WSBK – WSBK France: Superpole for Sykes, sleepless night for Guintoli –

Posted on by admin

WSBK France: Superpole for Sykes, sleepless night for Guintoli

WSBK - WSBK France: Superpole for Sykes, sleepless night for Guintoli -

Contested in mixed conditions this afternoon, the Magny-Cours Superpole was won by Tom Sykes and his Kawasaki! Dropped to almost a second, Sylvain Guintoli and his Aprilia nevertheless won second place on the grid. The night is likely to be long and agitated for our national "Guinters" …

Contested in mixed conditions this afternoon, the Magny-Cours Superpole was won by Tom Sykes and his Kawasaki! Dropped to almost a second, Sylvain Guintoli and his Aprilia nevertheless clinched second place on the grid.

The night is likely to be long and hectic for our national "Guinters": he will defend his title chances tomorrow starting from the front row, wedged between the leader and favorite of the 2013 WSBK championship Tom Sykes and the "fearless" outsider. without pressure "Davide Giugliano !

Best time of the first day ahead of Sykes, Davies and Cluzel (!), Guintoli was logically the fastest this Saturday at the end of the second qualifying session in the morning … and wet! This afternoon, moreover, the track was still too wet to give rise to a "dry" Superpole..

Officially declared "Wet", the Superpole therefore took place in two phases and not three. Four drivers did not participate: Aitchison, Sandi, Lai and Iannuzzo were classified Friday afternoon in this order beyond 15th place in the qualifying session ‘and will keep their positions on the starting grid tomorrow.

The first Superpole session (SP1) took place on a partially wet track. The slips were numerous but the most impressive – and "striking" – of all was that of Michele Pirro, .

Firmly determined to fill in the two small tenths of a second which separated him from 9th place – and from Superpole 2 therefore – the Ducati test rider "tried" to raise the tempo. Her Panigale let her know, via a lively highside, that she did not want to continue the experience !

Pirro will therefore be content with 10th place on the French grid tomorrow, which is not so bad for a first! The new rookie of the Ducati Alstare team will start ahead of Moto2 champion Toni Elias (Aprilia Red Devils Roma) and "our" vice-champion of Supersport Jules Cluzel (Suzuki Fixi Crescent).

On the fifth row will line up David Salom, replacing Loris Baz – whom we would have liked to see riding in "his" perilous conditions! -, Lorenzo Lanzi on his 1198 Mesaroli Transports and Leon Haslam, member of the Honda Pata team … tras: the n ° 91 also fell during the SP1.

Tom Sykes Himself almost got trapped by the Nivernaise track during this first Superpole session. Luckily for him, the English Ninja barely caught up, dodged the fall by pulling straight and was able to take part in SP2 a few minutes later..

Time to change the tires, fine-tune the trigger of the rear shock absorber, clean the visor, have a drink from Iron Brain of water, and the pit lane opened again on a practically dry track! Despite a few plates that remained wet, the pilots were able to turn as if in the dry…

Only Vincent Philippe – – failed to find the right rhythm. The n ° 52 nevertheless offers a nice 9th place on the starting grid. Will he be able to maintain this position tomorrow during the two 23-lap sprints? Response to be followed almost directly on the Site…

The endurance world champion (see our!) Would do well to take the wheel of one of the two BMW Italia Goldbet riders placed in front of him on the fourth row: following the Welshman Chaz Davies or the Italian Marco Melandri would give Vincent access to the final Top 5 !

Housed on the second row, the Ducati of Ayrton Badovini (6th) and the Honda of Michel Fabrizio (5th) will also try to stay in contact with the hunting group … from which we hope a high-level performance, whatever the weather conditions !

Eugene Laverty, 338 points on the clock, will start at the head of the second row and will try to join as quickly as possible his two rivals in the championship: Sykes (361 pts) and Guintoli (337). For this, the Irishman will have to quickly overtake Davide Giugliano and his private Aprilia Althea, posted in third position on the grid … and last Sunday !

It will then be up to Sylvain Guintoli to contain the attacks of his teammate n ° 58. Unless the Frenchie, carried by his audience, has – finally! – managed to carry a conclusive and definitive attack on his enemy n ° 66 in the championship ?

Tom Sykes on the contrary, will do everything not to fight! Author of an incredible 1 ‘38.592 – new track record, "of course" – the official Kawasaki will start for the eighth time this season from pole position, the 19th of his career! Hopefully, for the show, Tom won’t kill the suspense after three rounds…

Third and then first of, Sykes would put a first hand on the 2013 trophy by signing this year the same type of result. The second hand will have to wait for the last round of the championship scheduled in two weeks in Jerez. But this is another story…

See you tomorrow, to follow the two Superbike races live, as well as the Supersport one which could be decisive for Sam Lowes, wide leader of the SSP championship ahead of the three-time champion Kenan Sofuoglu. Stay connected !

Superpole WSBK 2013 Magny-Cours

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *