Tough Supersport day for Pata Honda

Michael van der Mark will start tomorrow’s third-round World Supersport race from the fourth row of the grid after setting the 11th fastest time in this afternoon’s final qualifying session at Assen in The Netherlands.

Michael van der Mark – P11, 1m39.835s

It was a bit frustrating today and the guys were working really hard, but it was like we hit a wall every time we went out. We need to find a big improvement on the bike, but I think we’ll find it tomorrow because the guys always give more than 100%. I’m struggling a bit in the last two sectors and losing a lot of time there, so this is an area where we will concentrate and hopefully bring something to the race.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

We are a little disappointed with the results actually, and we are paying the price for a lack of track time. Both the riders are new to Supersport at Assen and yesterday was lost because of the rain so we haven’t had enough time to find the right setting for them. In the end, Michael was 11th. We have a lot of data here from previous years, so we’ll work hard to overlay that with what we got from today and make a plan for tomorrow, when we hope to be able to fight nearer to the front.

2013 World Supersport championship, round three – Assen, Netherlands

Final qualifying results:

1 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha 1m38.375s

2 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Kawasaki 1m39.018s

3 Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki 1m39.266s

4 Jack Kennedy (GBR) Honda 1m39.350s

5 Roberto Rolfo (ITA) MV Agusta 1m39.445s

6 Luca Scassa (ITA) Kawasaki 1m39.544s

11 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda 1m39.835s