Parkes showed that he is back on the pace today by taking second place in qualifying following his accident at Donington only a month ago when he broke his right collar bone. And with Steve Martin settling into Curtain’s seat while he recovers from the leg injuries he sustained at Valencia, the team is confident of good results this weekend.
Parkes started the morning’s free practice session focusing on ensuring he was happy with the set-up and trying out several tyre options for the race. In the qualifying session Parkes proceeded to take second place on a flying lap before being knocked down to fourth by Sofuoglu and Charpentier. The session was then red flagged but as soon as it was re-started Parkes went out and re-took second place where he ended up only 0.017 seconds off pole position man Charpentier. Time ran out before the Australian could push any further for first place.
Today was Steve Martin’s first opportunity to ride the R6 since stepping into Curtain’s boots. Martin started the morning’s free practice session using Parkes settings which he adapted to suit his riding style. Martin hasn’t ridden in the supersport class since 2000 but that didn’t stop the highly experienced World Superbike rider taking to the R6 within the first few laps.
Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli comes to Assen confident after a win in the national Italian championship last weekend at Mugello. His new-found confidence showed today in both sessions with him finishing in eighth.
Broc Parkes (2nd - 1’42.191 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)
“Today’s sessions felt good. We tried two bikes which were set-up quite differently and have found a good direction for this weekend. Tomorrow we will concentrate on riding race distance to see if we can find the right tyre before the second qualifying session in the afternoon. But at the moment everything is going the right way for a good result this weekend. My collar bone is still sore and I’m finding it a bit hard to change direction in some of the fast-change corners but it certainly feels a lot better than it did at Valencia. “
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