Ilya Mikhalchik (alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW) will start from pole position in the IDM Superbike 1000. The defending champion from Ukraine beat Ricardo Brink (Team SWPN, Yamaha) by 0.732 seconds to take second place. Bastien Mackels (Wilbers-BMW-Racing) rounds out the front row.
Without exception, the fastest lap times were set in the first qualifying session, when the track was dry. Bastien Mackels, Pepijn Bijsterbosch (Team Dutch Comfort Houses, BMW), Erwan Nigon (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing), and Ilya Mikhalchik all topped the timesheets at least once. However, in his usual style, Mikhalchik pulled off a blistering lap shortly before the end of qualifying that could not be beaten. Ricardo Brink managed to set the second-fastest time at the very last moment, pushing Mackels down to third place.
Marc Moser secured the fourth-fastest time, ensuring that a mixed BMW-Yamaha quartet formed at the front of the grid, followed by Erwan Nigon on a Yamaha. The next manufacturer is in eighth place on the starting grid: Alessandro Polita (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) on a Honda. Daniel Kartheininger (HPC-Power Suzuki Racing) is the fastest Suzuki rider in qualifying, starting from P12.
And what about Julian Puffe, whose teammate Mikhalchik considers his biggest rival? The rider from Thuringia had wrecked his bike in free practice. The motorcycle had to be completely rebuilt overnight. The 23-year-old from Schleiz had only the first qualifying session to test the bike. A 16th-place grid spot was the best he could manage. Right at the start of the second session, a heavy downpour hit the TT Circuit, drastically reducing the number of riders in the pit lane. Only Pepijn Bijsterbosch, Kevin Sieder (HPC-Power Suzuki Racing), and Mackels ventured out onto the soaking-wet track in the final six minutes.
Mackels should have avoided that. He crashed and caused noticeable damage to the new S1000 RR. Team boss Benny Wilbers is, however, very pleased with how the weekend has gone so far. For months, the team had been preparing for this year’s debut and fine-tuning the bike to make it race-ready. “We want to win,” says Wilbers. Whether that will happen in Assen, no one can say. “Under race conditions, everything plays out differently,” Wilbers knows better than anyone.
Bijsterbosch had opted not to use soft tires in the first qualifying session and wanted to push hard in the second. That was a mistake. The Dutchman doesn’t have a home-track advantage at Assen. “I don’t get to drive on the track any more than anyone else.” The result: seventh on the grid.