Leon Haslam will start from the front row of the grid for the 8th time this season having qualified in 3rd place for round 10 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Croft. Gregorio Lavilla starts from the second row in 6th.
Both Airwaves Ducati riders were focused on qualifying well in this afternoons 50 minute session having completed another race run in final practice this morning. It was one of the closest qualifying sessions so far this season with just half a second splitting the top 8 riders.
Greg and Leon clocked quick times early on and they both held the lead for a short time. Having lapped well throughout the session Greg’s fastest time of 1:19.456 came on lap 23 of 28, resulting in a 6th place finish. Leon was also recording consistently fast times and with 5 minutes of the session remaining he recorded his fastest time of the day, 1:19.209 to qualify 3rd.
Following qualifying Greg commented; “It is a shame, as I have finished 2nd in all the sessions so far this weekend and then I qualify in 6th which is a little disappointing. I will need to start well tomorrow! I tried my best and the bike felt good. I was having some unusual experiences with my qualifying tyres though. It seemed that when I pushed hard I was not going as fast as when I was not pushing so hard, it was strange. The Dunlop race tyre we were using felt good but obviously if the weather changes tomorrow then we will have to make some different decisions. The racing will be competitive but I feel quite confident; if I can get a good start, then I think I can finish well.”
Leon was pleased with his front row start saying, “I have been trying some different things this weekend and up until qualifying I was concentrating on completing race runs. I did 24 good laps this morning and my main concern throughout has been to find places where I will be able to overtake tomorrow if necessary. There are only two points on this track where you can pass, so I need to prepare for that. It is probably going to rain tomorrow anyway, so all the hard work the team have done this weekend will go out the window! I am pretty happy though, it is another front row and for the first time ever I am the oldest up there!”
Qualifying Result- Cal Crutchlow – Rizla Suzuki 1:19.108
- Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda 1:19.191
- Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati 1:19.209
- Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia 1:19.269
- Tommy Hill – Virgin Media Optoma Loans 1:19.373
- Gregorio Lavilla – Airwaves Ducati 1:19.456
- Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda 1:19.462
- Leon Camier – Bike Animal Honda 1:19.589
Related News
