Kyle Smith will start from the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s second round World Supersport race after setting the third fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session at the Buriram circuit in Thailand.
The Pata Honda CBR600RR rider topped yesterday’s timed practices and was confident going into this afternoon’s 45-minute session. However, a small crash near the end of qualifying prevented the 23-year-old British rider from getting closer to Kenan Sofuoglu’s pole position time.
World Supersport rookie Smith will be targeting his maiden world championship podium in tomorrow’s inaugural 18-lap race at the 4.554km Buriram United International Circuit 400km north-east of Thai capital Bangkok.
Kyle Smith - P3, 1m37.776s
I’m super happy with today’s result even though I had a little crash at the end of qualifying. I didn’t think it was such a big deal but then I saw how much work I gave the boys tonight so I have to apologise to them. The weekend’s been going really well apart from that and I just have to keep it up for tomorrow. We’ve worked pretty well and not made many changes to the CBR. I’m happy with the race pace and it seems decent compared to some of my main rivals, but Kenan [Sofuoglu] and Jules [Cluzel] are super-experienced. They’ll be really fast but there’s no reason why I can’t put up a fight tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
It was a very, very interesting qualifying session this afternoon. Kyle immediately set a pace close to his best time from yesterday but some of the other guys went even quicker. Kyle had to step it up in his second outing but even then the others were going quicker. In the third outing, with fresh tyres, he pushed just a little too hard and had a small crash. His time was still good enough for third position on the front row and he has really good race pace so for sure he can fight for a podium position.
Weather
Overcast
Air
28°C
Track
39°C
Humidity
69%
Qualifying Results
1 Kenan Sofuoglu 1m37.345 TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
2 Jules Cluzel 1m37.550 FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
3 Kyle Smith 1m37.776 GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
4 Lorenzo Zanetti 1m37.799 ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
5 Lucas Mahias 1m38.002 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
6 Patrick Jacobson 1m38.069 USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
7 Ratthapark Wilairot 1m38.227 THA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
8 Roberto Rolfo 1m38.438 ITA HONDA Team Lorini
9 Gino Rea 1m38.487 GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda
10 Dominic Schmitter 1m37.626 SUI KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
