Ducati's Carlos Checa had the fastest pace in qualifying on Friday by 0.380 seconds ahead of Jonathan Rea.
Althea Racing’s Carlos Checa proved the fastest man at the Imola circuit on Friday by posting a time of 1'48.178 to beat out
Honda Ten Kate’s Jonathan Rea and Alstare
Suzuki’s Leon Haslam.
"In the morning session my knee felt really bad and the whole session was a bit of a struggle, even though I had some strapping on it," Haslam said. "So for the afternoon qualifying, we made the strapping much stronger and I had some pain-killing injections before I went out. I definitely felt a bit more comfortable and was able to put in some decent laps. My thumb is a bit irritable, but I forget about it when I am on the bike and it's OK as long as it doesn't move in a certain direction!"
In the afternoon qualifying session the Checa dominated by 0.380 seconds ahead of Rea with previous race winner,
Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga, taking fourth on the timesheets. Just one spot behind the Japanese rider was his Ducati teammate, Michel Fabrizio.
“Even though I don’t have exactly the level of feeling that I had during the tests, I must say that I’m satisfied," said Haga. "The conditions, the track temperature for example, are very different compared to how they were in the summer of course and unfortunately the tires might not be the best ones for today’s conditions but, if we manage to improve rear feeling, we’ll be able to make two great races on Sunday I think.”
Taking the sixth-best time of the day was Althea Racing’s Shane Byrne, who put in a time that was just more than half a second adrift of Checa’s pace. Finishing 0.061 seconds behind Byrne was
Yamaha Sterilgarda’s Cal Crutchlow aboard his Yamaha YZF R1.
"It wasn't too bad today," Crutchlow said. "My ideal time was second position, and I got held up on my fast laps at the end of the session which didn't help. It's going to be a bit of a gamble over the weekend with tire choices, when we tested here back in July we were 1.4 seconds quicker than we are now and that was with a hotter track temperature. Now the same tire isn't working as well with the cooler conditions so we'll have to look at other ways. It looks like the Ducatis' have an advantage in these conditions so we'll have to see what we can come up with overnight. Overall, I know we can be faster so we'll see tomorrow."
Honda Ten Kate's Jonathan Rea was second-fastest on Friday and out-paced the runner-up in the championship series, Leon Haslam.
The Brit was followed up by
BMW’s Troy Corser, who was eighth-quickest of the day with a time of 1'48.851.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and BMW’s Ruben Xaus rounded out the top-10 times on Friday, with Xaus running more than a second off the leader’s pace.
Some of the main disappointments of the day were Yamaha Sterilgarda’s James Toseland and championship leader Max Biaggi. Both finished with times outside the top-10, with Biaggi taking a time of 1'49.613 for only the 14th-best effort of the day.
"Not the greatest day today," Toseland said. "We had a few issues to resolve this morning so I missed some of the practice before I could get going. This afternoon wasn't so bad, the times weren't too far off but we've got some work to do to get up to pace. The weather didn't help; it just started to rain at the end when I had a new tire so I couldn't get a good lap in. We'll have a good think this evening and come back in the morning."
Mad Max was nearly a second-and-a-half away from the leader and will need to make major changes before Sunday arrives.
"Today was a more difficult Friday than usual," Biaggi said. "This is a new track and, in spite of the good results from last year, we have always had to work hard to find the right solution. Even after having done some tests here a few months ago, I'm still not completely comfortable and I'm not able to ride smoothly. If you add to that the progress that our adversaries have made, today's times are easily explained. There's nothing to be alarmed about – we simply need to work well as we always do and give our best. Nothing has been handed to us this season, much less now that the championship title is on the line. Unfortunately the weather doesn't seem to be helping either as we would have needed to do a lot of testing in stable conditions. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed."
World Superbike Imola Qualifying Results:
1. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1'48.178
Suzuki's Leon Haslam improved upon his time in free practice to take third in qualifying despite lingering injuries from his crash in Germany.
2. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1'48.558
3. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) 1'48.621
4. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) 1'48.660
5. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1'48.667
6. Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1'48.752
7. Cal Cruthlow (Yamaha) 1'48.813
8. Troy Corser (BMW) 1'48.851
9. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'48.970
10. Ruben Xaus (BMW) 1'49.224
11. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 1'49.275
12. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1'49.528
13. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) 1'49.560
14. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 1'49.613
15. Max Neukirchner (Honda) 1'49.622
Supersport
The first qualifying session in the Supersport series saw championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu at the top of the timesheets ahead of Parkalgar Honda’s Eugene Laverty and Honda Ten Kate’s Michelle Pirro. Sofuoglu dominated the session by 0.882 seconds ahead of Laverty and was the only rider to dip below the 1’53 mark. Motocard.com Kawasaki’s Katsuaki Fujiwara took fourth in the books and was more than 1.1 seconds adrift of Sofuoglu, while ParkinGo
Triumph’s Chaz Davies place fifth with a time of 1'53.723.
Fujiwara’s teammate, Broc Parkes, took the sixth-fastest time aboard his Kawasaki ZX-6R, with Massimo Roccoli following just 0.069 seconds behind. Kuja Racing’s Mark Aithchison, Honda’s Gino Rea and Triumph’s David Salom rounded out the top-10 times, with Rea posting a lap of 1'54.134 for ninth in the books after being more than a second and a half off Sofuoglu’s time.
Kenan Sofuoglu was the fastest in Supersport on Friday and was 0.882 seconds quicker than Eugene Laverty.
1. Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) 1'52.397
2. Eugene Laverty (Honda) 1'53.279
3. Michelle Pirro (Honda) 1'53.333
4. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki) 1'53.541
5. Chaz Davies (Triumph) 1'53.723
6. Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) 1'53.798
7. Massimo Roccoli (Honda) 1'53.867
8. Mark Aithchison (Honda) 1'53.981
9. Gino Rea (Honda) 1'54.134
10. David Salom (Triumph) 1'54.276
11. Matthieu Lagrive (Triumph) 1'54.385
12. Miguel Praia (Honda) 1'54.400
13. Cristiano Migliorati (Kawasaki) 1'54.447
14. Fabian Foret (Kawasaki) 1'54.665
15. Robbin Harms (Honda) 1'55.601
