Thompson’s strong finishes in Assen

Qualifying didn’t go as well as he had hoped and he was forced to start the first race from the sixth row of the grid.

“It was a bitter sweet first day at Assen as I could only manage a 1m 48s dead in the first session, and with some big suspension changes managed a 1 min 46 secs in qualifying,” he said.

“Frustratingly though, that wasn’t even a decent lap as I was always in traffic and then the bike decided to throw a wobbly and cut out before I put a flying lap in, so I am having to start the race from 16th.”

But as the lights went out he got a good start and made up a couple of places on the first lap.

As the race unfolded he made it through to 13th but on the penultimate lap he was demoted a place.

The red flag came out on the final lap because a crashed bike had left fluid on the track and it looked as if Thompson would be awarded 14th place.

But after the race the two leaders were disqualified for disregarding multiple red flags which promoted Thompson up to 12th place.

Starting the second race from the sixth row once again, Thompson got away to a good start, moving up to 13th position on the first lap.

He went on to move up the order and cross the finish line at the end of the 10 laps in 11th position.

These two strong results place him 16th in the rider standings on 52 points, but it’s close and two top results could move him up the table in the final round.