The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team took it to the track once again today in Donington (U.K.) for the seventh round of the WorldSBK championship. Both Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies closed the first day of practice in the top 5, posting the third and fifth fastest time respectively.
Giugliano moved further steps forward together with his team in the process of fine-tuning his Panigale R, consistently lapping with times worthy of the virtual podium and finishing 0.376 seconds behind the provisional leader Tom Sykes, author of a 1:27.927. Davies, who in the morning was 4th, just a tenth of a second behind his teammate, was penalyzed by a technical problem during FP2. The issue, which is still under investigation, confined the Welshman in the pits for most of the session, allowing him to only to clock seven laps on used tyres without the possibility to improve his previous best time (+0.944 from the provisional best).
Both riders will have 15 more minutes of track time before heading straight into Superpole2, scheduled for 11:40 local time (CET -1) in anticipation of Race One (15:00).
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 3rd
“For sure, today was a good day for us. The Panigale R gave a positive feedback, allowing me to ride it the way I want to, having fun on it and managing to be quite fast right from the beginning. The new setup proved to be competitive. We’ve been working on together with the team since Imola, and we’ve progressively narrowed the gap. Now we’ll study some minor changes to help me recover those few tenths of a second that separate us from the top and secure first row. Anyway, on such a physical track the race pace is even more important, so that’s what we’ll focus on. I expect a tough battle against the Kawasakis and also Chaz, who was just unlucky today.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 5th
“During FP2, I was just starting to push when I felt a weird spin on the rear but I didn’t see any flags so I didn’t stop right away. Unfortunately, the rulebook doesn’t allow to have the second bike ready, so we’ve lost 40 minutes in what’s probably the most important session to work on race pace, because this morning we’ve been evaluating tyres without making significant setup changes. Looking at the bright side, it’s clear that the Panigale R is competitive also on this circuit and so we just need to make the most of our track time before the race tomorrow.”
