Alex Lowes continued his recent momentum with pole position for the opening British Superbike race at Assen, giving him the perfect chance to start the showdown with a victory. The Samsung Honda rider was too strong for Shane Byrne, beating the championship leader to pole by three tenths of a second.
Lowes didn’t make the best start to the weekend with a crash on Friday but put it all together for qualifying and is hopeful of carrying today’s pace into race day.
“It went pretty good for me and feels good”, he commented. “The bike works well here and now it is down to me to put two good races together. I am feeling pretty confident and will give 100% and go for it.”
Byrne hasn’t beaten Lowes since Oulton Park with the youngster winning all four races since and the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider admitted he was surprised by the pace of the Honda man.
“I saw my time was in the 1m 36secs and then saw he had gone even faster and I thought how did he do that. I’m happy enough with my race pace and it looks all set for a big battle between us. He is my target and I guess that I am his.”
Behind the top two, Tommy Bridewell was the star of Saturday, qualifying a sensational third on his debut for Milwaukee Yamaha ahead of teammate and title fighter James Ellison. Jakub Smrz and Josh Brookes will join Ellison on the second row with the Czech rider set to mix it with the championship challengers. The other two showdown participants will start of row three with Ryuichi Kiyonari and James Westmoreland seventh and eighth respectively while BSB returnee Noriyuki Haga thirteenth.
| 2013 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship – Round 10: Assen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying Classification | ||||
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Time |
| 1 |  Alex Lowes |
Honda | Samsung Honda | 1:36.261 |
| 2 | Shane Byrne |
Kawasaki | Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki | 1:36.638 |
| 3 | Tommy Bridewell |
Yamaha | Milwaukee Yamaha | 1:37.134 |
| 4 | James Ellison |
Yamaha | Milwaukee Yamaha | 1:37.220 |
| 5 |  Jakub Smrz |
Honda | Padgetts Honda | 1:37.336 |
| 6 |  Josh Brookes |
Suzuki | Tyco Suzuki | 1:37.723 |
| 7 |  Ryuichi Kiyonari |
Honda | Samsung Honda | 1:38.105 |
| 8 | James Westmoreland |
BMW | Buildbase BMW Motorrad | 1:38.307 |
| 9 | Dan Linfoot |
Honda | Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Honda | 1:38.391 |
| 10 | Jon Kirkham |
BMW | Buildbase BMW Motorrad | 1:38.405 |
| Eliminated in Q2 | ||||
| 11 |  Danny de Boer |
Honda | Bathams Honda | 1:38.471 |
| 12 | Peter Hickman |
Honda | Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Honda | 1:38.546 |
| 13 | Noriyuki Haga |
Kawasaki | Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki | 1:38.629 |
| 14 | Barry Burrell |
Kawasaki | Quattro Plant Kawasaki | 1:38.972 |
| 15 |  Matteo Baiocco |
Ducati | Rapido Sport Racing | 1:39.174 |
| 16 | Martin Jessopp |
BMW | Riders Motorcycles | 1:39.237 |
| 17 |  Robbin Harms |
Honda | Doodson Motorsport Honda | 1:40.881 |
| 18 |  PJ Jacobsen |
Suzuki | Tyco Suzuki | No Time |
| Eliminated in Q1 | ||||
| 19 | Chris Walker |
Kawasaki | Quattro Plant Kawasaki | 1:39.230 |
| 20 | Lee Costello |
Kawasaki | Halsall Racing Kawasaki | 1:39.512 |
| 21 | David Johnson |
Kawasaki | Tsingtao WKbikes | 1:40.669 |
| 22 | Aaron Zanotti |
Suzuki | STEL Suzuki | 1:40.727 |
| 23 | Jenny Tinmouth |
Honda | Two Wheel Racing | 1:41.660 |
