The HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Supersport team started the first day of qualifying in Misano on the pace with both riders putting their Honda’s on the provisional front row for the race this weekend.
Jonathan Rea successfully concluded his first ever appearance on the 4.226km long track by setting the third fastest time of 1'41.453 in the free practice session. He managed to improve his time in the afternoon’s qualifying practice with a best lap of 1'40.690 and secured the day’s fourth fastest time.
Andrew Pitt started his day of qualifying in the middle of the field and used his time to concentrate on learning the track, but chased his way forward in the official qualifying session by setting a second fastest time of 1'40.387, only 0.2s behind provisional pole sitter Broc Parkes.
Jonathan Rea, 1'40.690“It’s been a really good fun session for me and I was close to the front most of the time. I really enjoy riding this track.”
”We put a few laps together and now we are on the front row provisionally for the race. I think that’s a good result for a track I have never been to before.”
”For sure there is a lot more left in the tank. I need to find some clear track tomorrow and push the pace I know I can set, we belong up the front row, if we have a good session then I am sure we can be up there.”
Andrew Pitt, 1'40.387“We are a little bit further then I thought we would be after this morning’s session. In the first session I tried learning the circuit and didn’t waste any tyres, we just one set of them.”
“We are still not quite there yet. I got in behind Jonathan halfway through the session which got me on the pace. There’s definitely a few areas we need to improve. There’s still some things that surprise me and am not happy with. But I’m satisfied with today’s result. So far so good.”
Ronald ten Kate, Team manager“I am very pleased with the performance both Andrew and Jonathan have shown here today.” We are still working on the set-up of the bike in these conditions, but with the result we have set so far, I think we have done a remarkably good job today.”
”We will still have to improve on the bike as we all know it will be a very tough race around here but with the boys already on the pace we can use tomorrow’s qualifying practice to further concentrate on the race set-up. It’s a very good start of the weekend, we’ll now just concentrate on making it better for tomorrow.”
Results QP1:1 B. PARKES 1'40.132
2 A. PITT 1'40.387 3 F. FORET 1'40.559
4 J. REA 1'40.690
