WorldSBK Assen : summary of saturday’s races

This Saturday at Assen (Netherlands) the GMT94 Yamaha riders had to deal with capricious weather.

Philipp Öttl was hoping to do well in the race after showing good pace in practice. The Dutch skies did not make the choice of tyres easy for the Superbike riders. Philipp Öttl started out on slick tyres, but quickly returned to the pits to change to rain tyres as the rain began to fall. The gamble didn’t pay off, however, as a few laps later rays of sunshine appeared, forcing the number 5 to return to the pits to put on slick tyres and finish 18th.

In Supersport, Lucas Mahias’ objective was to set the fastest lap time to ensure a good place on the next day’s grid. The number 94 rider succeeded in his objective, starting on slicks on a wet track in one part of the circuit. Patient at the start of the race, Lucas Mahias was able to take advantage of the dry track to set his own pace and climb up to 9th. The 2017 World Supersport Champion will start from 6th place in race 2 and can look forward to a good result.