#Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam will start tomorrow's final two races of the 2014 World Superbike championship from the second row of the grid after setting the sixth-fastest time in this evening’s Superpole at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
The 31-year-old British rider has spent all weekend fine-tuning the setting on his Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and was able to extract an improved performance from his qualifying tyre in the latter stages of the Superpole session, in which Italy’s Davide Giugliano took pole position.
Haslam’s Pata Honda team-mate Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two 17-lap races at the 5.380km Losail circuit from the head of row three after crashing out of contention unhurt when he took to the track on his qualifying tyre.
Rea has been at or near the top of the leaderboard in all sessions this weekend but admitted he was perhaps over-eager to secure pole position in this final event of the 2014 season as he pushes to regain third place in the series.
Tomorrow’s first two night races in the 26-year history of the World Superbike championship will go at 19.00 and 22.00 local time in Qatar which is GMT +3hrs.
Leon Haslam - P6, 1m58.005s
I’m really happy actually, and moving from the race tyre to the qualifier in Superpole, everything stayed stable which is what we’ve been aiming for all year. The last few rounds have been quite positive with the way we’ve got the balance of the bike and the way we’ve got the electronics working. I made a little mistake on the Q and I think the lap could have been a little bit quicker but I’m on the second row for the last two races of the year and I’m really, really happy.
Jonathan Rea - P7, 1m58.190s
Well, it’s not the best grid position to start the last races of the season. Throughout the practices we’ve been really strong in all the sessions and the package is working really, really well here. In the first part of Superpole I was quite competitive on a race tyre and, when it came to use the qualifier I, er... well, maybe I wanted the pole position a little bit too much! I entered turn seven a little bit too fast and tried to turn in but ran a little wide on to the dirty stuff and tucked the front. It’s frustrating because I know we had the pace to be right at the front from the beginning. It might change our tactics a little bit for tomorrow, being on the third row but, for sure, I’ll be racing for the podium. But we want to win because I think the CBR is working really well here and that&r squo;s a real possibility.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Leon showed immediately in Superpole that he was quite strong and he was able to improve another seven tenths when we put in the qualifier, which brought him the second row. That is really good and I’m happy to see him there; maybe some last tweaks to the bike in warm-up and I’m sure he can fight in the top five. Jonathan has been fast in all sessions this weekend and in the first part of Superpole on the race tyre. Unfortunately he had a small crash on the qualifier but that still gives him seventh position on the grid. Knowing that he has the pace to fight for the victory, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s races.
Weather
Night Race
Air
29°C
Track
48°C
Humidity
80%
Qualifying Results
1 Davide Guigliano 1m57.033s ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
2 Loris Baz 1m57.281s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Tom Sykes 1m57.468s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Chaz Davies 1m57.562s GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
5 Sylvain Guintoli 1m57.833s FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Leon Haslam 1m58.005s GBR HONDA Pata Honda
7 Jonathan Rea 1m58.190s GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Marco Melandri 1m58.355s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
9 Eugene Laverty 1m58.379s IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Toni Elias 1m58.583s ESP APRILIA Red Devils Roma
