Monterey (USA), Friday 11 July 2014 – The Ducati Superbike Team today participated in the three timed practice sessions valid for qualification to tomorrow’s Superpole at the Laguna Seca racetrack in California and results were immediately positive, with rider Chaz Davies scoring provisional pole!
In the morning’s first session, and under cloudy skies with a track temperature of 24°C, Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano wasted no time in getting down to work. Davies quickly moved into first position during the opening stages, with a fastest time of 1’24.300 that positioned him fourth at the end of the 45-minute session. Giugliano, slowed down by a technical problem that kept him in the garage for the second half of the session, closed tenth with a best time of 1’25.261.
Both factory riders made good progress during session two. Chaz continued to improve, completing a series of very fast laps with a best time of 1’23.616 which put him up into second position by the session’s end. Davide, working hard with his technicians to improve both his feeling during braking and level of rear grip, lowered his time by more than a second to close sixth (1’24.112).
The third and final timed session took place later in the day on a hotter track (43°C). A best time of 1’23.293, recorded by Davies in the opening stages of the session, proved unbeatable and assured the British rider of overall first position at the end of day 1. Davide, using the time available to work with his squad on making set-up changes to his 1199 Panigale, closed in ninth position. Today’s combined results mean that both Ducati Superbike men qualify directly for tomorrow’s Superpole 2.
Quotes after the day’s sessions:
Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 1st (1’23.293)
“Today’s been a really good day, we’ve been strong in each session and have also worked our way up in each session too. We’ve made a few tweaks throughout the day and everything seems to be working well. I feel we’re having a good spell right now; after solid results at Misano and Portimao we’ve come to Laguna knowing that the Panigale should perform well here, and so far it’s all going well. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow in qualifying, as that’s not always my strong point but I’m feeling good and hope we can fight for a front row start.”
Davide Giugliano – (Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 9th (1’23.934)
“We’ve not had an easy day today. I don’t have the right feeling when braking and the bike doesn’t close the corners as I want it to, so we’re behind with the work. We still haven’t found the right set-up and so we’ll work to find a solution this evening. On the other hand, Chaz is going really well which is good as it means the bike can work well here but it also means we must work more on set-up as for now the bike isn’t allowing me to ride as I want. There’s more for us to do tomorrow.”
Weekend schedule (CET -9):
Saturday
10.00 – 10.30 – SBK Free Practice
13.00 – 13.15 – Superpole 1
13.25 – 13.40 – Superpole 2
Sunday
9.00 – 9.15 – SBK Warm-up
11.00 – SBK Race 1
14.45 – SBK Race 2
