Carlos Checa dominated all the practice and qualifying sessions at Phillip Island, but almost lost the first Superpole of the 2011 season to hard charging reigning World Champion Max Biaggi.
The Althea Ducati rider managed to retain the first position on tomorrow’s grid by a mere 0.
013s from Biaggi, who evidently fixed the chattering problems that he had declared that his Aprilia RSV4 had been having.
The Spaniard was the fastest during the first two stints, but during SP3 Biaggi managed to lay down a 1.
30.
895 lap that propelled him to the top of the timesheets while breaking the lap record, but Checa wasn’t done and blazed through the tortuous Australian track with his Ducati and a 1.
30.
882 lap was enough to pip the Italian for the pole position.
The two riders on Italian machines were the only two to dip under the 1.
31 mark while the rest of field’s pace was much slower.
Sylvain Guintoli on the Effenbert-Liberty Ducati continued his strong form on the twin to take the third spot, but was almost four tenths from the record breaking lap.
Leon Haslam will be the the final rider on the front row, seemingly having solved the set-up issues that have plagued the BMW S1000RR during the pre-season tests, while team mate and veteran rider Troy Corser will be on the second row in seventh.
Taking the fifth spot was Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty followed by Jakub Smrz with the second Liberty Ducati.
The still recovering Marco Melandri experienced his first ever Superpole session to take the eighth spot and close out the second row.
The third row will see Michel Fabrizio in 9th, Tom Sykes in 10th followed by Yoshimura Suzuki’s Josh Waters in 11th, while the luckless Jonathan Rea, who has had more crashes in these last two weeks at Phillip Island than probably in his entire lifetime, could only manage 12th after another crash sent him scrambling to get his spare bike to try to complete the stint in the dying moments.
Another Superpole virgin was Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz who qualified 13th followed by Noriyuki Haga, James Toseland and Ruben Xaus, who will start Sunday’s two races in 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.
WSBK Phillip Island Superpole results:01- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 119802- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory03- Sylvain Guintoli – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 119804- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000R05- Eugene Laverty – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R106- Jakub Smrz – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 119807- Troy Corser – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR08- Marco Melandri – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R109- Michel Fabrizio – Team Suzuki Alstare – Suzuki GSX-R 100010- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R11- Josh Waters – Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team – Suzuki GSX-R 100012- Jonathan Rea – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR13- Joan Lascorz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R14- Noriyuki Haga – Pata Racing Team Aprilia – Aprilia RSV4 Factory15- James Toseland – BMW Motorrad Italia – BMW S1000RR16- Ruben Xaus – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR17- Leon Camier – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory18- Bryan Staring – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R19- Maxime Berger – Supersonic Racing Team – Ducati 119820- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia – BMW S1000RR21- Roberto Rolfo – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R22- Mark Aitchison – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R