Despite the fuel-flow drop,
Lowes was clearly the most po-
tent non-Ducati rider again—just
not in the final Assen race.
Behind the six straight Ducati
riders up front in race two—
Bulega, Lecuona, Sam Lowes,
Bautista, Yari Montella (Bau
-
tista's teammate), and Lorenzo
Baldassarri's GoEleven bike—the
next best thing to a Ducati was
two Yamahas in the official Pata
Maxus Yamaha ones of Xavi
Vierge and a slightly rejuvenated
Andrea Locatelli.
Former Assen wonder-com
-
petitor Jonathan Rea (HRC Hon-
da) was the lone CBR competitor
at Assen after Somkiat Chantra's
practice injury, but even Rea's
best race results were 17th in
the first two races.
In the points table, Bulega has
an advantage of 69 points over
Lecuona, 186 to 117, with Sam
Lowes on 82.
WorldSSP
The first WorldSSP race of the
Assen weekend was a classic of
the genre, with the leading riders
passing and re-passing, and the
list of potential winners being at
least a half a dozen strong.
Jaume Masia's Orelac Racing
VerdNatura Panigale V2 would
win this race, and Philipp Oettl's
Feel Racing Ducati would win
race two, but that is where any
similarity of the Ducati domina
-
tion in WorldSBK ended.
Any one of three or four manu-
facturers could have won the
Assen WorldSSP races, and oth-
ers may well have if race two did
not end after 12 laps because of
a crash involving Roberto Garcia,
and his stricken machine on the
track surface.
Oettl's win was wildly popular
as he had already scored 14
podiums but no wins in his 65
previous WorldSSP race appear
-
ances. Even his rivals appeared
pleased, especially as Garcia
proved only slightly injured after
all.
Race one had six riders across
the line inside 0.932 seconds,
with Albert Arenas (AS bLU cRU
Yamaha) second and Triumph's
Tom Booth-Amos third.
Fourth went to Valentin
Debise (ZXMoto), although he
WIND
IN THE
P34
Maria Herrera (6) and Beatriz Neila
(36) were this close all weekend, and
each grabbed a win at Assen.
