Alcaniz (Spain), Saturday 12 April 2014 – the second Superpole of the 2014 World Superbike season, which took place today at Motorland Aragon, brought positive results for the Ducati Superbike Team; Davide Giugliano to line up in fourth position and Chaz Davies in sixth place on tomorrow’s starting grid.
The track was cooler for this morning’s third timed practice after rainfall during the night (air temperature 16°C, track 19°C). The Ducati Superbike men continued with the work started yesterday and towards the end of the session both Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano were able to improve on their best times set yesterday, with a 1’57.936 for Davies and an almost identical time of 1’57.985 for Giugliano. The combined times of all three sessions saw Davies qualify in overall third position for this afternoon’s Superpole, Giugliano just behind him in fifth place.
Superpole 2 – In slightly warmer conditions with respect to this morning, both Davies and Giugliano made a first exit with the race tyre, positioning first and second at mid-session. Giugliano then went back out on the qualifying tyre, pushing hard to lower his lap time. Thanks to a fast, clean lap (1’56.825) on board his 1199 Panigale, the Italian rider achieved overall fourth position. Davies too went back out on the qualifier but unfortunately a crash at turn 12 during his out lap conditioned his Superpole. Fortunately Chaz was unhurt and there was no damage to the bike, meaning that the British rider was able to continue without returning to the garage. Davies was able to make the most of the qualifying tyre despite the crash, improving on his time (1’56.977) to close sixth.
The Ducati Superbike riders therefore earned fourth (Giugliano) and sixth (Davies) place on tomorrow’s starting grid.
Quotes after the day’s sessions:
Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 4th (1’56.825)
“Today we’ve worked on resolving yesterday’s instability issue and I’ve been able to ride a bit more smoothly. I’d say we have a good bike that we will try to perfect tomorrow in warm-up in order to face the races optimistically. In the past I’ve never been particularly strong during practices at this track but then in the race I’ve been able to put everything together more successfully, so this makes me more confident for tomorrow’s races.”
Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 6th (1’56.977)
“I’ve had better feeling today compared to yesterday, although we still have some small changes to make before tomorrow’s races. Of course it’s a pity about the crash, but it was my mistake. Maybe that point of the track was dirty, I don’t know, but I was off line and just lost the front. I decided to stay out and continue to see if I could improve my time. I managed that, but I know I could have done more if it hadn’t been for the crash. Anyway, we’ve shown quite good pace today, my position is what it is, and now we will concentrate on tomorrow’s races.”
Weekend schedule (CET):
Sunday
8.40 – 8.55 – SBK Warm-up
10.30 – SBK Race 1
13.10 – SBK Race 2
