12.04.19 
TT Assen Circuit

Just one week on from Round 3 in Spain, the team were back on track at the TT Assen Circuit in Netherlands ahead of the Motul Dutch Round.

With weather and track temperatures extremely low in the opening Free Practice session of the day, both Tom Sykes and Markus Reiterberger had to work hard to find the perfect set up for the conditions. It would be the reigning WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea who topped FP1 with a 1’35.598, Sykes in P3 +0.191 behind him and Markus Reiterberger in P6 +0.414 from the top.

The afternoons session didn’t see much of a rise in temperature as both BMW’s took to the track for the final session of the day. Markus Reiterberger was impressively setting high 1’35.00 laps and with his best being a 1’35.442 he would end the day in P4 on combined times – his best FP of the season so far.

Tom Sykes looked to improve on his P3 from FP1 and with some small changes to the bike he managed to do just that, setting a 1’35.414 he would be the fastest rider of the day on combined times, the first official P1 for the new BMW S 1000 RR in the World Superbike Championship.

Shaun Muir – Team Principal

“It’s been good positive day for us. FP1 and FP2 generally went in the right direction, we didn’t take any steps back which paid dividends by the end of FP2 as we got everything chalked off the board that we wanted to try out.

Both riders ran consistent lap times and in the cold conditions it suited both the bike and the riders, so it’s really pleasing to have both riders in the top 4 where confidence is high and the times are close.”

Tom Sykes (GBR)

“I am looking forward to this weekend especially if it’s going to stay dry, I feel if the rain comes there could be a lot of trouble with the temperatures and the rain tyre. Having said that the whole of the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team are working really well, we have done a lot with the BMW S 1000 RR and got off to a steady start doing a few things in this morning’s FP1 and FP2 sessions. We now feel we have a strong pace in these conditions.

Tomorrow we will look to refine our setting further, however we will keep an eye on the conditions during tomorrow’s 9am start… that being said I am looking forward to the races, I enjoy Assen and the layout of the track is fantastic so I hope we can convert this speed into some results.”

Markus Reiterberger (GER)

“First of all I have done many laps around Assen. My first impression of the bike was not the best and we put this down to the rear tyre, despite this feeling we were still able to put ourselves into the top 6 during FP1 so we have to be happy about that.

Going into the second session we didn’t expect too much with the results but we continued with some changes to the chassis and the electronics. I again struggled with the rear during the early stages of FP2 so we made a change of tyre to the SC1, this immediately changed the setting of the bike which was good step for me and I could consistently lap 1’35.00/1’36.00 times and finished the day in P4.

I am happy with the setting change we made from today’s second outing, I hope we can continue this into tomorrow’s qualifying and race.”