Leon Haslam and Jordi Torres continued the fine form of Red Devils Aprilia at Phillip Island as they finished one-two in the final timed World Superbikes session ahead of this afternoon’s Superpole.
Haslam posted a 1’30.791 to take the fastest combined time and fastest in the session, booking his place in Superpole two in the process.
Team-mate Torres kept him honest with a 1.30.836 in the session bumping him up to second on the overall time-sheets, as Alex Lowes was unable to improve his 1’30.855 from the opening period - ending eighth in the session - but did manage to hold third overall. Torres, so far, is fastest in all sectors apart from the third (Siberia to Lukey Heights), where he loses three-tenths to Haslam and is fifth quickest. If his team can sort that out in free practice four it is going to prove interesting.
Jonathan Rea’s third place with a time of 1’31.074, despite a run off at Doohan’s, will have pleased the new Kawasaki man, as he finished ahead of team-mate Tom Sykes whose 1’31.409 was only good enough for sixth place, although both men did enough to progress to the qualifying shoot-out, holding fourth and seventh overall.
Moto2 exile Nicolas Terol secured fourth in the session and fifth place on the overall time-sheets, with a 1’31.263 able to put the Althea Ducati man in ahead of Chaz Davies, also on the Panigale 1199R for the Aruba Ducati team. The Welshman’s 1’31.327 secured his place in Superpole two with a little to spare, as David Salom’s last-ditch 1’31.488 saw him slot into eighth overall.
Rounding off the top ten overall were the Pata Honda duo of Sylvain Guintoli and Michael Van Der Mark, their respective 1’31.546 and 1’31.595 being enough to put them straight through into the decisive qualifying session later.
Troy Bayliss’ return to World Superbikes was proving a little tougher than maybe most people thought it might be, but his 1’32.529 was still an impressive time for a man who has been away from the sport for so long.
Despite the heroics though, that was only good enough for 16th in the session and 17th overall. The Australian is one of three of the more interesting names, alongside Randy DePuniet (11th overall) and Leon Camier (12th overall), to look out for in Superpole one.
Chronological fastest laps
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 09:46’50.997 1’43.107 155,198
60 M. VD MARK NED PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 09:47’18.827 1’42.311 -0.796 156,405
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 09:48’23.554 1’32.557 -9.754 172,888
1 S. GUINTOLI FRA PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 09:49’09.044 1’32.249 -0.308 173,465
7 C. DAVIES GBR Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team Ducati Panigale R 09:50’31.317 1’31.685 -0.564 174,532
1 S. GUINTOLI FRA PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 09:50’40.590 1’31.546 -0.139 174,797
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 09:51’37.196 1’31.390 -0.156 175,096
18 N. TEROL ESP Althea Racing Ducati Panigale R 10:17’44.391 1’31.263 -0.127 175,339
81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 10:21’18.188 1’30.836 -0.427 176,164
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 10:22’46.141 1’30.791 -0.045 176,251
Top speeds
1 81 J. TORRES Aprilia RSV4 RF 315,8
2 7 C. DAVIES Ducati Panigale R 314,9
3 36 L. MERCADO Ducati Panigale R 313,0
4 91 L. HASLAM Aprilia RSV4 RF 313,0
5 1 S. GUINTOLI Honda CBR1000RR SP 311,2
