AIRWAVES DUCATI CONFIDENT FOR QUALIFYING
Round two of the Bennetts British Superbike championship
got off to a good start for the Airwaves Ducati team at Thruxton
today. Gregorio Lavilla came 2nd and 1st and Leon Haslam recorded
a pair of 6th places, in the day’s two free practice
sessions.
In first practice Greg was leading for much of the session
having been the first rider to post a sub 1 minute 16 second
lap. His time of 1:15.707 kept him at the top of the standings
for much of the 60 minute session, until Jonathan Rea went
0.430 seconds quicker to take the lead. Leon Haslam posted
consistent times throughout the first half of practice, recording
his best lap of 1:16.191 mid-way through the session. Throughout
the remainder of practice he consistently recorded 1 minute
16 second laps, resulting in a 6th place finish.
In second practice Gregorio Lavilla again led from an early
stage. Having recorded his fastest time of the day of 1:15.497
on lap 5, Leon Haslam was in 2nd. However with 25 minutes
of the session remaining the Airwaves Ducati duo slipped to
3rd and 4th. Greg then clocked his fastest time of the day,
1:15.060, on his 20th lap to regain 1st place. Leon did not
improve on the time he had set early in the session and finished
up in 6th position.
Leon Haslam said afterwards, “I have been concentrating
on my set-up and completing race distances today. I have been
consistent and that was my main aim for the practice. I know
I can go a lot quicker so I am really confident for qualifying
tomorrow; this is a fast circuit and with qualifying tyres
I think a 1 minute 14 lap is possible. As for the race I think
the result will depend on tyre choice but I am happy that
we have the good set up and I think I will be competing for
a podium on Sunday.”
Gregorio Lavilla echoed his team mate’s thoughts saying,
“Thruxton is a circuit where everybody is trying to
find the right set up and tyres during the practice sessions;
I was concentrating on that today and so I put in a lot of
laps and completed the race distance. Although we did not
try for really fast times today I am confident that we can
record some quick times in qualifying and get a good grid
position for the race. People believe this circuit is not
suited to a Ducati, but I like it, and we seem to do well
here; let’s hope that is the case on Sunday!”
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