Christian Iddon picked up his first World Supersport Championship points of the season after a solid eleventh place finish at Assen in The Netherlands.
It was the best showing yet for Iddon and the ParkinGO MV Agusta Corse team on the all new F3 675.
Assen is the first circuit this season that Iddon has prior experience of, and it showed on Friday. He went quickest in a damp free practice session before finishing second in the opening qualifier. He had led for much of that wet session but was pipped on the final lap.
The weather was improved on Saturday, so the track was dry but the temperatures were still low. Iddon managed to go ninth fastest in the morning practice session. The dry track meant Friday’s qualifying times were eclipsed instantly. Iddon ended up twelfth overall, heading-up the fourth row of the grid.
Iddon made a steady start and was 14th and the end of the first, of twenty-one, laps. When the field began to settle out, Iddon found himself in a group of nine riders battling for fifth.
As the race progressed, Iddon was able to make some headway and by lap 16, he had worked his way up to tenth. He crossed the line in eleventh to score his first points of the season.
“It’s been a better weekend for us here at Assen,” he said. “The track definitely suits the MV more than Aragon did. It was also nice to come to a track which I already knew.
“The conditions on Friday were a bit of a leveller. The track was so slippery but we got the MV working really well and it was good to see P1 on my pit board. I knew it was going to be difficult to maintain that in the dry though. I did all my lap times on my own, in qualifying, so I was quite happy with my pace. My laps times this weekend were quicker than I managed here in British Supersport last year, when I won, so it gives an indication of the level of competition.
“I didn’t get a very good start in the race. I made some progress but then I couldn’t get past Zanetti, he wasn’t carrying a lot of corner speed but he was faster in other areas. It’s good to get the first points in the bag, and we are definitely closing the gap to those in front. Hopefully we can build on this success and push on into the top ten at the next couple of rounds.
“This weekend marks another step forward for us. We are still learning as we go and we have plenty more to come. The ParkinGO MV Agusta Corse team are all working hard and it’s nice to have both bikes in the points, where they belong.”
The fourth round of the World Supersport Championship will take place at the historic Monza circuit in Italy; the home round for both the ParkinGO team and the MV Agusta factory.
