Imola (Italy), Saturday 29 June 2013: Ayrton Badovini and team SBK Ducati Alstare enjoyed a second positive day today at the ‘Autodromo Internazionale Dino e Enzo Ferrari di Imola’, qualifying in eighth position for tomorrow’s races; Carlos Checa crashed out, qualifying thirteenth.
In warm and sunny conditions Checa and Badovini returned to the track this morning for second qualifying. Despite the fact that Ayrton was unable to improve on the extremely fast time he set yesterday afternoon, he nevertheless completed the morning’s session in fifth position, to qualify for this afternoon’s Superpole in overall sixth position thanks to yesterday’s fastest time of 1’47.6. Carlos continued to work with his technicians to refine the set-up of his 1199 Panigale, qualifying for the Superpole in final eleventh position with a best lap of 1’48.2, recorded in the final seconds of this morning’s qualifying session.
Superpole 1: in this first phase both riders went out on race rubber. Unfortunately Carlos suffered a crash mid-session which forced him to sit out the remainder of the Superpole. The Spanish rider hurt his right bicep in the fall and qualified in thirteenth position for tomorrow’s races. Ayrton went back out on track with the first of his two qualifying tyres, securing third position thanks to a flying lap of 1’47.2.
Superpole 2: After coming in eighth after a first exit on the race tyre, Ayrton was quickly back out on the second qualifying tyre with which he recorded an extremely fast time of 1’46.8, his fastest lap of the weekend. He closed this second stage in second position, just three tenths of a second behind leader Sykes.
Superpole 3: Badovini participated in this third phase of Superpole for the first time this season. Unfortunately there was an interruption mid-session after a crash for Baz left oil and fuel on track. The session restarted, with five minutes still on the clock, but due to the fact that he no longer had a fresh qualifier available, Badovini closed this final mini-session in overall eighth position. He will therefore start from the third row of the grid in tomorrow’s races.
Carlos Checa: “I’m disappointed of course. In this afternoon’s crash I took a hit to the right bicep, I hope it’s only a contusion but I’m going to get it looked at in the Clinica Mobile. Hopefully, with some ice and an anti-inflammatory, it won’t give me any trouble tomorrow. This morning’s crash was nothing out of the ordinary but this afternoon was a bit strange, I’m not sure what happened. We didn’t need that of course and this evening we’ll look at the data to see if we can understand how it happened and what to do for tomorrow’s races. It’s a difficult moment for me, because I expected to do better here at Imola, now that I was feeling better physically. It won’t be easy tomorrow but I’ll do what I can.”
Ayrton Badovini: “I’m pleased because we’ve grown a lot over the weekend. We’ve got good pace and have finally managed tto take part in Q3. It’s only a shame that I wasted the second qualifying tyre because if I’d had that available for the last phase I’d have been able to qualify better. Anyway the main thing is that we’ve improved a lot over the weekend and know in which areas we need to continue working. Our fans and friends are all here to support us, more than ever seeing as we’re in Imola where there’s also a lot of attention on Ducati, so we’re concentrating on tomorrow – it’s going to be a great race day.”
TIMES (Superpole): 1. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’45.9; 2. Rea (Honda) 1’46.5; 3. Giugliano (Aprilia) 1’46.7; 4. Guintoli (Aprilia) 1’46.8; 5. Laverty (Aprilia) 1’46.9; 6. Camier (Suzuki) 1’47.1; 7. Melandri (BMW) 1’47.2; 8. Badovini (Ducati Alstare) 1’47.3… 13. Checa (Ducati Alstare) 1’48.4
