Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli dominated the first World Superbike qualifying session, and certainly proved he is the rider to beat out on his home circuit at Magny-Cours. The Frenchman was the only racer to lap in the 1’38 second bracket, and comfortably out-paced Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes to clock the quickest time of 1’38.709.
Huddersfield’s finest stormed to the top of the timesheets after ten minutes and was lapping consistently quick times, but his best time of 1’39.095 was not good enough to place him at the top, and championship rival Guintoli had that honour.
GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies was never out of the top five fastest times throughout the whole session, and definitely had the speed over team-mate Marco Melandri. The Powys based resident ended the afternoon on the provisional front row with a 1’39.378 lap. The first qualifying session was held out on a damp track, as rain started to fall during the day, but cleared in time for the riders to leave their garages
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel was another rider who was relishing being at his home circuit, and ended the day fourth quickest, followed by Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty. The Irish rider was one tenth of a second slower than the Suzuki, with a 1’39.451.
Melandri was three tenths of a second slower than his Welsh colleague, but had fellow Roman, Pata Honda’s Michel Fabrizio for company throughout most of the session, with the former MotoGP rider going a fraction faster to finish in eighth.
Fabrizio’s team-mate Leon Haslam could not manage to make it into the top ten quickest times and finished the first qualifying outing in twelfth with his best lap of 1’40.202. Ducati Alstare’s stand-in rider Michele Pirro rounded off the top ten, he is acting as stand-in for the injured Carols Checa.
