BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Silverstone - Saturday
Silverstone – Qualifying Practice 2 & Superpole.
Saturday, 30 July 2011.
Weather conditions: Overcast in the morning, later scattered clouds.
Temperature: Air: 16 – 20 °C, Track: 22 – 34 °C
Number of riders participating: 22 from 12 teams
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Racing) 2:05.058 min
Fastest lap Superpole 3: John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Racing) 2:04.041 min
BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders, Leon Haslam (GBR and Troy Corser (AUS), will start tomorrow’s World Superbike races in Silverstone (GBR) from the third and fifth rows respectively. While Troy was not able to qualify for Superpole Qualifying, and so will go into Sunday’s races from position 17, Leon missed the third and final Superpole session by only 21 thousandths of a second. He will start from ninth.
Ayrton Badovini (ITA) from the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team will start on his BMW S 1000 RR from tenth. His team mate, James Toseland (GBR), qualified 14th.
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 2:05.640 min (P8) / Fastest lap FP: 2:06.053 min (P5) /
Fastest lap Superpole 2: 2:05.091 min (P9)
“I was able to post good lap times on race tyres, but sadly when we changed to the qualifying tyre the extra grip caused a few issues. We should be in good shape come the races tomorrow, as we are happy with the times we are able to set on race tyres. It’s a shame because if I had remained on these tyres, I think I could have made it through to Superpole 3. But we will line up in ninth tomorrow, which isn’t bad considering my recent starting positions. I am feeling pretty confident, so let’s see what happens. The BMW is good off the line so let’s hope for a good start.”
Troy Corser:
Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 2:06.304 min (P17) / Fastest lap FP: 2:06.473 min (P9)
“Today’s result is disappointing. We have definitely fixed a few things we struggled with yesterday. Still, chattering was our biggest issue today. We think the reasons were a combination from engine brake and set up. We changed the engine brake and it helped a bit, but the chattering came back with a grippy tyre. I was not too bad on my long runs, as the bike was quite stable. We know what we have to do for tomorrow’s warm up.”
Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations):
“Leon unfortunately struggled with the qualifying tyre. Although starting from the third row, I am confident he will show a good performance tomorrow. His lap times on race tyres were consistently good. On Troy’s side we were not able to find a good chassis set-up, but we keep working hard on this. I hope we will have a good solution for tomorrow’s warm-up and races.”
