The Australian recorded the sixth fastest time in the first qualifying session with a lap of 2:05.793 and was just three tenths of a second off the provisional front row as James Toseland set the early pace at 2:04.742.
Team-mate Garry McCoy endured a troubled opening day, finishing in 26th place with a time of 2:09.341, around an Assen circuit featuring a modified back straight lay-out.
Steve said: “I am really happy with the first day and stoked that the bike is handling so well. Since the second race at Brands we have cured the chatter that I have been experiencing all season and now I can get on with riding the bike. Although it’s still early days, I am actually a little bit surprised to be in sixth because, of all the tracks we come to, I thought this might be one that we struggle at. The modified lay-out probably helps us because you do not need so much top end speed down the back straight and the new corner is one that suits my style – being hard on the brakes and shoving the bike into the corner. I am already happy with my front tyre but we want to work on getting more grip from worn rear tyres tomorrow and re-evaluate a couple of the rears.”
Garry said: “The bike just didn’t feel like mine and it is nowhere near set-up as I want it. It’s unstable at the front and gets worse at the rear. In the morning I had a couple of bugs with the bike so I felt as though I only went out a couple of times to do lap times and we did go forward a little in the afternoon. There are things we can do to hopefully fix the problem and we will have to see how we do in the morning.”
Friday qualifying, Superbike World Championship round 9, Assen, Netherlands: 1 Toseland 2:04.742; 2 Corser 2:04.835; 3 Muggeridge 2:05.136; 4 Vermeulen 2:05.445; 5 Lanzi 2:05.594;
6 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:05.793; 7 Neukirchner 2:05.822; 8 Pitt 2:05.908; 9 Kagayama 2:05.921; 10 Vizziello 2:05.968;
26 McCoy (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:09.341
Free practice: 1 Haga (Yamaha Italia) 2:06.376; 2 Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 2:06.386; 3 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) 2:06.495; 4 Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona) 2:06.627; 5 Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 2:06.646; 6 Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 2:06.785; 7 Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda) 2:07.119; 8 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 2:07.616; 9 Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 2:07.772;
10 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:07.807; 20 McCoy (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:09.418