Donington Park (UK), Friday 22 May 2015 – The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team made a positive start to proceedings at the Donington Park circuit in the UK today, with riders Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies qualifying second and fifth respectively for tomorrow’s Superpole 2.
In a change to the standard European schedule, all three timed practice sessions took place today. In the opening session, and in dry conditions, Davies and Giugliano started work with their technicians to adapt their Ducati Panigale R bikes to the British track. By the session’s end Giugliano was already lying third (1’29.367) with Welshman Davies in fourth, just 0.01 of a second behind his teammate with a 1’29.377.
Session two saw the Ducati men pick up the pace, with Davide taking a further six tenths of his time to set a 1’28.729 in the initial stages and Chaz doing likewise towards mid-session, setting a best of 1’28.794. These results placed them second and fifth respectively after the first two sessions.
The final timed practice, taking place later in the afternoon, also took place in dry conditions despite threatening grey skies. Despite a small crash in the final minutes, Giugliano made another step forward, recording a fastest time of 1’28.283 that was to remain the overall second quickest time of the day. This meant that the Italian qualified in second place for tomorrow’s all-important Superpole 2. Davies’ also shaved off another couple of tenths in this final phase (1’28.542), and thus qualifies for Superpole 2 in fifth position.
Quotes after the day’s sessions:
Davide Giugliano – (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 2nd (1’28.283)
“Fortunately the crash was nothing serious – I had to slow more than usual when I came across a rider in front of me and the front locked. Anyway it’s gone ok today; the main thing, as usual here, is that while the first part of the track is very quick, the second part is slow and I’m losing a lot in the slow sections meaning I have to then make that back up through the fast parts. We also still need a little more rear grip but will work on that again tomorrow. Finishing second today is a good result, and it’s also important that I’m not tired; I still have a lot of work to do on my fitness but I’ve worked hard this last week at home and already feel better than I did at Imola.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 5th (1’28.542)
“Today hasn’t gone too badly. In the second session we made some good progress but then we stalled a little perhaps in the final session. All in all we’ve worked quite well but we need to work to find more rear grip, also trying to put as much power to the ground as we can because in certain sections we’re still wheeling too much and having to play with the electronics to solve that. We could also use a little more turning in acceleration out of the slow corners, but we still have tomorrow’s sessions in which to improve…”
Weekend schedule (CET -1):
Saturday
9.30 – 10.00 – SBK Free Practice
12.00 – 12.15 – Superpole 1
12.25 – 12.40 – Superpole 2
Sunday
9.00 – 9.15 – SBK Warm-up
12.00 – SBK Race 1
15.00 – SBK Race 2
