Luthi and team happy with recent progress

Crossing the line in second place at the A-Style TT Assen, five seconds behind race-winner Alvaro Bautista and just ahead of Marco Simoncelli, Thomas Luthi made it four races in a row in the top five - as he maintained his recent resurgence in form.

His performance pleased his Emmi - Caffe Latte boss Daniel Epp who has seen the young Swiss rider bounce back from a poor start to the season in recent weeks, steadily moving up the general standings to ninth place on 77 points, with 58 of those scored in June.

Commenting on Luthi´s Assen endeavours Epp said, `Tom did very well at the beginning of the race, perhaps he even did too much, and then he had to pay the price a little bit at the end, but eventually he finished second and this was a very important podium for us.´

On his Aprilia-equipped team´s overall level of competitiveness Epp added, `We are satisfied with our machine and we are satisfied with our team. Tom´s learning curve is going in the right direction, but he is still young. He is 21 and he is still learning. Every race weekend his relationship with his team and his bike is getting better.´

Meanwhile, former 125cc World Champion Luthi himself noted, `The start of the season really wasn´t good and in the last few races things are getting better and better. Now we have to keep working and going in the same direction so that we can stay in the first group, which is our target.´