Misano Adriatico (Italy), Saturday 21 June 2014 – Today saw further positive results for Davide Giugliano and the Ducati Superbike Team at the Misano World Circuit. In a Superpole that turned out to be ‘hot’ in more than one sense of the word, the Italian rider earned second place on the grid for tomorrow’s races, with his teammate Chaz Davies concluding seventh, for a place on the third row.
In the morning’s final timed practice session, which took place on what was already a hot track (38°C), Giugliano and Davies continued to work well, finding a good rhythm right from the session’s start with both able to record consistently fast times. The factory Ducati riders further improved on times set in previous sessions with Davide consolidating yesterday afternoon’s performance by finishing at the head of the pack once more, with a best time of 1’36.125. Chaz recorded a fastest time of 1’36.409 to finish fifth, meaning that both Ducati Superbike riders easily qualified directly for Superpole 2.
Giugliano and Davies then took advantage of the early afternoon’s free practice session, working with the used tyres and making final adjustments ahead of the Superpole and closing the 30-minute session in fifth (Giugliano) and seventh (Davies) position.
Superpole 2: the track temperature had risen to 50°C by the start of Superpole 2. Giugliano, immediately moving to the top of the timesheets thanks to his first lap (1’35.950) on the race tyre, went straight back out on the qualifier together with his teammate. Pushing hard, the Italian was able to complete an extremely fast, clean lap, in 1’35.079. Thanks to this very impressive lap time, he achieved a well-deserved place on the front row of tomorrow’s grid, second, just missing out on pole by less than two tenths of a second.
Davies was lying third in the early stages before all riders headed back out on the qualifying tyre. Despite a small mistake during his flying lap, the British rider put together a time of 1’35.602 with the qualifier which positioned him seventh at the session’s end. He will therefore start from row three of tomorrow’s race grid.
Comments after the day’s sessions:
Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 2nd (1’35.079)
“I’m really enjoying riding here at Misano this weekend and am very pleased with the second place finish today because the lap time came relatively easily compared with my ‘normal’ Superpole laps. We still need to make a little improvement, especially through the section leading to the long turn, but we’ve already made some progress in that regard during today’s sessions. I’m very happy anyway and will be doing my best to score two strong results tomorrow in front of the home crowd.”
Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 7th (1’35.602)
“I didn’t do a bad lap on the qualifier but it wasn’t great either. I had a little vibration at the rear while braking which didn’t allow me to hold the line the line that I wanted, affecting the grip, and then I also made a small mistake in sector 1. I wasn’t able to get the best out of the qualifier, and am a little frustrated to be on the third row to be honest. Saying that, I’ve come through before and I think we have good pace so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. I hope it’s not too hot though as that was a problem for us in Malaysia.”
