Seventh for Smith in #Sepang
Kyle Smith will start tomorrow’s ninth-round World Supersport championship race from the third row of the grid after setting the seventh fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session at Sepang in Malaysia as fellow Honda CBR600RR rider P J Jacobsen took his maiden pole position.
The Pata Honda rider had a good debut at the 5.543km Sepang circuit yesterday but struggled with inconsistent grip levels today, and found it difficult to improve his lap times in spite of a fully dry circuit compared to yesterday’s variable conditions.
Halfway through the 45-minute qualifying session, having just set the second fastest time, Smith, 23, crashed his CBR but was able to return to his box for repairs. However, with just ten minutes remaining in the session, the British rider was unable to improve and slipped to seventh place in the rankings.
Smith and his team are confident of a good pace for tomorrow’s 14-lap race and will be aiming to return to the podium for the first time since April.
Kyle Smith - P7, 2m09.361s
We had big problems with tyre grip today, with one tyre working OK and giving good grip and then another with exactly the same compound giving no grip and just spinning up a lot. I did my best lap of the weekend on a good tyre and then I crashed the following lap when I was trying to push a little bit harder. Luckily there wasn’t much damage so I was able to get out again with ten minutes to go. We used exactly the same specification tyre but, again, there was no grip. Apart from that, and the position we’re in, everything’s pretty good!
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Today was not what we really expected after a positive day yesterday. We had some issues with tyre grip today and Kyle suffered a bit from that. His small crash in qualifying didn’t help and he ended up seventh. We’re not sure yet which tyre to pick for the race so we’ll have another look at that in the morning. Then we’ll hope for a good start and for Kyle to be battling near the front in the race.
Weather
Sunny Intervals
Air
32°C
Track
46°C
Humidity
64%
Qualifying Results
1 Patrick Jacobson 2m08.244s USA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
2 Kenan Sofuoglu 2m08.424s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
3 Jules Cluzel 2m08.462s FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
4 Roberto Rolfo 2m09.159s ITA HONDA Team Lorini
5 Lorenzo Zanetti 2m09.246s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
6 Gino Rea 2m09.246s GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda
7 Kyle Smith 2m09.361s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
8 Alex Baldolini 2m09.393s ITA MV Race Department ATK#25
9 Christian Gamarino 2m09.472s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
10 Marco Faccani 2m10.010s ITA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
Seventh for Smith in Sepang
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Seventh for Smith in Sepang
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