Cool conditions greeted riders at the iconic TT Assen Circuit for the Acerbis Dutch Round, and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) continues to impress aboard his ZX-10RR machine. Ending the day on top, Rea remained unchallenged throughout the day as he was able to make some strong steps in The Netherlands.

Putting in a long run of laps in order to understand his race pace, which is how he begins to understand his race pace, the 30 year old was able to have a consistent afternoon which put him a strong position ahead of the all important Superpole and Race One on Saturday.

With a lap time of 1.35.383, Rea is happy going forward at a track he has performed so well at in the past: “Today was all about trying to keep your body warm and making all your movements fluid. It seems like the asphalt is in a much better condition this year, and the lap times are much faster, even with the cooler temperatures and we’ve been able to be fast over one lap. We’ve just been working through the set up, although we’ve been struggling a bit with acceleration grip - we need to change the balance of the bike a bit. Hopefully we can work on that for tomorrow but generally things are ok.”

British team-mate Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) is still recovering from an illness which has hindered him from the Pirelli Aragon Round, however it hasn’t slowed his pace down. Taking third position on the opening day of the Acerbis Dutch Round, Sykes is hoping to build on the progress they made around MotorLand Aragon.

Topping the opening session, Sykes will head into the all important Saturday with some confidence following a consistent opening day around The Cathedral: “Surprisingly I’m feeling really nice, even though my physical conditions is not so good. We’ve struggled a bit - this morning I didn’t feel great and I had to dig deep and fight. But the good thing is we started out this morning under the lap record, which is after we made some good steps at the test in MotorLand Aragon. We found some things and I’m feeling more relaxed and more at one with the ZX-10RR; the lap time is there, the consistently is there, and Pirelli have brought a good tyre. We are expecting a fast race tomorrow.

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