Wet, delayed warm up for Assen.

As predicted the wet weather came in for race day at Assen just in time for round nine of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship. The fastest man during the red flagged warm up session was Xerox Ducati's Troy Bayliss.

The riders headed out on track in torrential rain; however they only completed one lap as Steve Martin's machine spewed oil onto the track making conditions too dangerous to ride. Martin was unaware of the problem with his Petronas race bike which is why he continued on his out lap.

The session was halted for an hour and a half while the track was cleaned and inspected by Alex Barros, Troy Bayliss and Troy Corser. Once they were satisfied that it was safe to continue, the warm up re-started.

Second fastest was Britain's Chris Walker on the PSG-1 Kawasaki with Sterilgarda-Berick Ducati's Ruben Xaus in third place. Fourth went to Noriyuki Haga who had been leading the way on his Yamaha Italia until he crashed out along with Karl Muggeridge. The Yamaha looked very sorry for itself with the seat and tail unit completely ripped of during the fall. Both riders were able to walk away from the incident.

Max Neukirchner crashed his Alstare Engineering Suzuki with five minutes of the session to run. Lorenzo Lanzi also fell, crashing on his in lap at the very end of the session.

WSBK warm up - Assen:

1. Troy Bayliss
2. Chris Walker
3. Ruben Xaus
4. Noriyuki Haga
5. Yukio Kagayama
6. Troy Corser
7. Regis Laconi
8. Sebastien Gimbert
9. James Toseland
10. Norick Abe