Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano snatched the top spot in the first World Superbike qualifying practice session from Goldbet BMW’s Marco Melandri and Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty.
Giugliano was setting consistently quick lap times, but with five minutes to go out on track the Roman clocked a 1’42.374, the fastest time of the session. Laverty was always at the sharp end during the 45 minutes, and his fastest time of 1’42.756 was good enough to put him on provisional pole, but two minutes later Giugliano stormed on ahead.
Melandri was never far off the pace of the leading riders, and even with a push on his final lap he could not do enough to get the better of Giugliano, and ended the day two tenths slower.
Red Devils Roma rider Toni Elias did start off the session in great form and led the way until he crashed at Ducados and reverted back to the pits. He slipped back down the standings and in the end finished in fourth, with Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli rounding off the top five with a 1’42.906. The French rider and his team-mate both fell into the gravel but both rejoined. Laverty crashed at Sito Pons, and Guintoli succumbed to the tarmac at Angel Nieto.
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier put in an heroic performance. The rider is still recovering from a broken foot, that he sustained two rounds previous, and made his comeback this morning. The Kent lad certainly made up for his 19th place on the timesheets that he mustered up earlier today, and ended the qualifying session in sixth.
His last lap of 1’42.936 was his best and that pushed him from just outside the top ten to sixth, going two tenths of a second faster than Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes. The championship leader finished in seventh, with GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies in ninth, with Camier’s team-mate Jules Cluzel rounding off the top ten. Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam ended the day in fifteenth overall on the timing screens, with his 1’43.821 lap.
