled to begin at 14:45 in the UK.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
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