Crutchlow takes the first European Superpole of 2010 at Portimao – World SBK
- From: 'the Wire' | Published: March 27th, 2010 - 7:51 pm
QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 27/03/2010
Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike rider Cal Crutchlow set himself apart from the class this afternoon, storming through the Superpole heats to take pole and breaking the Best Lap record in the process. Crutchlow unleashed the full potential of the Yamaha R1′s power in ideal track conditions, leaving a gap of over four tenths of a second to second placed Aprilia rider Max Biaggi. Team-mate James Toseland had also been progressing well through the sessions with fast consistent speed until an unfortunate high-side on the last corner of the circuit in heat two relegated him to 15th on the grid for tomorrow’s two Superbike races. Although bruised Toseland was luckily uninjured in the high speed crash.
The second qualifying session of the race weekend earlier in the day saw both riders focussing on the set up for race day whilst ensuring they remained within the times for the subsequent Superpole sessions. Incredibly the first 14 riders of the session were within 0.7 of a second of each other. Crutchlow’s time, just 0.6 off the front man was particularly impressive considering the entire session was run on just one set of tires.
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (1st, 1’42.092)
“The Superpole lap wasn’t really a surprise to me to be honest, we had a good session beforehand and I knew we could go really well in the qualifying session this morning. We left a lot in reserve, so down in 14th place I wasn’t panicking. I knew we had a good pace for the pole session, I only used one qualifying tire and we only needed one lap to do it. Yamaha’s done a fantastic job in the last month, it was hard work but we’ve got there in the end, all working together. I’m quietly confident we’ll do a good job tomorrow as well.”
James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (15th, 1’49.401)
“What a disappointing end to what has been a great qualifying so far this weekend. The Sterilgarda Yamaha Team have been brilliant in how they’ve transformed the bike from where we were in Phillip Island and I want to thank them for that. The mistake for me was that I was on the second lap on the qualifier tire and I was trying to make it work hard on the last turn as if it had been the first lap on it. Unfortunately it was a mistake, I suffered a lack of grip and the consequence is I’m now 15th on the grid.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“first of all I think a big thanks to the guys to have done such a good job since our not so great performance in Australia. I have to say Cal did a fantastic lap, we are confident that we will be in there tomorrow. The pace Cal had in practice was really good so I’m expecting good things. Unfortunately James had a big high-side during the second Superpole session which was unfortunate, but he has a good race pace which will help. For sure it will be harder for him to start from the back but I think he knows how to fight his way through. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Second day of qualifying for the Althea Racing team on the Portuguese track of Portimao. After the results of yesterday, Carlos Checa and Shakey Byrne continued with the work on track today and both easily qualified for the afternoon’s Superpole. A great lap time for Checa (1m43.115) who closed in seventh position while Byrne (1m43.588) closed in eleventh. Towards the middle of the session the English rider was victim of a crash but fortunately he was unhurt. In the free practice preceding the Superpole the Althea Racing riders worked to refine the set up of their 1198s. Third place for Byrne (1m43.367) who improved on his time set morning and fourth for Checa (1m43.565), so great results for both riders who subsequently got through to the second and then the third phases of the Superpole. By the end of the session Checa had recorded the third fastest time and Byrne the seventh, meaning a positive first and second row start for the riders in tomorrow’s 22-lap races.
Carlos Checa : “This result was achieved thanks to the team’s hard work. The bike has improved a lot with regard to top speed and I am also happy with the set-up which we have found that allows me to be fast even in the more technical sections of this track. There are some places where I can make further improvement but overall I’d say we’re ready and confident for the two races. This is Superbike and so it’s impossible to make any predictions, but we’ve done the ground work and will give 100% as ever.”
Shane Byrne : “The second round of the Superbike world championship and a second high side for me. I cannot explain what happened this morning because my team has done a really great job during these two days and during the qualifying session I was really comfortable on my Ducati and suddenly I crashed. Fortunately my physical condition is good and I was able to enter all three sessions of the Superpole. I’m pretty happy because of my seventh position, even though my target was to reach the first row in tomorrow’s races starting grid. Second row is not so bad and I’m very happy because we found the right set up for the races. I’m happy also for Carlos’ third place, that’s a fantastic result for all our team. We are both ready for tomorrow’s two races”.
