Iddon tops day one at Assen BSB
Showdown spoiler Iddon fires ahead of Byrne and Haslam as Assen weekend kicks off!
Showdown spoiler Christian Iddon kicked off the Assen round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship by forging his way ahead of leading title contenders Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne and Leon Haslam in the opening free practice sessions at the legendary circuit.
Dan Linfoot had led the opening session, running just 0.031s ahead of Iddon, but the times tumbled in the afternoon and the Tyco BMW rider fought back to the top in a session where the leading trio set a time within the existing lap record ahead of tomorrow’s Datatag Qualifying session.
At the start of the second session Haslam hit the top of the times as he bids to overhaul Byrne this weekend, running ahead of his Be Wiser Ducati rival, Luke Mossey and Linfoot.
The positions were constantly shuffling and the Title Fighters continued to close in at the top with James Ellison leaping inside the top five with just 15 minutes remaining of the session, pushing the Honda Racing pairing down the order with Linfoot in sixth and O’Halloran running 12th.
An intense final ten minutes saw another shake up as the contenders headed out for their last run of the session with Haslam still holding the advantage from Byrne by 0.307s. Iddon was pushing on the Tyco BMW and with three minutes left he fired his way to the top, moving narrowly ahead of Haslam on the leading JG Speedfit Kawasaki.
As the final five minutes approached, O’Halloran was the only Title Fighter to be outside the top ten and still running 12th fastest. Jakub Smrz was also on the move, pushing into the top five on the Smiths Racing BMW.
When the chequered flag fell Iddon maintained his advantage from Title Fighters Byrne, Haslam and Mossey with Smrz and the ePayMe Yamaha of Broc Parkes splitting the title contenders. Ellison was seventh fastest on the second JG Speedfit Kawasaki ahead of Linfoot on the leading Honda Racing Fireblade.
Richard Cooper onboard the Buildbase BMW split the Honda Racing pairing, with Bridewell and John Hopkins just outside the top ten.
Billy McConnell was 18th while Josh Hook finished the opening day 26th on the charts.
The top twelve riders were separated by just 0.974s ahead of tomorrow’s Datatag Qualifying session.
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Assen, Free Practice one
- Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) 1m:37.360s
- Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) +0.031s
- Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.042s
- Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +0.250s
- Glenn Irwin (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.559s
- Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +0.656s
- John Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) +0.662s
- Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.687s
- Jakub Smrz (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.703s
- Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +0.732s
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Assen, free practice two
- Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) 1m:36.752s
- Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.098s
- Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.110s
- Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +0.207s
- Jakub Smrz (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.241s
- Broc Parkes (ePayMe Yamaha) +0.266s
- James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.473s
- Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.563s
- Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +0.580s
- Jason O’Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.682s
Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) – Fastest rider in free practice
“I always enjoy Assen; it’s a wicked track and I love it! We had a pretty good day on track and replicated what we did here last year, so to have been first and second in the opening practice sessions is a good start for me and the team. We have been looking at the different tyres as we don’t know what we are going to use yet for the races, but we plan to do some race simulations tomorrow to give ourselves a better idea. I feel good on the Tyco BMW and am really enjoying being here so we just need to keep that up for qualifying tomorrow and then the races on Sunday.”
Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) – Championship leader, second in free practice
“Today has actually been quite a difficult day; the initial lap time this morning came really easily with the bike but the initial feeling wasn’t overly great. We have tried a few things this morning and this afternoon and we have not quite hit the nail on the head yet. Some weekends with this bike you rock up and it feels great from the off and then others you have to do a little bit more work. The good thing is now I feel that we still have quite a lot of work to do but from a pace point of view we are there or thereabouts so for that I am really happy, with what I know I still have in me and in the bike still I am happy. If I had to give you a one out of ten for how the day has been, I would probably say five because we have that work to do still. This time at Donington we were ready for a race run on Saturday morning and we are far from that right now, but at the same time we are still competitive, so we will look over the data tonight and keep chipping away to find the better feeling tomorrow.”
