Superpole Donington: Giugliano walks – strong – on the water

After a miraculously dry first day, the World Superbike riders had to deal with the rain to establish the starting grid, this Saturday at Donington Park. Davide Giugliano and his Ducati win ahead of the favorites… Jonathan Rea, Sylvain Guintoli, Alex Lowes and Leon Haslam have succeeded each other at the head of…

After a miraculously dry first day, the World Superbike riders had to deal with the rain to establish the starting grid, this Saturday at Donington Park. Davide Giugliano and his Ducati win ahead of the favorites…

Jonathan Rea, Sylvain Guintoli, Alex Lowes and Leon Haslam succeeded each other at the head of the second and decisive Superpole session but it is Davide Giugliano, the only driver to have covered the 4023 m of the Donington Park circuit in less than 1 ‘ 45, who won this delicate SP2 event !

The Italian driver thus won the second pole of his career in WSBK (after) and also offered the second to the 1199 Panigale (after during his very first outing in Australia).

Like the n ° 34 of the official Ducati team, Leon Haslam (Honda Pata) took his time before challenging his teammate Jonathan Rea for first place in the standings. The n ° 91 finally places his Fireblade in a superb second place, just ahead of Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing) who hoists his RSV4 on the 1st row at the very last moment. !

On pole two minutes from the checkered flag, Alex Lowes (Suzuki Voltcom Crescent) won a satisfactory fourth place. The 2013 British champion precedes a courageous Sylvain Guintoli: fallen in the Esses, our Frenchie had the time – and the chance – to return to the pits, then to launch a final assault towards fifth place.

The official Aprilia rider n ° 50 is ahead of another Frenchman, Loris Baz. The official Kawasaki rider # 76 can be happy to have beaten his leader Tom Sykes again: the reigning world champion, extremely fast in the dry, was not in the wet…

Fortunately for the "Number One", the English weather forecast does not predict rain for the first race tomorrow (start at 1pm French time). Stormy showers could, on the other hand, sow trouble during the second (departure at 4 p.m. at home). To monitor !

Very quick at the start of the session, the championship leader Jonathan Rea ended up losing the front of his CBR1000RR SP under braking on the Melbourne hairpin and had to be content with eighth place on the grid, behind Sykes therefore, and ahead of Toni Elias (Aprilia Red Devils Roma). We can count on JR to animate, with his British compatriots, the two races of tomorrow !

Eugene Laverty (Suzuki Voltcom Crescent) and Chaz Davies (Ducati SBK), in fact, missed “their” Superpole event and will start tomorrow from 10th and 11th places on the grid. Second in SP1 but victim of a fall, Ayrton Badovini (Bimota Alstare) was unable to defend his chances in SP2 and obtained 12th place.

Third fastest in SP1, his teammate Chris Iddon will lead 5th place tomorrow. The n ° 2 and his BB3 will be to watch out of the corner of your eye if the weather turns stormy: watching this Supermoto expert evolve on a circuit that he knows by heart is a real treat, says Site !

Italians Claudio Corti (MV Agusta Yakhnich) and Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki Pedercini) complete the 5th row. Their compatriot Niccolo Canepa, who made a mistake three minutes from the end of SP2, will place his Panigale Evo prepared by Ducati Althea at the top of the 6th row, ahead of the (but official!) Ninja Evo of David Salom.

Leon Camier (Sylvain Barrier’s replacement at BMW Italia) was embossed on his reconnaissance lap in SP1: a lively "highside" almost gently kicked him off his bike, but the latter ended his session in an impressive series of suns … A minute later, it was Jeremy Guarnoni’s turn to bite dust mud !

Fabien Foret for his part, preferred not to participate in this too tricky SP1 for his taste. The three men have therefore not recorded any lap times in Superpole 1. The order established in FP3 (free session 3) is therefore retained: Foret will be placed in front of Guarnoni on the 7th row..

Romain Lanusse is taking advantage of an "invitation card" this weekend to take part in his first World Superbike event. But the n ° 98 of the Kawasaki Pedercini team came very close to the feat since he only needed two tenths of a second to qualify in Superpole 1 !

Beaten by his teammate, the holder Andreozzi, "Romax" was classified 21st at the end of the first three practice sessions. He will therefore install his ZX-10R Evo in this same place on the starting grid and will try to get closer to the points in the race..

The 8th place will be led by another Ninja Evo, that of Sheridan Morais of the Iron Brain Grillini Kawasaki team. The South African will start ahead of the Hungarian Imre Toth on the BMW S1000RR and the American Aaron Yates on the EBR 1190 RX.

The second official machine of the Erik Buell Racing brand driven by Geoff May (more than six seconds from the reference time set on Friday by Tom Sykes!) Will start from the last row, accompanied by Peter Sebestyen’s BMW and Brian Staring’s Kawasaki which replaces Michel Fabrizio for the rest of the season.

Superpole World Superbike Donington Park 2014

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