The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team resumed action at EuroSpeedway Lausitz (Germany) for the 10th round of the WorldSBK Championship. At the end of the first two free-practice sessions on the German track, the only novelty in the 2016 calendar, Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano sit in 4th (+0.207) and 13th (+1.126) position respectively in the combined rankings.
In mild climatic conditions (with temperatures around 25 degrees) Davies gained direct access to Superpole 2, improving his lap times by about seven tenths of a second and missing provisional first row by only 0.099 seconds while posting the fastest ideal time. Giugliano, on the other hand, encountered some unexpected difficulties and, also due to particularly narrow gaps in the time sheets (with only four tenths of a second separating the 10 fastest riders) and some traffic encountered during his last exit on new tyres, will take part in Superpole 1.
Both riders will be back on track at 08:45 local time (CET) tomorrow for the third and last free-practice session. Race 1 is scheduled for 13:00.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) 4th
“This morning, we started off a bit cautiously because I had a few issues with my back the last time I rode and I wanted to make sure everything was OK. Then, we got back into it and managed to make a good progression. The tests here were useful because it’s not easy to find your way around the bumps. The end of FP2 was a bit busy, everybody was looking for someone to follow and I couldn’t get a ‘clean’ lap but I’m reasonably happy with our setup and pace on race tyres.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) 13th
“Today proved to be more difficult than what we expected. The Lausitz track is quite peculiar, both in terms of the layout and tarmac conditions. Despite the tests done here, we’ve encountered some issues with the overall balance of the bike. We’re looking at the data to bring out once again our strong suits, which allowed us to make a difference many times in the past. Tomorrow the weather could change and, given also our competitiveness in the rain, things could turn into our favor.”
