Tom Sykes et son coéquipier Loris Baz se sont battus pour le Top 4 dans la première course de la journée à Assen et le Britannique était à la poursuite de Sylvain Guintoli, qui allait s’imposer, jusqu’à ce que le drapeau rouge ne mette fin à l’épreuve cinq tours plus tôt que prévu.
Après avoir perdu plusieurs positions en début de course, Sykes avait dû revenir sur Baz et Jonathan Rea pour reprendre la seconde place et rattrapait Guintoli lorsque la course fut arrêtée en raison d’une fuite d’huile sur la piste. Le Champion du Monde en titre était alors confirmé à la seconde place et Baz à la quatrième, à seulement 4.459s du vainqueur.
La deuxième épreuve a été retardée et réduite à dix tours après une première tentative qui n’avait duré que trois tours sur une piste détrempée. Après un long moment d’incertitude, les pilotes ont fini par reprendre leurs places sur la grille de départ et Sykes a terminé en quatrième position, tandis que Baz était septième.
Sykes mène désormais le Championnat avec un total de 108 points, 12 d’avance sur Guintoli et 15 sur Baz.
Tom Sykes : « Sylvain Guintoli imprimait vraiment un bon rythme au début de la première course et au départ j’essayais de le suivre. Je suis passé sur une zone humide au freinage, l’arrière a commencé à partir et j’ai dû sortir de piste. Je me suis retrouvé avec une sacrée tâche devant moi. La Ninja ZX-10R fonctionnait bien et je sais que j’aurais pu me rapprocher de Sylvain mais le doubler aurait été une autre affaire. Je suis assez content d’avoir fini deuxième de cette course. La seconde épreuve a eu lieu dans des conditions difficiles. Nous avions fait une petite modification sur le set-up de notre ZX-10R et ce n’était peut-être pas un bon changement. Le positif est que nous étions plus proches que d’habitude et rétrospectivement, je pense que nous avions la possibilité de mieux faire. Je suis donc satisfait, les pilotes les plus proches de moi au championnat ont eu une mauvaise course et cette quatrième place n’était donc pas un mauvais résultat. »
Loris Baz : « Je n’étais pas bien au début de la première course et j’avais failli chuter dans le tour de formation. Il y avait un virage qui était mouillé et j’ai manqué de peu de chuter. Après ça, j’étais un peu inquiet sur cette section mais j’essayais de suivre le rythme. C’était difficile au début mais je pense que j’aurais sûrement pu finir troisième. J’essayais de doubler Jonathan Rea puis les drapeaux rouges sont sortis. Nous n’avions pas assez de grip au début de la seconde course. Ça allait un peu mieux sur la seconde partie de la course mais il y avait vraiment peu de grip à l’arrière et c’était très dur. Ça a été un week-end difficile après avoir remporté la Superpole mais nous avons pris quelques points et évité de prendre trop de retard sur les autres au championnat. »
In the first race of the day Sykes and Baz were always part of the top four battle, with Sykes chasing early leader and eventual race winner Sylvain Guintoli in patchy track conditions until the race was finished five laps early.
Sykes had to drop back for a time when he ran wide and he had to re-pass Baz and Jonathan Rea in his fight back to second place. Sykes was well on his way to catching Guintoli until a red flag came out to stop the race because of an oil spill. Called as a result after 16 of the planned 21-laps Sykes was ranked second and Baz fourth, the young French rider only 4.459 seconds from the race winner Guintoli.
A ten lap second race was much delayed because of rain as the riders were about to start, with the first attempted running only lasting three laps. Two hours after the scheduled start a fully wet race two put early race leader Sykes in fourth place at the flag, with his team-mate Baz seventh.
In the championship Sykes now leads with has 108 points, with Loris Baz third on 93 points.
Tom Sykes: “Sylvain Guintoli was definitely setting a good pace at the beginning of race one and I tried to get back to him in the early part of the race. I caught a little bit of damp track surface on the brakes and the rear end came around. I had to run off the track but I left myself with a lot of work to do. The Ninja ZX-10R was working well and I know I could have got a lot closer to Sylvain but passing is another thing. I am happy enough with second in that race. Race two was held in very greasy conditions and we had made a small alteration to the ZX-10R set-up and it probably wasn’t the best change. The good thing is that we are a lot closer than we used to be and I am sure we could have been even closer knowing now what we did not know at the start of the second race. For that reason I am happy and the guys closest to me in the championship had a bit of a bad race, so fourth was not too bad.”
Sykes had to drop back for a time when he ran wide and he had to re-pass Baz and Jonathan Rea in his fight back to second place. Sykes was well on his way to catching Guintoli until a red flag came out to stop the race because of an oil spill. Called as a result after 16 of the planned 21-laps Sykes was ranked second and Baz fourth, the young French rider only 4.459 seconds from the race winner Guintoli.
A ten lap second race was much delayed because of rain as the riders were about to start, with the first attempted running only lasting three laps. Two hours after the scheduled start a fully wet race two put early race leader Sykes in fourth place at the flag, with his team-mate Baz seventh.
In the championship Sykes now leads with has 108 points, with Loris Baz third on 93 points.
Tom Sykes: “Sylvain Guintoli was definitely setting a good pace at the beginning of race one and I tried to get back to him in the early part of the race. I caught a little bit of damp track surface on the brakes and the rear end came around. I had to run off the track but I left myself with a lot of work to do. The Ninja ZX-10R was working well and I know I could have got a lot closer to Sylvain but passing is another thing. I am happy enough with second in that race. Race two was held in very greasy conditions and we had made a small alteration to the ZX-10R set-up and it probably wasn’t the best change. The good thing is that we are a lot closer than we used to be and I am sure we could have been even closer knowing now what we did not know at the start of the second race. For that reason I am happy and the guys closest to me in the championship had a bit of a bad race, so fourth was not too bad.”
Loris Baz: “I did not have a good time at the beginning of race one and I nearly fell in the sighting lap. In one corner it was wet and I nearly crashed. I was worried in that section after that but I tried to take the leading pace. It was difficult at the beginning but I think I could have finished third for sure in race one. In the last couple of laps I was waiting to try and overtake Jonathan Rea but the red flags came out. In race two we had not enough grip from the beginning. In the second part of the race it was a bit better but little grip in the rear so it was very hard. It was a difficult weekend in some ways after winning Superpole but we took a few points and did not lose a lot to the first riders in the championship.”
