Josh Brookes continues his reign at the top of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship during Datatag Qualifying at Assen, claiming pole position for the Milwaukee Yamaha team ahead of tomorrow’s opening Showdown races.

Brookes had topped all three of the free practice sessions and he again showed his imperious form to claim the pole position, 0.375s ahead of his closest rival.

Jakub Smrz continues to get to grips with the Milwaukee Yamaha and qualified on the fifth row of the grid in 13th position and is confident he can move forward in the two races.
 


Josh Brookes

“I was coming into this event with some confidence and having ridden here earlier in the year on the different spec bike meant I had a good idea of where we could be and when I was doing 1m:37s I thought that might be where we levelled off.

"What I thought was already a fairly well prepared bike, and one I was confident with, the team chopped and changed it a bit and we found some extra tenths so the team really delivered it for me. To go out and do a 1m:35.9 is even a surprise to me. Sure I had to ride the bike, hold the handle bars and push the tyres but the team have stepped up a level this weekend and it is perfect timing.”  
 
Jakub Smrz

"I was hoping to get into Q3 today but there was just a little missing. I feel it's still not enough track time for me after my injury and on the new R1 but it's getting better every lap. At the moment it's more about putting all the corners together without mistakes and being more constant but we are working hard.

“We will check data and go through that first but for my riding style we will need to work on some more changes for tomorrow. Of course P13 doesn't look so good but it's been a positive two days and we aren't far away. Thanks to the Milwaukee Yamaha crew for helping me to adapt to R1 quickly and I'm looking forward to both races tomorrow."