Guigliano optimistic for race day at Donington

A warm and sunny day today at Donington Park for the qualifying and Superpole sessions of this fifth round of the World Superbike Championship. In this morning’s qualifying, which took place on a dry track, Davide Giugliano worked with his team to adapt his Aprilia to the track conditions, that were totally different to yesterday. With a time of 1’29”274 Giugliano closed in seventh place, easily qualifying for the Superpole. Before the fifth Superpole of the season, Davide took part in the final free practice session, continuing his work together with Althea Racing’s technicians and refining their RSV4 ahead of Superpole and tomorrow’s races.

In the practice Davide improved on his time set in qualifying and with a best of 1’29”008 he closed sixth. In Superpole Giugliano performed very well. In the first phase he qualified fourth with a time of 1’28”393 and so passed to phase two, in which he repeated this position while further improving on his time (1’28”219). In the third and final session Davide, having no more soft qualifiers left, used a race tyre and with a time of 1’28”779 he closed the Superpole in eighth position. He will start from the third row of tomorrow’s grid for the two 23-lap races.

Davide Giugliano : “I’m not totally satisfied with my Superpole and perhaps we could have made more of the soft qualifying tyre. In the third and final phase I had some problems during my fast lap and couldn’t do more than eighth, but it’s nevertheless a position that won’t prevent me from making two good races. The practices went well and we were strong in each session. I have good race pace and this makes me optimistic about tomorrow. I’ll give it my all to try to obtain two good results, also as a way of thanking my team for their great work.”

Donington Park – Second Superbike qualifying: 1) Sykes (Kawasaki) – 2) Guintoli (Aprilia) – 3) Camier (Suzuki) – 4) Melandri (BMW) - 5) Baz (Kawasaki) – 6) Davies (BMW) - 7) Giugliano (Aprilia)

Second Superbike free practice session: 1) Sykes (Kawasaki) – 2) Melandri (BMW) - 3) Rea (Honda) – 4) Laverty (Aprilia) – 5) Guintoli (Aprilia) - 6) Giugliano (Aprilia) – 7) Camier (Suzuki) – 8) Baz (Kawasaki)

Superpole : 1) Sykes (Kawasaki) – 2) Guintoli (Aprilia) – 3) Laverty (Aprilia) – 4) Rea (Honda) – 5) Camier (Suzuki) – 6) Melandri (BMW) – 7) Davies (BMW) – 8) Giugliano (Aprilia) – 9) Canepa (Ducati)