Assen, The Netherlands

A round-up of the day's events at the Assen round of World Superbikes.

Canadian rider Brett McCormick has suffered serious injuries to his face and spine in a crash during the second World Superbike race at Assen on Sunday. After examination at the medical center, McCormick was removed to the nearby hospital in the city of Assen, before being moved to a larger hospital in Groningen to stabilize his injuries. The Canadian appears to have escaped damage to his spinal cord in the crash, according to his team.

Below is the press release from the team, courtesy of TwoWheelsBlog.com:

The Effenbert Liberty Racing Team announces that Brett McCormick, following the disastrous crash in race two this afternoon in Assen, after the control in the circuit medical center, has suffered the trauma of the cervical spine, facial trauma with a hematoma to the eye sockets as well as a fracture of the fifth finger of his right hand, and he was sent to Assen hospital for further evaluation.

Race two results:

World Supersport at Assen provides a tense race in the wet.

Results:

If you've been following qualifying at Assen, you'll notice that the weather has been central to everything. Set-up time lost to rain, bikes lost to lack of adhesion, everyone went into race one somewhat underprepared. This made for an exciting and brutal race.

Report:

A round-up of the day's events at the Assen round of World Superbikes.

Press releases from the World Supersport and World Superbike teams at Assen after qualifying on Saturday:

Results:

Wet Superpole rules were in place, meaning all 16 qualifying riders were on track at the same time with half being cut at the end of the first of two 20-minute sessions.

Result:

The practice session started very slowly with no-one willing to waste time on a drying track, but as the riders went out, it seemed that the BMWs had found conditions that suited their electronic package: Northern Europe's grey weather. As the track got drier and the laps got quicker, familiar names started creeping to the top, ending the session with the only man able to beat Tom Sykes's fastest time was Sykes himself in a last-lap flier to the flag. Previous winners Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa were split by Marco Melandri hinting at another potential BMW challenge on a track that traditionally favours Ducati and Honda.

Superpole should be interesting. 

Results:

Weekend favourites Sam Lowes and Broc Parkes were the first riders to make an impression on the wet track, but as the session went on, it got drier, throwing some unfamiliar names to the top of the leader board. Lorenzo Lanzi was the man who put in fast times, lap after lap, at the end of the session while Lowes managed to remind us he's fast, wet or dry.

Results:

Riders who were able to bank a fast lap yesterday will head off to Superpole and those who missed out will be regretting the fact they didn't get off the mark quickly enough. Yesterday's rains were no surprise as the radar system warned of rain at 15:30 local time, which is why everybody was out immediately trying to put in a 'banker' before conditions got too dangerous for slicks. Today's session was all about finding wet settings.

The big names missing out on Superpole are Max Biaggi and Hiroshi Aoyama who will start from the fifth and sixth rows respectively. It remains to see if Zanetti will be allowed to race as he was outside the 107% required, but Race Direction may allow him to continue at their discretion.

Results:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after a wet first day of practice at Assen: