BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Imola - Qualifying Practice 1
Imola – Free Practice & Qualifying Practice 1.
Friday, 30th March 2012.
Weather conditions: Sunny.
Temperature: Air: 26 – 28 °C, Track: 34 – 41 °C
Number of riders participating: 25 from 14 teams
Fastest lap Free Practice: Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team) 1:49.081 min
Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) 1:48.146 min
Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport started the race weekend with a place on the provisional second row at Imola (ITA). The “Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari” hosts the second round of the 2012 FIM Superbike World Championship. Factory rider Leon Haslam (GBR) finished the first qualifying practice in sixth. His team mate, Marco Melandri (ITA) qualified a provisional 14thon his BMW S 1000 RR. The team is confident it is heading in the right direction and will move further up the grid in tomorrow’s Superpole qualifying.
BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team rider Ayrton Badovini (ITA) finished qualifying practice in 12th, and his team mate Michel Fabrizio (ITA) was 19th.
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:50.337 min (P15)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:48.328 min (P6)
“In the qualifying practice we worked on chassis set-up and on engine management. The new characteristic of the engine feels better, but it is more sensitive to the grip level. We are working on finding a strategy that is well balanced to the different grip levels. Last year we didn’t get any benefit from a new tyre and that has improved a lot this year. Now, we just need to find the right set-up for the new engine spec. For race distance it is working quite well, but we still have some more work to do. My leg is not affecting me too much. I don’t need any painkillers and I have minimal strapping on it, so it is definitely better than in Australia.”
Marco Melandri:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:49.657 min (P8)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:48.773 min (P14)
“It was not an easy day. In the morning, the balance was okay, but unfortunately we were struggling with some chattering in the afternoon. We tried to fix it but went the wrong way. In the end it was difficult and I could not go into the corners optimally. That is why I made some mistakes in the more difficult parts of the track, for example at Acque Minerale and it was also difficult for me to go into the second chicane. We will now analyse the data and we will try some modifications for tomorrow, for example regarding weight distribution.”
Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations):
“We started with both riders using the latest spec of the engine, which shows its potential on this track and is working well which is good. In the colder conditions of the morning, Marco was quite fast with the hard tyre. In the afternoon with a higher track temperature, he was struggling a bit more with chattering. We are confident that we will be able to reduce that for tomorrow. Leon has done a good job. Even in the afternoon, when the conditions were more difficult, he was able to go consistently fast. We are confident that we can improve our set-up for tomorrow to enable both riders to fight for the first row.”
