Almost a month later, the Superbike World Championships are back. The «Cathedral» of Assen hosts the third round of the WSBK and WSSP season, as well as the second round for the World Supersport 300 Championship.
In Superbike, Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) leads with a 12-point gap over his teammate Álvaro Bautista and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki). The Italian will try to defend his position, but in recent weeks he underwent arm surgery due to arm pump and may still be somewhat physically limited.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW) is fourth in the championship, 16 points behind the leader. The Turkish rider has already won with the German manufacturer and aims to repeat the feat in Assen… in the country of his teammate, Michael van der Mark, who will also try to fight for top positions. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team/Ducati) is absent due to injury, replaced by Nicholas Spinelli.
As for WSSP, the championship is tight in this early stage. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team/Ducati) leads with just four more points than Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta), followed by Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) with an 11-point margin. Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing/MV Agusta) is fourth, 32 points behind, and will try to regain ground, as will Adrián Huertas (Aruba.it Ducati), who is fifth, 35 points off the lead.
WSSP300 has its second round of the year. Iñigo Iglesias Bravo (Fusport-RT Motorsport by SKM-Kawasaki) and Aldi Satya Mahendra (Team BrCorse/Yamaha) are tied at the top of the championship with 28 points, three more than Jeffrey Buis (Freudenberg KTM-Paligo Racing), who has his home round in Assen. The top six are separated by just eight points, and mathematically, anyone could overtake the leaders this weekend.
Here are all the schedules for WSBK, WSSP, and WSSP300 in Assen (CET time).
- Friday, April 19
- 09h40-10h05: FP WSSP300
- 10h20-11h05: FP1 WSBK
- 11h20-12h00: FP WSSP
- 14h10-14h35: Superpole WSSP300
- 15h00-15h45: FP2 WSBK
- 16h00-16h40: Superpole WSSP
- Saturday, April 20
- 09h00-09h20: FP3 WSBK
- 09h30-09h40: Warm-up 1 WSSP300
- 09h50-10h00: Warm-up 1 WSSP
- 11h00-11h15: Superpole WSBK
- 12h45: Race 1 WSSP300
- 14h00: Race 1 WSBK
- 15h15: Race 1 WSSP
- Sunday, April 21
- 09h00-09h10: Warm-up WSBK
- 09h20-09h30: Warm-up 2 WSSP300
- 09h40-09h50: Warm-up 2 WSSP
- 11h00: Superpole Race WSBK
- 12h45: Race 2 WSSP300
- 14h00: Race 2 WSBK
- 15h15: Race 2 WSSP