BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Aragon - Superpole
Aragón – Qualifying Practice 2 & Superpole.
Saturday, 18 June 2011.
Weather conditions: Light clouds with strong wind.
Temperature: Air: 23 – 26 °C, Track: 33 – 47 °C
Number of riders participating: 20 from 12 teams
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1:59.183 min
Fastest lap Superpole 3: Marco Melandri (Yamaha WSBK Team) 1:57.437 min
Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport experienced a disappointing Saturday at Motorland Aragón (ESP). Works riders, Leon Haslam (GBR) and Troy Corser (AUS), will start the seventh round of the 2011 FIM Superbike World Championship from the fourth row. Leon finished the Superpole qualifying in 14th, while Troy qualified in 16th.
The best placed rider on a BMW S1000 RR was Ayrton Badovini (ITA) of the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team who will start from the second row. The Italian was eighth fastest in Superpole one and set the fourth fastest time in Superpole two to progress safely to Superpole three. In that decisive session Badovini had to go out on race tyres as he had already used his qualifiers in the previous two sessions and eventually finished in eighth position. “I am very happy, the bike is working really well and I cannot wait for the races tomorrow”, said Badovini.
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 2:00.007 min (P13) / Fastest lap FP: 2:00.075 min (P8) / Fastest lap Superpole 1: 1:59.367 min (P14)
“We posted a good time in Superpole one on race tyres and decided to stay in the garage. Along with the guys, I thought we were safe and planned to save the qualifying tyres for the remaining two sessions. Sadly the gamble didn’t pay off. A lot of the other guys put a qualifying tyre on for their second run in SP1, and that pushed us down from fourth to outside the top 12. It’s a shame because I felt we had good pace, and the qualifying tyre seemed to be giving the other guys an extra second, so I think we could have done the same. Still we believe we have a good race pace for tomorrow, so will try to get a good start and see what we can do in the races.”
Troy Corser:
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 2:00.182 min (P16) / Fastest lap FP: 2:00.808 min (P15) / Fastest lap Superpole 1: 1:59.565 min (P16)
“Today the bike just was not doing what we wanted it to do. We were struggling with the race tyre, so we put the qualifier on. But with that we struggled even more. It was a difficult day. We will work hard to sort out these issues for tomorrow. In the races anything is still possible. We just need a good start and to find a better setup with the bike.”
Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations):
“On Leon’s side we just had bad luck. We were doing pretty well with the race tyres. At the end of Superpole one we thought his time would be good enough to make it to the next session, so we did not do another lap. But unfortunately this plan did not work out. On Troy’s side we had some issues with the chassis, as we did not have any grip. We are working hard to solve this for tomorrow. Let’s wait and see what is possible in the races. The fact that we were quite competitive with Leon on race tyres gives us reason to be confident.“
