Lowes takes dramatic Superpole win in Assen

Sam Lowes – after the horrendous problems at Aragon in the last round – started this World Supersport race in pole position and desperate to make up the Supersport championship points here at Assen. It was a solid run from the lights by Lowes, but Sofuoglu made an even better one and dangled his familiar foot at the second corner in front of the Brit to lead the first six laps.

Lowes however kept up with the Turkish rider and used this chasing position to his advantage; hassling and hustling continuously until he made his move seven laps in. This pressure paid off and finally Lowes forced a mistake from Sofuoglu on his Kawasaki ZX-6R, who ran ride and enabled the Yamaha of Lowes to pounce.

Behind them, the battle for fourth was between the Frenchman, Foret and the Brit Jack Kennedy – who rode a great, aggressive first ten laps on his Honda CBR600RR. It wasn’t to be however with Foret posting, consistently quick times on the Kawasaki – often faster than the rest of the field – and with the aggression on the bike seeming to wear down Kennedy’s tyres he was forced off of the pace to finish seventh, some nineteen seconds off of the lead.

Lowes and Sofuoglu were soon met by Foret – with his fantastic pace – and by lap twelve there was less than a second between the three leaders. This was also the lap that Sofuoglu regained first place.

The final third of the race saw Sofuoglu and Lowes pressing each other on pace, leaving Foret and his earlier speed behind. On lap seventeen the Turkish rider twisted his wrist even further, but Lowes kept with him; biding his time. It was just one lap later when Lowes made his move – making a firm show of his presence –it didn’t stick though and the pair went into the final two laps trading blows.

Lowes took the final lap for the lead but it was by no means the final move. The straight-line speed of the Sofuoglu’s Kawasaki retook the advantage but Lowes had one, final card to play. Coming into the final chicane, he ran wide and then cut his YZF-R6 inside to take first place before a final, mad dash to the line. He held on to take a fantastic win by the narrowest of margins; just +0.026 seconds.