Genesio Bevilacqua – General Manager : “A great result for both riders. I’m of course happy for Carlos but also for Shakey’s Superpole performance. Fortunately his crash this morning did not affect him this afternoon, as it did at Phillip Island. His seventh place finish in a hard-fought Superpole such as today’s augers well for the races. Carlos has once again demonstrated his ability. He’s worked hard with his team and we hope that tomorrow he is able to be a front-runner, and to fight for the podium that’s a reachable target for him”.
Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two second-round World Superbike championship races at Portimao in Portugal from the second row of the grid after setting the fifth fastest time in today’s qualifying sessions.
As Britain’s Cal Crutchlow took pole position, Rea’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Max Neukirchner, qualified 13th fastest for the two 22-lap races around the undulating 4.592km Autodromo do Algarve tomorrow afternoon.
Rea has been making steady progress after his unsettling crash yesterday morning and improvements to his machine allowed the 23-year-old to set the fastest time in the second Superpole session. However, he was forced to use the second of his allocated qualifying tyres in that session, after failing to improve his time with the first.
Neukirchner, meanwhile, was pleased with some late improvements to his set-up,
despite a spectacular crash that destroyed his Honda CBR1000RR and left the 26-year-old German with a deep wound in his right forearm.
Jonathan Rea – P5 1’42.428s (Superpole 2)
I didn’t time that very well, did I? My first qualifier in Superpole 2 just didn’t work so I had to go out on the second and did my best time then, which would’ve put me second fastest. Grip levels have been down a bit since the test here and the track seems a little bumpier, especially in turns seven and fifteen, which is where I crashed yesterday. But I’ll say that I’m satisfied, because I’m still rebuilding myself after the crash, the bike is not so bad and we’re getting better at the one-lap wonders. The race is my thing though, and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow because we have a package that’ll work for the duration. Our longer runs have shown that we should still have speed towards the end of the races. I’ll have to work hard in the first few laps tomorrow and get away with the leading group. I’ll then try to relax into a rhythm and, if we’re still there by lap 10, we’ll be in the hunt.
Max Neukirchner – P13 1’43.380s (Superpole 2)
At the end we found a way forward and then I had some bad luck in Superpole. But the important thing is that we were able to improve the bike, even by a little bit. I had a qualifier in when I crashed and I was nearly upright, but maybe the shock unloaded a bit too fast. I know it was big and the bike is destroyed and I have a big hole in my arm. I’ve got some painkillers now, but I know it’ll be sore later and, I hope, not too bad in the morning. We’ll try then to improve the bike more with the direction we found at the rear today. Then I’ll do my best to get good starts in the races and get the best results that I can.
Ronald ten Kate – team-manager
It’s been an up and down couple of days for both riders, but thankfully both are OK and ready to start tomorrow’s races. Jonathan’s confidence has returned after his crash yesterday and we made some progress with the bike to give him a good opportunity tomorrow. We still have some work to do with Max to find something that he’s comfortable with, and there’s lots of work to do tonight, but we’ll keep at it and look for more forward steps in the morning.
Troy Corser was forced to sprint the length of the pit-lane after his BMW suffered an engine problem in Superpole 1 today. He managed to get the bike to the entrance to pit-lane, but then had to run back to his garage and jump onto his second bike. The mechanics had changed the tires when they saw the bike grind to a halt and Troy was just about able to get out on the track in time to put in a tremendous lap and get into Superpole 2. He also managed to get into Superpole 3 and finished with the eighth fastest lap and so will start on the second row of the grid.
Troy Corser – 8th, 1’43.152
I wasn’t happy when I had a problem with the bike in Superpole 1 and if I had stopped straightway I would never had got back to the pits in time to jump onto my second bike. I managed to get close to the entrance of pit-lane and then had to run all the way to my garage and onto the other bike, but luckily I was able to get back on track in time and put ina good lap. It is fortunate that my second bike has a very similar set-up to to my number one bike and I had done some laps on it, so I felt pretty comfortable on it. The bike was working good today and I was able to put in a string of consistent race pace laps. Row two is OK and as long as I get my usual good starts, I’ll be in there with the leaders. The first three or four laps will be crucial and it’ll be important for me to be in contention at that stage and get into a good rhythm.
There was a bit of drama in Superpole 2, when Lanzi got in my way just as we both were going along the start straight. We would’ve collided if it hadn’t been for the fact that I used my left knee to push his bike away! I don’t think I lost any time, but it was just one of those occasions when two bikes meet in the wrong place. Fortunately we both stayed on OK and I’m not even sure if he was aware how close I was. See ya, Troy
Today did not go at all as planned for the Ducati Xerox riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga when they failed to reach the final phases of Portimao’s Superpole, meaning that they will line up in seventeenth and eighteenth position respectively on tomorrow’s race grid.
