The seventh round of the World Superbike Championship got underway today at the new Spanish track of Motorland Aragon. Championship leader, team Althea rider Carlos Checa, quickly settled in and demonstrated his will to win on his home track, closing first qualifying in second position.
In morning practice Carlos was straight up at the top of the timesheets in the early stages, needing little time to get to grips with the tricky Spanish track which caused several riders to crash. He continued to improve on his times throughout the session and in the final minutes was able to shave a further four tenths off his best, to close this first practice in second place overall. Only Checa and Melandri lapped in under 2m00 this morning. Though Aragon is a new track as far as the 2011 SBK race calendar is concerned, most riders (Carlos included) have completed test sessions here late last year or in recent months.
The track was a lot hotter for first qualifying (55˚C) which took place this afternoon. Carlos made progress during the session but did not improve on the time he had set during the morning’s practice. He nevertheless found a good pace in these extremely hot conditions, recording a best lap of 2’00.00 flat. With this lap time he concluded first qualifying in second place, just behind Melandri on the Yamaha.
Carlos Checa:
“There are some riders who are surely going to be fast this weekend so I’m not expecting an easy time of it, but, after today’s sessions, I can say that I’m feeling confident. In terms of rhythm we have improved even if the times appear to be slower than those set during winter testing, which is due to the heat. We definitely have more work to do tomorrow; I want to do a long run for example to assess the tyres in these high temperatures. You can see that we are losing a couple of tenths to the four cylinders on the straight but we will work around this problem just as we had to at Miller. For now I am very happy.”
[Press Release and Photo Courtesy of Althea Ducati]
