Both Airwaves Ducati riders will start tomorrows’ races from the front row on the grid after finishing 3rd and 4th in qualifying at Snetterton today. Having set the quickest time in final practice Greg was confident for the 50 minute qualifying session this afternoon. He was on pole until the closing minutes of the session when Byrne and Rea went quicker than his best lap of 1:05.129, leaving him in 3rd position.
Leon took pole briefly with 10 minutes of the session remaining before losing it first to his team mate, and subsequently to the two Honda’s of Byrne and Rea, giving him the final spot on the front row of the grid.
After qualifying Greg commented, “My goal for qualifying today was to be on the front row, so I am pleased that I have achieved that but I was not so happy with this afternoon compared to this morning. I am not sure why it felt more difficult, the wind was strong again today and I think there may have been a temperature change or something which affected us. I am happy with the front row start though, it is going to be a tough race tomorrow but I think we can do well here.”
Leon said, “I am pleased to be on the front row as lots of little things went wrong for me today. We are one second off last years pace here and we are not sure why, it maybe partly due to the wind as everybody is slower than last year. I have not progressed as well as I would have liked from practice to qualifying, but I have completed plenty of laps which is good. We are pretty close on the race set up so we should be alright for the races tomorrow.”
Race one from round 5 of the Bennetts British Superbikes at Snetterton starts at 13.15pm tomorrow followed by the second race at 15.45pm.
Qualifying Results:1) Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia 1:04.908
2) Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda 1:05.113
3) Gregorio Lavilla – Airwaves Ducati 1:05.129
4) Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati 1:05.183
5) Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda 1:05.239
6) Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia 1:05.504
7) Tommy Hill – Virgin Media Optoma Loans 1:05.593
8) Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki 1:05.988
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