WSBK – WSBK Phillip Island: the first Superpole 2013 for Checa! –

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WSBK Phillip Island: the first Superpole 2013 for Checa !

WSBK - WSBK Phillip Island: the first Superpole 2013 for Checa! -

Carlos Checa and his new 1199 Panigale hit hard last night at Phillip Island by taking the first pole position of the 2013 WSBK season! The official Ducati rider is ahead of Laverty and Fabrizio, both on Aprilia…

Carlos Checa and his new 1199 Panigale hit hard last night at Phillip Island by taking the first pole position of the 2013 WSBK season! The official Ducati rider is ahead of Laverty and Fabrizio, both on Aprilia…

Let us recall in the preamble that the course of the Superpole has been slightly modified this winter, in order to correspond to the new format of the starting grid: as in MotoGP, the Mondial Superbike riders will now start in row by three and no longer by four to one. ‘fire extinction !

Superbike re-entry: in a row, three by three !

Thus, the first Superpole session (SP1) is contested by the 15 best drivers of the qualifying sessions, against 16 last year. The three slowest drivers (four previously) come out after the first two Superpole sessions, leaving the top nine drivers to fight for pole position in SP3…

Jules Cluzel did not have access to the Superpole: slowed down by technical glitches, our Supersport runner-up could only achieve 17th time in qualifying. The "rookie" – a beginner in the category – French will start from the middle of the sixth row for his first two races in Superbike.

His n ° 16 GSX-R1000 will be framed in sixth place by the S1000RR of the "wildcard" pilot – guest – Glenn Allerton and by the ZX-10R of Alex Lundh (Pedercini). Behind his three bikes, will start from the last row the Ninja of Federico Sandi (Pedercini) and the S1000RR of Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmaio).

Credited with the 19th fastest time, Panigale n ° 86 will nevertheless remain in his box: Ayrton Badovini, Carlos Checa’s teammate in the Ducati Alstare team, broke his right heel on Friday morning and had to forfeit. He will be on his feet for the next round, scheduled for the weekend of April 14 in Aragon (Spain).

In Superpole 1, Jamie Stauffer, invited like Allerton on this first event, distinguished himself by rising at the very start of the session to fifth position, then falling! His CBR1000RR out of working order, he could not start again and must be content with 14th place on the grid.

In fourth place in "his" Australian grid, the Australian driver will nevertheless be ahead of the holder Ivan Clementi (BMW HTM Racing). Max Neukirchner takes 13th place at the controls of his 1199 Panigale prepared by the MR-Racing team.

Young Loris Baz, who already has 20 WSBK races – and one win! – in the paws, fought like an ogre but did not manage to cross the stage of Superpole 2 at the controls of his official Kawa ‘. Our "Green Giant" will start from 11th place, behind Davide Giugliano (Aprilia Althea) but ahead of Chaz Davies (BMW Goldbet).

Respectively 8th and 9th of the final Superpole session, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea are certainly not where they wanted! The two Britons and their Honda Pata team will have to work during the warm-up on Sunday morning (Saturday evening for us) in order to find a way to hook up the right wagon in the race…

At the head of the third row, Leon Camier also hoped to appear higher on the timesheet, as was the case at the start of the week during official practice. Like Haslam and Rea, the No. 2 of the Suzuki Fixi Crescent team suffers from a slight deficit in top speed. He too will have to get off to a great start and take the best bikes tomorrow..

Precisely, the most formidable motorcycle on the grid is undoubtedly the Aprilia RSV4. Fortunately – for the French clan – Sylvain Guintoli rides one of the two factory machines. For his first two races on his handlebars, the driver from-Drôme-living in England will start from 6th position on the grid..

Our favorite "Frenchie" is preceded by the two "best drivers in the discipline", Tom Sykes and Marco Melandri, since the reigning champion Biaggi has decided to hang up and follow his little comrades from the commentator box, like Joan Lascorz besides !

Rather exceptional fact: Tom and Marco achieved the same time during Superpole 3: 1 ‘30.61 … Hopefully the two lads will continue to turn at the same pace tomorrow in the race, in which case the show will be grandiose !

Three hundredths of a second faster than the No.66 Ninja and No.33 Hedgehog, Michel Fabrizio and his private Aprilia (Red Devils Roma) were robbed of their second place on the grid in "stoppage time" by Eugene Laverty and its official RSV4 !

The hot "Yudjine" on the other hand failed to beat the best rider of the day that very few observers, even informed, expected so early so early: Carlos Checa, who gives his brand new Ducati his first pole position from its first release !

Unlucky from a weather point of view during the winter tests (and the bad luck continued them until the press presentation of the new Hypermotard, read our!), The Bologna Reds prove that their new Superbike machine is in the game, to the image of their – unique – official pilot.

At almost 41 years old, the same age as Biaggi last season, “El Torro” n ° 7 shows that his driving and his rage to win can erase the deficits in speed and development of his machine. Author of four victories at Phillip Island, will Checa be able to be as swift next night ?

Answer to follow almost directly on the Site: stay connected !

2013 WSBK Superpole Results Phillip Island (Australia)

 

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