Motorland Aragon (Spain), Saturday 18 June 2011 – Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) put in a great performance in qualifying to take his first ever Tissot-Superpole success and also give Yamaha its first top grid slot of the season. Melandri set a new track best of 1 minute 57.634 seconds in Superpole 3 and he will start Sunday’s 20-lap races with his great rival Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) as his closest challenger. Biaggi’s team-mate Leon Camier and championship leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) complete the front row.
Marco Melandri: “It’s awesome, I’m very happy. I didn’t think it could happen, especially after Superpole 1 when I almost lost the chance to go to the next one. When I saw Max in front of everyone in Superpole 3, I had a few guys in the middle on race tyres so I passed them and followed Max to set my best time so I need to say thanks to him for my lap time!”
Max Biaggi: “We’ve been working a lot to find the best set-up possible, I’m quite happy even though I’m not on pole, but tomorrow is a long race and it’s not going to be easy because it’s difficult to make the tyres last for the final eight laps. But we’re all in the same boat and we will see!”
Leon Camier: “It makes a change for us to be up on the front row to be honest. I’m really happy with that, we’ve been working good all weekend. We made a couple of little changes since Misano and thought we were going to struggle a bit here but they have made the bike feel much better. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, it’ll be interesting to start from the front!”
Carlos Checa: “I struggled here a bit in qualifying, and then made a small mistake in the last Superpole session going into the slow turn. It was difficult to fight for pole today, but we are confident for tomorrow’s races.”
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Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) put in a late charge on race tyres to fifth, with Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team), Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) all joining him on row two. The competition for places in qualifying was remarkable at such a long 5.344km circuit, with combined qualifying (which determines the top riders who go forward to Superpole) ending with the top 16 riders within a second of each other.
The four riders who had to exit Superpole after the second of three sessions were Misano podium finisher Noriyuki Haga (PATA Racing Team Aprilia), Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing), Michel Fabrizio (Team Suzuki Alstare) and the remarkable Mark Aitchison (Team Pedercini) who had his most impressive qualifying of the year, ending up 12th from 20 riders in his rookie WSBK season on a privateer machine.
The first casualties of the stopwatch as the first session finished included a surprise figure, as Jakub Smrz (Effenbert-Liberty Racing) was second place in combined qualifying but he ended up 13th on the grid after Superpole 1. Even more of a surprise in some regards was that official BMW riders Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) and Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) were unable to compete the way they hoped and finished 14th and 16th respectively. Privateer Ducati rider Maxime Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) took a fourth row start after posting some impressive times in earlier qualifying and practice sessions.
Tissot-Superpole Times: 1. Melandri M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’57.634; 2. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’57.790; 3. Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’58.279; 4. Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1’58.472; 5. Sykes T. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’58.641; 6. Laverty E. (IRL) Yamaha YZF R1 1’58.756; 7. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’59.194; 8. Badovini A. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 1’59.591; 9. Haga N. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’58.566; 10. Guintoli S. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’58.640; 11. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’58.950; 12. Aitchison M. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’59.680; 13. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1’59.355; 14. Haslam L. (GBR) BMW S1000 RR 1’59.367; 15. Berger M. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’59.507; 16. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’59.565; etc.
World Supersport
Broc Parkes (Kawasaki Motocard.com) booked his ticket for a repeat win after Misano tomorrow with another terrific performance in today’s World Supersport final qualifying session. The Australian’s time of 2 minutes 02.093 seconds, was almost four-tenths quicker than his Spanish team-mate, David Salom, who was also on form today. A fighting third place went to Britain’s Sam Lowes (Parkalgar Honda), while fellow-Brit Chaz Davies completed the front row for the Yamaha ParkinGO team. Erstwhile championship leader Luca Scassa (Yamaha ParkinGO) could only manage fifth place and a row 2 start, with Massimo Roccoli (Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki) grabbing sixth place in the final stages from Fabien Foret (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and James Ellison (Bogdanka PTR Honda).
Times: 1. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’02.093; 2. Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’02.454; 3. Lowes S. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 2’02.708; 4. Davies C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 2’03.058; 5. Scassa L. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 2’03.140; 6. Roccoli M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’03.441; 7. Foret F. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 2’03.537; 8. Ellison J. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 2’03.614; etc.
Superstock 1000
Danilo Petrucci (Barni Racing Team Ducati) laid down the gauntlet to his fellow STK1000 runners by setting a scintillating time of 2 minutes 01.161 seconds, almost one full second clear of the next man, Lorenzo Zanetti (BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock). Zanetti was a fraction ahead of points leader Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Ducati) in third, while the all-Italian front row will be completed by the returning Niccolò Canepa on another Ducati, the SS Lazio Motorsport version. A second BMW, that of Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock) notched up fifth place to head row 2, with Andrea Antonelli (Lorini Honda) and South African Sheridan Morais (Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki) the top runners on Japanese four-cylinder machinery.
Times: 1. Petrucci D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2’01.161; 2. Zanetti L. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 2’02.112; 3. Giugliano D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2’02.141; 4. Canepa N. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2’02.279; 5. Barrier S. (FRA) BMW S1000 RR 2’02.415; 6. Antonelli A. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 2’02.903; 7. Morais S. (RSA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 2’02.949; 8. Baroni L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2’03.153; etc.
Superstock 600 – Race
Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Motorsports Yamaha) was the fourth different winner in the first four rounds of this year’s exciting Superstock 600 European Championship. The Australian, now firmly in second place in the table, finished just over one second ahead of points leader Romain Lanusse (MRS Yamaha Racing France), but the Frenchman is now 20 points clear in the table. The final podium slot went to Belgium’s Gauthier Duwelz (MTM-RT Motorsports Yamaha), who held off a fierce challenge from a trio of riders on Yamaha and Honda machinery.
Results: 1. Metcher J. (AUS) Yamaha YZF R6 21’09.901 (151,495 kph); 2. Lanusse R. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1.279; 3. Duwelz G. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 7.150; 4. Lombardi D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 7.251; 5. Egea S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 7.423; 6. Vd Mark M. (NED) Honda CBR600RR 7.962; 7. Russo R. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 8.429; 8. Day J. (USA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 13.973; etc.
Points (after 4of 10 rounds) : 1. Lanusse 81; 2. Metcher 61; 3. Lombardi 46; 4. Vd Mark 41; 5. Duwelz 38; 6. Gregorini 35; 7. Day 31; 8. Russo 29; etc.
