FIRST AND SECOND ROW IN QUALIFYING
Leon Haslam’s Airwaves Ducati will start from second
place on the grid in round three of the British Superbike
Championship at Silverstone tomorrow. Gregorio Lavilla starts
from the second row in 6th.
Greg completed 28 laps and clocked the second fastest time
in this morning’s practice and was confident for a good
qualifying session this afternoon. Having slipped off yesterday,
Leon used practice to finalise his bike set up, finishing
the session in 10th.
For much of the 50 minute qualifying session Greg was 2nd,
clocking consistent mid 1 minute 26 times, as he completed
a race run. Leon was also completing a full race distance
simulation when the session was red flagged on his 20th lap.
Following the re-start both riders completed a few laps before
changing to qualifiers with minutes to go. They then completed
one flying lap each, with which they both recorded their fastest
times of the day. Greg clocked a time of 1:26.032 to put him
in 6th, whilst Leon recorded a time of 1:25.406 to finish
2nd just 0.023 seconds behind Kiyonari.
After qualifying Greg was satisfied with his result saying,
“Practice was good today, up until the last 10 minutes.
I had gone out with a qualifying tyre on which did not feel
great so I decided to go back onto soft race rubber. I then
only got to do one good lap on it, as I ran out of time and
was not able to complete a second lap which was disappointing
as it felt good. I am still confident for tomorrow though,
the bike is in really good shape and I’m feeling good
too.”
Having fallen yesterday Leon did not to let a sore thigh
affect his session saying afterwards; “I am over the
moon! I went out there this afternoon with the aim of getting
a race run done, which went really well considering my leg.
I was just happy to get a feel for the bike and, as we had
made a few changes, I was more focused on getting the set
up right for tomorrow as opposed to qualifying fast. I then
got the one good lap right at the end which has put me second
and, even though we are not lapping as quickly as we did last
year, I am really pleased with my result.” Leon also
took the opportunity to thank the Airwaves Ducati team adding,
“The bike was written off due to my crash yesterday
and the boys put in a massive effort to rebuild it to perfection.
So I must thank them for all their hard work and dedication.”
Qualifying Result
1) Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda 1:25.383
2) Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati 1:25.406
3) Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia 1:25.616
4) Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda 1:25.688
5) Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki 1:25.816
6) Gregorio Lavilla – Airwaves Ducati 1:26.032
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