Superpole Jerez: Melandri wins second WSBK pole

Marco Melandri’s racing statistics in the World Superbike are rather impressive: in 124 races, the Italian n ° 33 climbed 60 podiums, obtained 20 victories and signed 15 lap records. However, he only signed two Superpoles: the first on Yamaha in 2011, the second on Ducati today. !

Three weeks after the tumultuous – wet! – Magny-Cours Superpole, the World Superbike riders had the right to a much more engaging double qualifying session in Jerez, on a freshly resurfaced track and under a bright sun…

At the end of the first series of rounds in Superpole 1 – opposing men excluded from the Top 10 on Friday – Leandro "Tati" Mercado is at the top of the timesheet. Leon Camier is in second place but Xavi Fores and Jordi Torres are in the wake of the first two.

Member of the private Yamaha Guandalini team for only two events (Portugal and France), Alessandro Andreozzi shines on his R1 n ° 121: too optimistic in his penultimate lap, the Italian bites into the dirt at the exit of the last corner while he was ahead of the new reference time posted by Camier and his F4 n ° 2 !

The MV Agusta driver – who has just signed with Honda for the 2018 season – keeps the first ticket to SP2 until the end. The second note is finally seized by Fores on his Panigale n ° 12. Mercado and his RSV4 n ° 36 must therefore be satisfied with the third best time, synonymous with a 13th place on the Spanish grid..

Behind the Argentinian in the fifth row, will be placed this afternoon the two S1000RR of the BMW Althea team: the n ° 35 of Raffaelle de Rosa and the n ° 81 of the "Spanish Elvis" Torres. Andreozzi will lead the next line, completed by Davide Giugliano on the first (!) Honda and Ondrej Jezek on his Kawasaki Grillini (see the ranking at the bottom of the article).

Note also the distant but courageous 22nd place of Dominic Schmitter at the controls of his GSX-R1000R. His German HPC-Power team is the first to field the all-new Suzuki in World Superbike. Their machine is obviously not at the level. But the important thing, it seems, is to participate !

At the opening of SP2, Camier took advantage of his warm-up in SP1 to climb to the top of the timesheet. But the official Kawasaki beat him quickly: the Ninja n ° 1 and the n ° 66 succeed each other in first place and are the first to go below 1 ’40…

Fifth fastest time on Friday, Marco Melandri posted his Panigale n ° 33 at the top of the ranking a few moments later! His teammate Chaz Davies, only tenth on day one due to a crash in FP2, is a distant ninth place…

On hard tires, the Englishman Sykes and the North Irishman Rea completed the "podium", followed by the other Englishman Camier and the Irishman Eugene Laverty in his RSV4 Factory. The teammate of "Youdjine", Lorenzo Savadori then precedes the two Yamaha officials Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark.

Sylvain Guintoli completed the Top 12 and entered the pits first. Our 2014 Superbike World Champion continues to get to know Randy Krummenacher’s ZX-10R. The simple fact of having qualified directly in SP2 is already a small victory for n ° 05 ("his" number 50 is already taken by Laverty) !

Two minutes from the end of the session, the control screens see red on all sides! Van der Mark then Lowes provisionally installed their factory R1s in pole position. But Marco strikes again: the Hedgehog of Ravenna slips alone under the 1 ’39 mark !

Tom "Super" Sykes tries to retaliate but only manages to eject the second Yamaha (the Dutch No. 60) from the front row. A moment later, it is the turn of the ruthless "JR" to tumble down the straight line at the controls of his ZX-10R….

Author of the last two Superpoles – in Portimao and Magny-Cours -, the three-time world champion fails at 21 thousandths of a second from his red target (n ° 33)! Rea thus dislodges Lowes from his magnificent second place and in turn takes Sykes out of the first row.

For the second time in his World Superbike career, Marco Melandri will therefore start from pole position. As a reminder, his first pole position dates back to his first season: it was in 2011 on the old R1 in Aragon. The Italian n ° 33 had then chained on a victory and a 2nd place…

Start of the first SBK round at 1 p.m. and full report on MNC: stay tuned !

Superpole World Superbike Spain

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