Assen, The Netherlands – 26 June 2015: Scott Redding's difficult weekend at Assen continued this afternoon, with the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider qualifying only 16th for tomorrow’s Dutch TT, despite a significant improvement in his lap time compared to yesterday.

Securing a place in QP2 was always going to be a tall order for Redding, with the softer option rear tyre giving his open class rivals a significant advantage around the fast and flowing Assen circuit. The 22-year-old Briton was 0.3s faster in QP1 than in FP4, but the improvement wasn’t big enough to put him through into the all-important second qualifying session.

While he was disappointed with his qualifying position, Redding was able to take some consolation from the fact that the consistency that had been missing yesterday was much improved today, which, together with a good rythym, will be critical in tomorrow’s 26-lap Dutch TT.

Scott Redding: 16th – 1’34.071
“Today was a bit better for us and I got a better feeling with the bike again. We improved the lap time with every exit and that's a positive thing. In previous races we’ve hit a wall with the lap time on day two, but today the improvements continued, although it was too late to secure a slot in QP2. We knew it was going to be tough in QP1, because I’ve struggled to make one flying lap and, here at Assen, we were aware of just how much of an advantage the soft option tyre would be. We’re now focussed on further improving my consistency for the race tomorrow.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“Basically I was expecting it to be a little bit better this weekend, after the result in Catalonia. This is a track that normally suits Scott and he has always had good results here in the past, but he just didn't have the pace yesterday. Today he improved by half a second, which is a lot, but in QP1 we had only our normal tyre. When you have the other riders using the super soft tyre, which gives such a big advantage here at Assen, it was always going to be difficult. Our starting position isn't what I was expected but there's a positive from it because this weekend we have improved in each session. The bike has been going quicker all weekend but, unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough for the top 12 in qualifying.”