RAIN DAMPENS FIXI CRESCENT SUZUKI’S SUPERPOLE

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RAIN DAMPENS @FIXI CRESCENT #SUZUKI’S #SUPERPOLE


Team Suzuki Press Office - August 31.

FIXI Crescent Suzuki will start tomorrow's two eni FIM Superbike World Championship races at Nurburgring in Germany on the third and fourth rows of the grid after a wet Superpole this afternoon.

Heavy rain began to fall over the 5,137m German circuit just as the battle for grid positions was about to start, leading to a wet Superpole of two 20-minute sessions being declared. The late onset of the rain meant that it was not possible to get a full wet set-up for the Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R1000s, so Jules Cluzel and Leon Camier had to battle against the elements and adapt to their machines in the now torrential rain. Both riders pushed towards the top of the leader-board in the early stages, but neither could find enough grip to hold those positions. Cluzel recorded his best lap at the end of the session to secure eighth place and progress through to Superpole 2, but Camier couldn't fully come to terms with conditions and was eliminated with the 11th quickest time, which leaves him in the middle of the fourth row for tomorrow's races.

Cluzel made a solid start to Superpole 2, but as he started to push for a better time he crashed heavily in turn-one, as the wet track caused him to high-side his FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R. He was able to walk away from the incident and even tried to re-mount his bike, but the damage was too severe to his machine and his Superpole was brought to an abrupt end. Cluzel will start from ninth on the grid and will be looking to continue with his learning-curve on a Superbike around the Nurburgring in tomorrow's races.

Camier will be aiming to make a good start and capitalise on the strong and consistent form he had shown in the dry earlier today. He followed on from yesterday's impressive performance and again produced strong laps on both new and used tyres of varying compounds. Camier was disappointed with the Superpole outcome, but remains in a confident and determined mood for the rest of the weekend.

Today's Superpole was won by Ayrton Badovini on a Ducati and he will head the front row for tomorrow's two 20-lap events, the first of which will get underway at 12.00hrs local time (11.00hrs BST), with the second beginning at 15.30hrs local time (14.30hrs BST).

Jules Cluzel:

"It has been a strange day for me because I was expecting to improve from yesterday. We tried some stuff this morning, but it was no better so we made some changes for free practice and this was a bit of an improvement. In Superpole I was looking to make some steps and try the softer tyre and see how this would work, but we had a lot of rain, so I couldn't try it. I had been fast in the rain in Moscow and I was looking for a good qualifying and I thought this was possible, but it was so slippery and very easy to fall down and I did just that! Ninth on the grid is ok, it's a good position to be in to get away with the front group and improve on the feeling I have had this weekend."

Leon Camier:

"I just didn't feel comfortable in the wet, but we didn't really go with a wet set-up because we didn't have enough time to change it completely. Everything felt really hard and it was like I wasn't getting enough grip and I couldn't turn in too, so I wasn't really able to get into a rhythm and put in a fast time. We did some good times on the hard slicks earlier in the day and our pace seems ok, but the two Kawasakis seem to have some advantage with the rest of us all about the same, so it looks like it will be a hard couple of races. My pace on used tyres is not too bad, but it is looking like it might be cold tomorrow so that will affect tyre decisions. I am in some good company around me on the grid, so we'll be trying to get through in the beginning, which is hard to do when there is plenty of grip, so we'll just have to see what happens."

Paul Denning - Team Manager:

"It was a disappointing qualifying result this afternoon, especially for Leon after the very promising work yesterday and today. It was a strange situation with the rain coming suddenly, just as Superpole was starting, and no teams had the time to make big adjustments to the bikes for the wet. The first 20-minutes were difficult for all the riders and unfortunately Leon didn't have the confidence in the very slippery conditions. He was not able to push hard enough and missed the cut for Superpole 2. Jules did well to make the second session and rode a good steady first lap, but unfortunately got caught out as he pushed harder on his second lap. He wasn't alone in crashing and clearly there is not a lot of grip here in the wet at Nurburgring. Jules is rather sore, but looks fine to race tomorrow and we're positive about turning a disappointing qualifying into much improved results on Sunday."

Nurburgring - eni FIM Superbike World Championship - Superpole: 1. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati) 2'09.513: 2. Marco Melandri (BMW) +0.103: 3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) +0.623: 4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) +0.888: 5. Jonathan Rea (Honda) +1.691. 9. Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) +4.941. 11. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) +6.880.