Regis Laconi (Ducati) swooped in at the very end of today’s “wet” Superpole session to snatch pole from Troy Corser (Suzuki). Laconi’s time, less than a tenth of a second faster than Corser’s, gives him the pole position for the opening round of the World Superbike Championship tomorrow in Qatar. Superpole was officially declared “wet” and operated like a standard qualifying session (all riders on track at once going for best time) rather than the one-at-a-time “dry” Superpole. However, the session was dry both at the beginning and the end, raining only for a period in the middle.
With two Yamaha R1s (Sebastien Gimbert and Andrew Pitt), two Suzuki GSX-R1000s (Corser and Yukio Kagayama) and a Ducati 999 (Laconi) in the top 5, it looks like it will be a multi-brand battle at the front tomorrow. Chris Vermeulen was only able to manage 8th fastest on his Honda CBR1000RR, but we expect he will also be involved in the battle for the podium tomorrow. The same goes for Yamaha-mounted fan favorite Noriyuki Haga, whose Superpole time put him just ahead of Vermeulen in 7th.
