Yakhnich Yamaha’s Sam Lowes will start the World Supersport race tomorrow at the Nurburgring from pole position, as the wet track conditions meant that no other racer was able to better the time clocked by the Lincolnshire lad in yesterday’s practice qualifying session, of a 1’58.993.
The second qualifier was hampered by poor conditions, and many riders decided not to venture out on track. But Lowes was the first out of the garages, and was making up for lost time. The Yamaha rider failed to complete a single lap in the free practice session this morning after he was blighted by a technical issue.
Lowes was the fastest rider out on the circuit this afternoon with his best lap of 2’00.799, but he could not even out pace his best lap that he did on Friday. The Derby rider will be joined on the front row by MAHI Racing team-mates Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret. Both riders could not better their times they clocked yesterday, but did enough in the first qualifying outing to place them on the front row.
Reigning champ Sofuoglu braved the weather to set the second fastest time this afternoon of 2’00.858, but was still one second off the pace of his best lap yesterday.
Lowes’ Russian team-mate, Vladimir Leonov heads up the second row, and is joined by Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti and Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy. The Dubliner was able to go four hundredths of a second quicker than Scottish rider, DMC-Lorenzini’s Kev Coghlan, meaning the Perthshire lad narrowly missed put on a second row and has to contend with starting from the front of row three.
Fellow Brit, Christian Iddon was unable to better his lap times set this afternoon, but had a strong day yesterday, meaning he secured his placed inside the top ten on the grid with a 1’59.878. He starts the fourth row, out pacing Kawasaki Intermoto’s David Salom and Pata Honda’s Michael Van der Mark.
Former Moto3 rider, Danny Webb made his World Supersport debut yesterday. The Brit is racing for the PTR Honda team, and starts his first race from row eleven.
