WSBK – WSBK Phillip Island: Guintoli offers the first Superpole –

WSBK Phillip Island: Guintoli offers the first Superpole

WSBK - WSBK Phillip Island: Guintoli offers the first Superpole -

Last night at Phillip Island, Sylvain Guintoli qualified in pole position for the opening round of the 2014 World Superbike. The French rider places his Aprilia in front of Giugliano’s Ducati and his teammate Melandri’s bike…

Last night at Phillip Island, Sylvain Guintoli qualified in pole position for the opening round of the 2014 World Superbike. The French rider places his Aprilia in front of Giugliano’s Ducati and his teammate Melandri’s motorcycle…

Warning ! This year, the Superpole format is evolving and is based on the system used in MotoGP, the "premier class" of motorcycle speed managed by the Dorna, promoter of the World Superbike …  

At the end of the third free practice session (FP3), the top ten drivers go directly to the final phase of the new Superpole (SP2). At the top of the Australian timesheet, rookie Alex Lowes ended up falling heavily – did it have to happen? – but ensure that he can defend his chances.

The n ° 22 was then ahead of his teammate Eugene Laverty (Suzuki Crescent), the two officials Ducati Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies – victim of a big highside the day before but visibly recovered – the champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing), the impressive Niccolo Canepa – first in the Evo category on his Ducati Althea -, Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing), Jonathan Rea (Honda Pata), Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing) and Marco Melandri – both also at fault – (Aprilia Racing)…

The following ten drivers go through the repechage: "their" Superpole 1 indeed delivers two entry tickets for SP2! The battle to obtain the precious sesame will last 15 minutes … Walters (Kawasaki Pedercini) and the two EBR pilots May and Yates are deprived of a fight. Sebestyen (BMW Toth) is not qualified.

Riding his Fireblade SP, Leon Haslam took the lead from the start of SP1 and improved his time one minute from the end. The Honda Pata rider easily qualifies in Superpole 2, along with the third official Kawasaki rider: David Salom on his ZX-10R Evo.

Toni Elias fails half a second behind the No. 44 Kawa ‘and will therefore post his Aprilia (Red Devils Roma) on the 13th place on the Australian grid tomorrow. The Spaniard is followed by Claudio Corti on his F4RR in SBK configuration (MV Agusta Yakhnich) and Fabien Foret, third fastest Evo rider therefore (Kawasaki Mahi).

In Superpole 2, the first man to officially break the track record is Sylvain Guintoli. His time at the controls of his gray (ant) e RSV4 is so good (1 ‘30.038) that it holds up throughout the session and allows our favorite Frenchie to take the first Superpole 2014 !

"Guinters" is ahead of Davide Giugliano, also passed under the benchmark Carlos Checa registered in 2013 riding the same – well not quite – 1199 Panigale. Three tenths of a second behind Sylvain, Marco Melandri installs the second official Aprilia in the first row.

We note in passing that n ° 33 is credited with the best top speed during this SP2: 319.6 km / h, or 2 km / h better than Guinto ‘, 10 more than Giugliano – yet third in this ranking – and 25 more than Canepa on his Panigale Evo !

Leader of day one and FP3, Alex Lowes finished in a courageous fifth place. The young English driver is preceded by his teammate Eugene Laverty who dreams of only one thing this Sunday: winning! Jonathan Rea completes the second row.

In the third row settles Loris Baz. Our "Green Giant" beats his teammate Sykes who, by attacking a little too much in Lukey Heights, fell. "Mister Superpole" has to be content with 8th place on the grid. Kawasaki rider points out that Phillip Island was not Kawasaki’s favorite track: confirmed !

Leon Haslam will finally start from 9th place for the two rounds scheduled for tomorrow (at 2am and 4:30 am for the bravest of French fans!). Next in the fourth row are Niccolo Canepa, Chaz Davies – who was scared in the pit straight – and David Salom.

See you tomorrow, therefore, to follow the first two races of the 2014 World Superbike season live on Site. Stay awake and connected !

Superpole World Superbike Phillip Island 2014

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