Team Guandalini Racing - Donington Park - Superpole - Saturday 27 June 2009
The second qualifying session was completed today on a dry track and the times were similar to those registered on Friday. In the aggregate classification of the two sessions, with the exception of Camier (Yamaha) and Checa (Honda), all riders were able to improve their best time from yesterday. Both of the Team Guandalini riders qualified for Superpole, in eighth (Gregorio Lavilla) and sixteenth (Jakub Smrz) place. Twenty-two riders concluded the official qualifying sessions within a second and a half of each other.
Superpole 1
The close level of competition was evident right from the first mini-session of Superpole with riders fighting over hundredths of a second as they tried to top the time sheets. Four minutes from the end Jakub Smrz registered a 1m30.509 which moved him up into second place, just over a tenth of a second off leader Ben Spies’ pace. Gregorio Lavilla waited until the final seconds to impress the spectators, when he recorded a 1m30.580 which took him into fifth position temporarily before he concluded in seventh.
Superpole 2
At the start of the second phase Jakub Smrz immediately registered the fastest lap time of 1m29.916. He and Spies were the only riders at the start to break the 1m30 barrier. A tire change for Gregorio didn’t bring the results he hoped for, and after completing five laps he was unable to better thirteenth position and will start from the fourth row tomorrow. The conclusion of the session saw Michel Fabrizio record a blazing lap of 1m29.664.
Superpole 3
A white flag with a red cross could represent Saint George’s flag but in this case the red cross, on the diagonal, left no doubt as to its meaning: wet track. The third session at Donington Park was wet with light rain as the riders tried to make their first lap fast to insure a spot on the front row. As the rain intensified, Jakub Smrz was unable to repeat his Misano performance and finished the Superpole in eighth position overall. Ben Spies took yet another pole, ahead of Max Biaggi (Aprilia) and Shane Byrne on the Ducati 1198 (Sterilgarda).
As qualifying concluded, there were eighteen riders in all within a second and a half of each other and the fastest on track was Michel Fabrizio, who, on board his Ducati 1198, finished ahead of Leon Haslam (Honda) and the American rider Ben Spies (Yamaha).
“I knew that the Superpole wouldn’t be easy for me, and I was still a bit shaken from the fall I took just before the Superpole began. I’m still working on the bike’s setting and the problems I have had with the race tyre are only amplified with regard to the qualifiers. Despite all this, my final position today is the best I’ve had so far since racing with Team Guandalini and so I am partially satisfied. For tomorrow I know I have a good pace and I hope to make a good start to be able to fight with the frontrunners.”
Gregorio Lavilla
“I have to say today hasn’t gone so well for me, this morning was especially difficult and I was only able to record the sixteenth fastest time. We tried to change bikes, using the second with a different set-up but I had problems with that bike and had to spend a lot of time in the garage. When I exited again I made a mistake and the rain has got heavier but, all in all, the result is not so mad and I am optimistic ahead of the races.”
Jakub Smrz
