Régis Laconi took his PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Ninja ZX-10R into the Superpole competition at Vallelunga and then improved his qualifying ranking by one place, to start Sunday’s races 15th on the grid.
Makoto Tamada ran off the track and finally fell at slow speed close to the end of a twice-interrupted final qualifying session this morning, and therefore he starts the races from 25th place. He had been experiencing some difficulties in changing direction at high and low speed, which affected his overall qualifying position.
The first day of action at Vallelunga was fully wet, with the tarmac on the circuit providing little grip in several places, particularly as heavy rain arrived just in time for the first Superbike qualifying session. Day two was dry but the track took some time to clean up after its soaking on day one.
In a somewhat peculiar day, both WSB sessions were disturbed by outside influences, the first oil on the racing line on two occasions in final timed qualifying. Then, an electrical power supply problem to the entire circuit, and subsequent emergency generator failure, caused much readjustment of the schedule, even after power was reconnected.
Dry weather conditions are expected to arrive once more on raceday, as Laconi and Tamada take on the challenge of two 24-lap races at the 4.110km circuit near Rome.
Régis Laconi: “I’m not completely happy because I could have had a better Superpole lap but it wasn’t possible. We tried to make improvements all day, and we did it in some areas, but the time we lost because of the rain yesterday. Not doing the official test here in the summer meant that we just needed time to work it all out. But tomorrow is the race and we will be going out for the best results possible.”
Makoto Tamada: “It was unfortunate to run off on a quick lap but it was a difficult session for us with only today being dry, and no testing time here in the summer. If yesterday had been dry we would be in a better position, even if we have already made some improvements.”
