Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) secured P2 on the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship timesheets on Friday at the historic TT Circuit Assen, showing his potential once again. The #34 was just three tenths away from pacesetter Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) on the combined timesheets for the Pirelli Dutch Round, and the Australia podium finisher will be hoping he can repeat that success in the Netherlands.

Baldassarri finished fourth in Free Practice 1 on Friday before backing that up with second in Free Practice 2 as he once again fought at the head of the field. ‘Balda’, in his third round since making his WorldSBK return, explained why the important aspect of Day 1 at Assen was not necessarily the lap time, but confirming that the arm problem that plagued him throughout Portimao after suffering from arm pump.

Explaining his Friday at Assen, Baldassarri said: “We can be very happy about today. After Portimao, it was good again to confirm our speed, and it was especially good to solve the problem I had at Portimao. Here, if you have the same problem, you can struggle a lot. This was the most important thing, that I was feeling better physically with the arm compared to Portimao. Today the speed was good. I like this track a lot. I have good memories here from Moto2 so we can keep working like this.”

In Free Practice 1, Baldassarri did a 16-lap run as his longest stint. There was a fair amount of variation between his times, but seven were in the 1’37s bracket and a further six were in 1’34s bracket. His best time was in that run came on the 12^th lap when he set a 1’34.527s. In FP2, his longest run was 12 laps and again there was a bit of variation. Only one lap was in the 1’35s bracket, with seven in the 1’34s. His fastest time of the day came in his second stint in FP2, when he set a 1’33.963s on the penultimate lap of a seven-lap run.

Discussing his race pace and podium hopes, ‘Balda’ stated: “It was important, like this morning, to increase the speed step by step. We had very good pace in the morning too. It was also important to understand my condition. We could confirm that we have a good rhythm with the harder tyre in the race pace, let’s see tomorrow. We have to confirm the speed and keep improving because, for sure, everybody will be faster. I think we can be in the top five. Let’s see if we can achieve a podium. It’s great because after Australia, which was a bit unexpected for me, here is more of a reality. We can see what happens.”

Can the Independent Ducati rider return to the WorldSBK rostrum? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!