Results of first qualifying at Phillip Island saw Carlos Checa (Ducati Althea Racing) stake his claim as #1 favorite for the Superbike wins in the opening round on Sunday. The Spaniard stopped the clocks with a time of 1 minute 31.577 seconds, a tenth quicker than his free practice time of the morning, but slower than his best from recent testing - simply because the warmer track surface delivered less outright grip. Another man on the move was Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati Effenbert - Liberty Racing), the Frenchman doing exceptionally well to come within three-tenths of Checa, despite suffering a fall in the morning session.
Carlos Checa: “Basically, we worked with the tires this afternoon, just to make choices for race day. I felt good today but I think the grip was just a little bit less from the racetrack. We used the ‘big’ rear tire and had similar results to the previous ones, so if we do that I prefer to continue with the existing tires for now. Tomorrow we will just work towards raceday again, do a comparison with the tires and then do some longer runs on the tire we expect to use for the race.”
An impressive sub-1m32s lap time was set by Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) and the WSBK rookie had the satisfaction of finishing one place ahead of 2010 world champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia). Guintoli’s teammate Jakub Smrz posted fifth best time, and Leon Haslam overcame some early set-up issues to go sixth. He was the top BMW Motorrad Motorsport rider today, as Troy Corser went 11th.
Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) had a harmless crash towards the end and finished seventh, one place up on impressive new WSBK talent, Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team). Lascorz, a top runner in WSS until his promotion to Superbike this year, was only just over half a second from Checa. Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea, who is still battered and bruised from his big testing get offs, was ninth fastest, placing all the competing manufacturers in WSBK this season in the top nine places in the first qualifying session.
Yoshimura Suzuki rider Josh Waters, a wild card at this event, was an impressive tenth on the exquisitely prepared GSX-R machine, leading his fellow countryman Corser, while Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) was 12th, and one of many top names who ended up in the gravel at one point or other today.
Tom Sykes, Noriyuki Haga, James Toseland and Leon Camier rounded out the top 16.
World Superbike QP11. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1'31.577
2. Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) 1'31.850
3. Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 1'31.969
4. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 1'32.009
5. Jakub Smrz (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) 1'32.066
6. Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1'32.082
7. Michel Fabrizio (Team Suzuki Alstare) 1'32.108
8. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1'32.163
9. Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) 1'32.424
10. Joshua Waters (Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team) 1'32.690
11. Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1'32.699
12. Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 1'32.700
13. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) 1'32.705
14. Noriyuki Haga (PATA Racing Team Aprilia) 1'33.058
15. James Toseland (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) 1'33.074
16. Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 1'33.084
17. Bryan Staring (Team Pedercini) 1'33.130
18. Maxime Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) 1'33.176
19. Ruben Xaus (Castrol Honda) 1'33.411
20. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) 1'33.598
21. Mark Aitchison (Team Pedercini) 1'33.788
22. Roberto Rolfo (Team Pedercini) 1'33.864
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The World Superbike season opener from Phillip Island, Australia will air back-to-back on SPEED on Sunday, February 27, at 5:00pm and 6:00pm ET.
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