Carlos Checa on WSBK pole position
He's the Phillip Island master, and he proved it again this afternoon to put his Ducati Panigale on the top spot on the grid. Sam Lowes is dominating SupersportSpain’s Carlos Checa has produced a masterful double at Phillip Island this afternoon by claiming pole position for tomorrow’s two 22-lap World Superbike races, as well as reclaiming bragging rights with the best ever lap around the 4.445km circuit.
Checa, a four-time WSBK ace winner at Phillip Island, dialled up his factory Ducati to set a sensational 1m30.234s flying lap in the final throes of the three-stage Superpole shootout, and he will be joined on the front row of the grid by Aprilia pair Eugene Laverty (1:30.429) and Michel Fabrizio (1:30.581). It was Checa’s 10th pole position in WSBK racing.
Earlier, Fabrizio had lowered Checa’s best lap around Phillip Island to 1:30.387 in final qualifying, but the 40-year-old’s counter claim was flawless as he makes a strong claim to give the all-new Panigale 1199RS a winning start in WSBK competition.
“It is a nice surprise to be here and in first position -- we did not expect to be here with everything happening of the last few days,” said Checa, who crashed hard at turn six in Friday practice.
“I feel great on this track, and the new surface is getting better all the time. And we now have more speed mid-turn, but today is just Superpole.
“We will see tomorrow. Hopefully we can be competitive and fighting for a good position.”
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and BMW’s Marco Melandri set the same Superpole time of 1:30.615 and will sit on row two alongside Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli (1:30.683), and row three will be an all-British affair: Leon Camier (Suzuki, 1:30.991) and Honda team-mates Leon Haslam (1:30.998) and Jonathan Rea (1:31.742).
Other than Checa, Haslam is the only other rider who has winning WSBK form at Phillip Island.
The nine riders on the front three rows battled it out in the final Superpole session, while among those to be purged in the first two sessions included Australia’s Jamie Stauffer (Honda), whose momentum was stalled by a crash, and Italian Davide Giugliano (Aprilia).
Australia’s second rider, Glenn Allerton (BMW), didn’t compete in Superpole as it was only restricted to the top 15 riders in regulation qualifying. But he just missed by a whisker, qualifying in 16th position.
The first WSBK race will be held at 12:00pm tomorrow, followed by the second 22-lapper at 3:30pm. Twenty-one riders will be in action.
In World Supersport, Briton Sam Lowes’ absolute grip on proceedings continued in final qualifying, and he will start tomorrow’s 15-lap race as the overwhelming favourite on his Russian-backed Yamaha YZF-R6.
Lowes’ best time in qualifying was 1m32.545s, nearly a second ahead of reigning world champion Kenan Sofouglu (Kawasaki, 1:33.404), while Frenchman Fabien Foret (Kawasaki, 1:33.721) gritted his teeth to rocket up the timesheets to complete the front row. Foret had a massive crash yesterday, which left the 40-year-old badly battered and bruised.
Sofuoglu won the 2012 WSS race at Phillip Island, ahead of Foret and Australia’s Broc Parkes, with Lowes in fifth position.
Meanwhile, Phillip Island rookies Michael Van der Mark (Honda, 1:33.802) and Jack Kennedy (Honda, 1:33.896) are on row two alongside David Salom (Kawasaki, 1:33.965), while Kevin Curtain (Yamaha, 1:34.557) is the leading Australian in 14th, ahead of Josh Hook (Honda, 1:34.944) in 22nd.
Hook and compatriot Mitchell Carr (Triumph, 1:35.23) crashed in final qualifying, with the latter to start from 26th position. West Wyalong 17-year-old Matt Davies (Honda, 1:35.380) will head off from 30th position in the massive 34-bike field.
The WSS race will be held at 1:30pm tomorrow.
PHILLIP ISLAND WORLD SUPERBIKE GRID
1. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1'30.234 average 177.339 kph;
2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 1'30.429;
3. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia) 1'30.581;
4. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'30.615;
5. Marco Melandri (BMW) 1'30.615;
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 1'30.683;
7. Leon Camier (Suzuki) 1'30.991;
8. Leon Haslam (Honda) 1'30.998;
9. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1'31.742;
10. Davide Giugliano (Aprilia) 1'31.283;
11. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 1'31.576;
12. Chaz Davies (BMW) 1'31.870;
13. Max Neukirchner (Ducati) 1'32.010;
14. Jamie Stauffer (Australia) (Honda) 1'32.353;
15. Ivan Clementi (BMW) 1'32.773;
16. Glenn Allerton (Australia) (BMW) 1'32.352;
17. Jules Cluzel (Suzuki);
18. Alexander Lundh (Kawasaki);
19. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati);
20. Federico Sandi (Kawasaki);
21. Vittorio Iannuzzo (BMW).
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