GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies was on form once again in the World Superbike second qualifying practice session at the Nurburgring this morning. The Powys resident was in fourth until he put in a hot lap of 1’54.223, to place him directly at the sharp end.
But it looked liked injured Aprilia rider, Sylvain Guintoli who would bag the provisional pole spot as his time of 1’54.645 looked unbeatable until Davies pulled out a super quick last lap. Considering the Frenchman is recovering from a dislocated shoulder he put in some times to rival most of the other riders out on the circuit. But the Welshman went four tenths of a second quicker.
Kawasaki’s Loris Baz left it till there were only five minutes left of the session to make an impact on the top three, and on his final lap clocked a 1’54.695, which placed him on a provisional front row and out paced team-mate Tom Sykes in the process.
The Yorkshire lad dropped down the timing sheets from a provisional front row to second. He did improve on his time set yesterday afternoon by nearly half a second but it was not enough to storm to the top. His best lap was 1’54.906, but he could not go faster than Brit, Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea, who went two tenths quicker with a 1’54.793 to place him fourth quickest, with Sykes rounding off the top five.
Davies’ team-mate Marco Melandri was initially quicker than his rather taller colleague and was third quickest with his best lap of 1’54.938. But the Italian could not improve on his time, unlike Davies, so the rider had to settle with sixth quickest, followed by Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier.
The Irish and English lad’s improved on their times from the first practice qualifying by nearly a second but finished the session just inside the top ten with Laverty just making it into the 1’54’s with a 1’54.948 and Camier clocking his best time of 1’55.065.
Ducati Alstare’s Ayrton Badovini rounded off the top ten, even though he crashed out with five minutes remaining at turn 14, but was unhurt. Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam just missed out on a top ten time, and ended the session in twelfth with a 1’55.416. Badovini's team-mate Carlos Checa could only manage a lap that placed him 18th on the timesheets, meaning he misses out on Superpole.
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