The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team started off on the right foot in Laguna Seca (USA), taking the provisional lead with Chaz Davies. The Welshman managed to dictate the pace since the very first laps and, after missing P1 by only a few thousandths of a second in the first session, further raised the bar in the afternoon. After clocking many laps on used tyres with an encouraging pace, Davies posted a provisional best lap of 1:23.622, only two tenths shy of the circuit record.
Davide Giugliano finished day one in sixth position, close to his teammate. The Italian, who has always stepped on the podium in the last three rounds, took almost one second off his best time in between sessions, finishing only 0.326 seconds behind his teammate (with a personal best of 1:23.978) and laying the basis for another solid performance on a track he has always enjoyed before getting injured there during the race last year. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will resume action tomorrow at 09:15 local time (CET -9) in anticipation of Superpole and Race 1, scheduled for 14:30.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 1st
“We got off a good start. Being the quickest on Friday is always positive, but tomorrow and Sunday are more important. We managed to find a good pace since the very first lap, and there’s still room for improvement, especially in terms of the overall balance of the bike. We’ll put on a fresher engine for tomorrow and probably we won’t need to change the setup too much for FP3 and Superpole, even though it will depend on track temperatures, which in the morning can drop quite a bit.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 6th
“It’s been undoubtedly a good day, something I needed to erase a bit the bad memories from last year. We’re in the first group, and we’ve shown a good competitiveness, but we still need to improve our setup as I can’t yet ride exactly the way I’d like to. That said, we’ve made big steps forward throughout the day, improving our lap times significantly, and we’ll use FP3 to put on the final touches to the bike and have a go at the podium in both races to continue the recent, positive trend.”
