Carlos Checa and his bike were in top form at Imola where he secured provisional pole ahead of Irishman Jonathan Rea and championship contender, Leon Haslam.
With all the focus on championship leader Max Biaggi wrapping up his first
WSB crown this weekend in Imola,
Carlos Checa stole the limelight on Day 1 by securing provisional pole position in style. The 38- year-old Spaniard, who looked smooth and relaxed riding his Althea
Ducati, set the pace with a blistering 1.48.178s best, 0.380 seconds fasters than his closest rival.
“The bike works well here and we have a good opportunity to make a result this weekend,” Checa said. “My bike is strong out of the chicanes and because there are no long straights we do not lose out in this area. I am very satisfied for the first day.”
In the last three rounds of the season, Hannspree Ten Kate rider
Jonathan Rea has been the benchmark, having secured two wins and four second-place finishes, and he showed no sign of slowing up at Imola. The 23-year-old set the second-fastest time and is already at a stage where he’s evaluating which tires to use for the race and concentrating on race pace consistency.
Championship contender
Leon Haslam arrived in Imola knowing that he has to beat Biaggi to keep any realistic chance of winning the title alive. Despite riding with ligament damage in his knee and thumb following his Race 1 crash in
Ducati's Noriyuki Haga struck a plastic cone with the inside of his knee on Friday and needed to be lifted off his bike.
Germany, Haslam dug deep in the final minutes of qualifying to secure third- place and a spot on the provisional front row.
“I used one of the soft tires at the end and got down to within 0.5s off what I did when we tested here earlier in the year,” said Haslam. “I had a couple of electrical problems, the track isn’t as grippy, plus I made some mistakes on my lap so I’m confident we can make some big improvements. I was using the push rod forks at the test and now we’ve gone back to the conventional forks, which I prefer, but they need more setting up.”
Ducati’s affinity to the undulating Imola circuit was confirmed today with strong performances from Xerox Ducati men and 2009 race winners,
Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio, who finished in fourth-and fifth- place respectively.
Despite their strong performances their day wasn’t without incident. Fabrizio’s factory Ducati stopped on his out lap in Free Practice, and Haga had to be lifted off his bike after hitting a plastic cone on the side of the track with the inside of his knee. The cones are on the corner to stop riders running too close to the pit wall, but were heavily criticized by a
Despite finishing Friday's qualifying session more than a second off the pace, Max Biaggi is viewing his top-20 placement in qualifying in a positive manner.
number of riders - including Haslam - who also hit them during qualifying.
MotoGP bound
Cal Crutchlow secured his place on the provisional second row, but wasn’t happy with the handling of his factory R1 despite clearly being fast.
“If you look at my ideal time I’m actually second-fastest, but its hard work around here on this bike,” said Crutchlow. “There are so many chicanes and it really takes some man handling to get the bike through. I didn’t use the soft tire like most the other guys to set my fast lap so we should be OK, we’ve just got some work to do to get the bike easier to ride.”
The biggest surprise of the day was the lack of pace of championship leader
Max Biaggi who ended Day 1 down in 14th-place 1.435s off pole. Biaggi admitted that it was a more difficult day than he expected, but is still in the top-20, meaning that he has already secured his place in Superpole should the forecasted rain materialize tomorrow.
