BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Donington - Qualifying Practice 1
Weather conditions: Sunny with some scattered clouds.
Temperature: Air: 15 – 20 °C, Track: 19 – 22 °C
Number of riders participating: 20 from 12 teams
Fastest lap Free Practice: Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1:29.978 min
Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 1:28.794 min
Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport had an encouraging start to the second round of the FIM Superbike World Championship 2011 at Donington (GBR). Works rider Leon Haslam (GBR), who lives near the race track, dominated the first half of the first qualifying session, setting a string of fastest times. In the second half of the session his teammate Troy Corser (AUS) was second for a long time. In the end Leon finished qualifying today in sixth and Troy in seventh. Both riders’ crews continued their work on chassis and mapping setup for the BMW S 1000 RRs.
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:30.566 min (P4)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:29.472 min (P6)
“Today has gone well for us. The track was a little dirty this morning, which made riding slightly tricky, but other than that so far we have done a good job. Basically we have just been going through the motions with setup, trying to identify areas to improve the bike so we can keep reducing our lap times. I haven’t been here for two years so I am improving with every lap, and I think I can continue that into tomorrow. The team is working hard, the progress so far has been good and I think we are in with a good chance of qualifying well tomorrow.”
Troy Corser:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:30.970 min (P11)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice: 1:29.476 min (P7)
“This Friday was not too bad. They have changed the track a little bit, but I enjoy riding at Donington. You have to be a little bit careful with the left hand side of the tyre, so I did this going down through the Craner Curves. But the bike seems to be working quite okay. We still feel the bumps badly, and the bike still wants to do a wheelie off the apex of the corners. We are working on improving these areas and this would mean another good step. The way the bike feels and the lap times are good, and we are not that far away from the fast guys. This was probably one of the best Fridays we have had for a long time.”
Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations):
“I am very happy that both our riders were able to ride on top. This proves we have made another step forward with our bike. We are there and now we will see what happens tomorrow - and what the weather will be like. If you want to be in the position to fight at the front in the races, you need to qualify in the first two rows. So this is our aim for the third superpole session. I would be happy if we could achieve that.”
