SECOND ROW FOR THE APRILIA RSV4 RF MACHINES IN THE QATAR SUPERPOLE.
GREAT RECOVERY BY LEON HASLAM TO TAKE FIFTH PLACE
SUPER FAST IN FP3, JORDI TORRES WILL START FROM THE SIXTH SPOT TOMORROW
Losail (Qatar), 17 October 2015 – Leon Haslam and Jordi Torres will start from the second row in the two races tomorrow at Losail International Circuit. The Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils riders turned up for the last Superpole of the season with all the best credentials: Torres confirmed his excellent feeling with the Qatar circuit, putting the best time on the sheets at the end of an extremely positive session, whereas his garage mate made a clear improvement compared to yesterday, finishing practice with the third best time.
In Superpole 2 Jordi Torres confirmed his excellent form even further, stopping the clock with the second best time on a race tyre. Once he had mounted the soft tyre, the Spanish rookie had a bit of difficulty taking advantage of the higher grip, finishing the session in sixth place. That will place him on the second row for the races tomorrow.
Leon Haslam is all smiles, improving by leaps and bounds in terms of race pace and comforted by a better feeling on his RSV4 today. His qualifying sessions were conditioned by a trivial mishap: in a particularly abrupt braking section Leon put too much stress on the chain, which then created some bothersome vibration on his flying lap. This puts his fifth place finish in an entirely different light, placing him among the favourites for an important race result.
Leon Haslam: “We took a huge step forward compared to yesterday. The bike is working much better and I’m quite satisfied. In Superpole I made two mistakes, both in the first sector, one of which put too much stress on the chain. That caused some abnormal vibrations which partially compromised our performance. Despite this little problem our time was good anyway. We are less than a tenth of a second behind the front row. Considering the initial difficulties this weekend I’m pleased with the way things went today.”
Jordi Torres: “It’s really a shame about Superpole. With the race tyre I had a good lap and in practice I showed that I have a good pace. With the soft tyre it’s a struggle for me to figure out its grip. It seems like it’s sliding but I know it can provide better grip. The increased push on the front also creates some problems for me. In each Superpole I learn a bit more but we can definitely do better. I made two mistakes that cost me a few tenths, but most of all they cost me my confidence. I am optimistic about tomorrow because I really like the way the RSV4 is performing on race tyres.”
