#Pata @Honda #rider Sylvain Guintoli will start tomorrow’s two tenth-round World Superbike championship races from the front row of the grid after setting the third fastest time on his Honda CBR1000RR Firelbade SP in this afternoon’s Superpole at Sepang in Malaysia.
Qualfying directly for Superpole 2 after Free Practice 3, in which he was fifth fastest, French ace Guintoli, 33, held the top spot for much of the session on qualifying rubber before slipping to third place behind Jordi Torres and pole position man Tom Sykes.
Guintoli’s Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark will start the two 16-lap races at the 5.543km Sepang circuit from the fourth row of the grid, having been 12th fastest overall in this afternoon’s Superpole sessions.
The 22-year-old Dutch rider took good form and confidence into Superpole 1 after setting the third fastest time in Free Practice 4 but was unable to maximize the additional grip offered by his Pirelli qualifying rubber.
Sylvain Guintoli - P3, 2m03.836s
It feels like we’ve found some outright pace, especially on new tyres, and we’ve also been able to compensate a little for a lack of speed that we’ve suffered from here. The qualifying tyre made a big difference for me but there’s more to it than that technical stuff, which can get a bit boring sometimes! For us, even though it’s not a race, it’s good to have a result like this because we can’t hide the fact that this season has not been what any of us expected. It’s nice to have a result from all the hard work that everyone and Honda and Ten Kate is putting into this programme. This result feels good mainly because of all that hard work. We’ve done the homework for the race too, but it’s a difficult call. The tyre performance in the races dropped a lot last yea r and it will again tomorrow. The race will be decided by who is riding best on the used tyres in the hot conditions, so it’ll be a very different exercise tomorrow. We’ll take the front row for now, but we know that tomorrow will be a different story.
Michael van der Mark - P12, 2m05.004s
This morning we tried a small change with the bike but didn’t really make a big step forward but then, in FP4 when it was really hot, we found a big improvement. I was quite fast for the conditions, when everybody seemed to be struggling, and we went a lot faster, so I was happy with that. I did a fast lap on the race tyre at the beginning of Superpole and then, with the qualifying tyre, I could only do one lap but I couldn’t make it work. Our race pace seems to be OK I think so I’ll try for another couple of good starts and see what happens in the races.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
We had a really good day with both guys today. Mikey had a really good run in the last free practice session, dramatically improving his lap time and giving him third place. He should be in good shape for race pace, but unfortunately he just missed out on Superpole 2. That wasn’t an honest reflection of where he should be but lately he’s been starting really well so I think a top six finish is possible. Sylvain continued his good start from yesterday and was fifth in the FP3. He did an outstanding job in Superpole and a front row starts feels like something really special. He’s in for a good fight tomorrow but it’ll be really tricky with tyre wear because lap times are dropping quite dramatically. It’ll be a question of staying with the front group until the last five to seven laps and then seeing who has managed their tyres better.
Weather
Sunny Intervals
Air
34°C
Track
49°C
Humidity
58%
Qualifying Results
1 Tom Sykes 2m03.240s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Jordi Torres 2m03.510s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
3 Sylvain Guintoli 2m03.836s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team
4 Max Biaggi 2m03.948s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
5 Alex Lowes 2m04.018s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
6 Chaz Davies 2m04.179s GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
7 Jonathan Rea 2m04.207s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
8 Leon Haslam 2m04.214s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
9 Niccolo Canepa 2m04.654s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
10 Matteo Baiocco 2m05.000s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
12 Michael van der Mark 2m05.004s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team
