Carlos Checa will start tomorrow’s two 13th round World Superbike races at Magny-Cours from the front row of the grid after setting the fourth fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole qualifying.
Pole position at the 4.4km circuit in central France was taken by Yamaha’s Noriyuki Haga after cold and damp conditions affected all teams’ preparations for Sunday’s two 23-lap races.
HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s Kenan Sofuoglu, still suffering the after-effects of his big crash at Vallelunga two weeks ago, finished Superpole in 14th place. Martin Bauer, standing in for the injured Ryuichi Kiyonari, did not qualify for Superpole, and will start from the fifth row of the grid.
Carlos Checa – P4, 1m38.765sThe bike and tyres are working well together but, of course, there will always be places where you can find a couple of tenths. Considering the weather that we have had during the weekend so far, I am happy with where we are and it’s always good to be on the front row. If we had not tested here last week, I’m not so sure we would be in this position and we might have struggled a little more. I think we have a good set-up for the races so I hope for two good starts and two good results.
Kenan Sofuoglu – P14, 1m40.149sThat was not so bad and I’m happy that the free practice we had before Superpole was dry. Finally we got the chance to try some things and make some improvements. Each lap I did this afternoon was faster than before, including the one in Superpole, so I am definitely making progress. With a good start in the races I can improve even more, so I hope to finish each one well.
Martin Bauer – P17, 1m42.848sUnfortunately, the second qualifying session this morning was half-wet so I wasn’t able to improve the time from yesterday and ended up missing Superpole by a tenth of a second. It’s very frustrating because free practice was dry and I started to learn more about the bike and how to ride it. I’ll try to get good starts tomorrow and make up some places to score some points for the team. They have been great to work with and I’m really enjoying the whole experience.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager:I’m happy to see Carlos on the front row because we’re sure he has the pace to be fighting for a win tomorrow. Compliments as well to Kenan, who has had a pretty hard time riding the bike with all the bruises from his horror crash two weeks ago in Italy. The weather has been the biggest enemy for Martin so far, but he’s chipping away at the times and just needs a little more time on the bike. I hope he’ll be able to collect some points tomorrow.
Results – World Superbike, Magny-Cours, final qualifying:1. N Haga JPN (Yamaha) 1m38.444s
2. F Nieto ESP (Suzuki) 1m38.574s
3. T Bayliss AUS (Ducati) 1m38.666s
4. C Checa ESP (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m38.765s14. K Sofuoglu (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m40.149s17. M Bauer AUT (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m42.848s
