Portimao (Portugal), Saturday 6 June 2015 – The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team score fantastic results in today’s Superpole at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve with Davide Giugliano snatching pole position for the fifth time in his Superbike career. Chaz Davies will also line up on the front row of the grid, having qualified third for tomorrow’s races.
After yesterday’s strong results, the two Aruba Ducati riders were able to make further improvement in this morning’s third and final timed practice, which took place in hot conditions, similar to yesterday, on the Portuguese track. It was a hard-fought session with the top twelve riders all closing within one second of each other. Giugliano continued yesterday’s positive trend, further dropping his time to duck under 1’43 for the first time. His best lap, completed in 1’42.928, saw him place overall second at the end of the timed practices. A small crash for Davies five minutes before the session’s did not prevent the Welshman from returning immediately to the track and setting his fastest overall time, a 1’43.390, in the final seconds to position sixth. Both Giugliano and Davies therefore qualified directly for the afternoon’s Superpole 2.
Superpole 2: After completing two laps on race rubber, Giugliano was straight back out with the soft qualifying solution and was able to record an extremely impressive time of 1’41.764 thanks to which he snatched pole position for the second time since returning at Imola, the fifth pole of his Superbike career. Davies was also able to complete a very fast lap, in 1’42.123, thanks to which he closed the session in overall third position. Tomorrow both factory riders will line up on the front row of the grid for the day’s two 20-lap races.
Quotes after the day’s sessions:
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 1st (1’41.764)
“In this morning’s session we worked really well and I think we took another good step forward with respect to yesterday’s sessions. This afternoon it was more tricky, also because of the higher temperature but I can say that we’re feeling confident ahead of the races. I’m really pleased with pole position of course – my second since returning at Imola and, considering that the other guys have completed eight more races than me this season, I see this as an important result which also boosts my morale. Tomorrow I hope that race 1 takes place in slightly cooler conditions while I realise that the second will be tough if conditions are particularly hot.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 3rd (1’42.123)
“I’m happy to have qualified on the front row of course. I feel that we’ve improved performance on the race tyre; I was able to complete two solid laps in Superpole on that tyre and felt more comfortable compared to this morning, so I think we’ve definitely taken a step in the right direction. We’ll continue to work on a couple of small things that I think are still causing me to lose a couple of tenths but overall we’re doing ok. We’re confident in our tyre choice for tomorrow and, although it won’t be easy, I hope to be able to complete two good races.”
Weekend schedule (CET -1):
Sunday
8.40 – 8.55 – SBK Warm-up
10.30 – SBK Race 1
13.10 – SBK Race 2