In second qualifying this morning the top fourteen riders closed the session within six tenths of a second of each other and all fourteen registered times under 1m44. Michel made constant improvement, recording a series of fast laps. He saved his fastest lap for the final minutes of the session, thus finishing third on the combined qualifying timesheets. From mid-session Nori too recorded several fast laps, the best of which left him in eighth position overall, with both riders therefore qualifying very easily for the afternoon’s Superpole.
In the first phase of the Superpole the two Ducati Xerox rider exited on race tires. After just one lap, Michel unfortunately had a fall and although he was unhurt he inevitably lost precious time, returning to the track in the final minutes of the session on board his second bike. Fabrizio, unlike some of the other riders, did not use a qualifier and unfortunately he could not do enough to be able to pass to the next stage, finishing in seventeenth position, well below his usual standards. Haga, also ill at ease during the session, was unable to reach his normal levels of performance and finished in eighteenth place, citing grip problems. He was therefore out of the top sixteen and did not proceed to the subsequent Superpole stages.
Michel Fabrizio
“It’s been two days that I haven’t had good enough feeling at the front – and this lack of grip was the reason for my crash. We haven’t yet understood why but it’s evident that I don’t have grip at the front. We’ve really work hard over the two days, changing many things in the process, but we haven’t yet managed to resolve the issue. We hope to solve things somehow in tomorrow morning’s warm-up but the races will obviously be extremely difficult as I’m starting from the fifth row. We will, as always however, give all we’ve got to try to score the best possible results.”
Noriyuki Haga
“As I’ve said several times in the past, I don’t really like this track and today I’m definitely not about to change that opinion. What can I say? In Superpole, we understood straight away that after my first exit we needed to go back out and improve. I thought I’d be able to make up at least a few tenths and so I preferred not to use a qualifier, saving them for the following two sessions. This was not the right decision to make evidently as I wasn’t able to improve on my time. We just have to wait and see tomorrow; it will of course not be easy to make a good start from 18th position on the grid.”
Supersport:
Kenan Sofuoglu and Michele Pirro will both start tomorrow’s World Supersport race at Portimao in Portugal from the front row of the grid after setting the second and third fastest times in this afternoon’s final qualifying session, just behind pole sitter, Eugene Laverty.
Sofuoglu crashed unhurt at Portimao’s first corner on his final outing, just two minutes from the end of the 45-minute session, which saw grip levels lower than in this morning’s second free practice, when the Turkish rider was fastest.
However, the 25-year-old’s ideal time from the qualifying session would have put him fastest, some half a second quicker than his recorded best lap.
Pirro, his Italian team-mate, continues his rapid integration into the well-oiled Hannspree Ten Kate Honda set-up and impressed once more with another front row start to add to that in the opening round at Phillip Island, Australia. The 23-year-old, however, believes there is more improvement to be found from his Honda CBR600RR.
Kenan Sofuoglu – P2 1’45.313s
There was not so much grip when I went out for my last run and maybe the tyres were still a little cold, so I crashed at the end of the straight. I had some problems getting one clear lap together and, when I look at my ideal time, which is half a second faster, I can see this! But the front row is OK for a starting position and we are quite ready for the race. I think Eugene [Laverty] and me have a similar pace and I made a good race distance this morning after I had a problem with my first bike. I am very comfortable with the bike for tomorrow’s race and confident that we can get another good result.
Michele Pirro – P3 1’45.828s
Actually I am a little bit disappointed that we were not able to find a way to improve the bike more today. Track conditions this afternoon were very different to earlier, and grip levels were down. I didn’t want to push too hard and end up crashing but we need to find something more to stay with Eugene and Kenan tomorrow in the race. We’re looking for a better balance with the bike, but we will work tonight and try to find something for warm-up tomorrow.
Ronald ten Kate – team-manager
We’ve got to be happy again with both riders on the front row. We’re not so far off the pace and I believe that both riders are in a position to challenge for place on the podium, with Kenan particularly able to fight Eugene for the victory. It will be a fascinating race between them tomorrow.
2010 World Supersport championship – round 2
Portimao, Portugal (4.592km) – final qualifying results:
1. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda 1’45.169s
2. Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’45.313s
3. Michele Pirro (ITA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’45.828s
4. Joan Lascorz (ESP) Kawasaki 1’45.903s
5. Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki 1’46.082s
6. Chaz Davies (GBR) Triumph 1’46.161s
