Assen: Ten Kate Honda qualifying notes

Ten Kate Honda's Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge will start in first and second places on the grid in Sunday's ninth World Supersport championship race at Assen, Holland.

The Saturday downpour meant that Friday's times remained unchanged and it was a case of fine tuning rain set-up for the Ten Kate team. It promises to be a memorable race for the Ten Kate team at the Circuit van Drenthe with both riders in fine form.

Team manager Ronald ten Kate was happy with Saturday's qualifying practice. "We worked on our rain set-up and we are prepared for whatever the Gods throw at us. Effectively, qualifying was all decided yesterday."

"We have a good set-up thanks to all the testing that we carried out and hopefully we'll go with the right tyre on Sunday," said series leader Vermeulen, who holds a 37-point championship advantage over nearest rival, Jurgen van den Goorbergh.

Team-mate Muggeridge concurred: "We have a good tyre for all conditions but it would obviously be better to have a dry race. It's all going pretty good."

Both riders bettered the previous Assen best time of 2m 06.077s set by Vermeulen in 2002 with the 21-year-old Australian's time of 2m 05.736 almost a second quicker (0.933s) than that of nearest championship rival, Van den Goorbergh (fourth).

Title talk is not at the forefront of Vermeulen's thoughts. "I just try to think about the race and blot everything else out. I think Karl will provide the biggest threat."

Vermeulen and Muggeridge occupy the top two places, the CBR600RR machines are working a treat and there is the small matter of racing at Assen in Holland. For once, the national colour of orange will take second billing to the bright yellow of the Ten Kate machines.

Saturday's World Supersport championship qualifying times:

1 Chris Vermeulen, Australia (Ten Kate Honda) 2m 05.736s, 2 Karl Muggeridge, Australia (Ten Kate Honda) 2m 05.921s, 3 Sebastien Charpentier, France (Honda) 2m 06.630s, 4 Jurgen van den Goorbergh, Holland (Yamaha) 2m 06.669s, 5 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 2m 06.932s, 6 Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 2m 07.131s, 7 Barry Veneman, Holland (Honda) 2m 07.313s, 8 Iain MacPherson, GB (Honda) 2m 07.485s, 9 Alessio Corradi, Italy (Yamaha) 2m 07.508s, 10 Simone Sanna, Italy (Yamaha) 2m 07.639s.