At the front of the pack in free practice for the IDM premier class were the usual suspects: Ilya Mikhalchik, Bastien Mackels, Julian Puffe, and Stefan Kerschbaumer. Three BMWs and one Yamaha.
But also Honda's new rider, Alessandro Polita made a successful debut on Friday on the tire-wearing track. “The atmosphere is good, the rider is good,” says HRP team boss Jens Holzhauer about the 34-year-old Italian, who has previously ridden only BMWs and Ducatis. “But we’re treating this as a first test and are starting a whole new chapter with Alex. The project definitely has room for improvement.” Polita managed to break into the top ten with a time of 1:41.565 min.
Jan Halbich, which was supplied by HRP-Honda to the Kawasaki Schnock Team Motorex After switching bikes, he initially had a lot of work to do with the new setup. “We made some major modifications to the ZX-10R,” says chief technician Roman Raschle after a long day of work. The result: eighth place. “Jan rode on hard tires; he’ll surely be even faster on the soft compound.” The Czech rider from Prague set his best lap time of 1:41.269 in the third and final practice session of the day.
Dutch players making a comeback Danny de Boer finished in 12th place and has a lot of work ahead of him. “We don’t have much time, but we got a lot done today,” said the 28-year-old, who started the season with Yamaha and is now Kawasaki is on its way. At Weber Motos he feels he’s in good hands. Might the Greens still be in line for a podium finish by the end of the season? De Boer shrugs and grins mischievously: “It’s not out of the question.”
Suzuki Alber-Bischoff has been working with Jordan Weaving They’ve managed to land an English rider to replace Janusch Prokop. The young rider’s funding had been frozen by sponsors due to a lack of results. Weaving finished exactly 2.995 seconds behind the leader with a time of 1:41.559. That put him in 14th place in free practice, with his form on the rise. “For us, this is the most important weekend in a long time,” Evrén Bischoff explains the situation. “We have to deliver results. And it was very difficult to find a driver.”