Results of the SBK and SSP training sessions in Australia

After the second training session in Australia, the riders in both Superbikes and Supersport were unable to improve on the fastest times set by Checa and Foret in session one. Track conditions had changed too much: the track temperature was now very high, and this was the key factor that prevented any improvement.

Overall for today in Supersport, Foret on his Kawasaki ZX-6R set the fastest time, 1:35.140. He was followed by Kenan Sofuoglu, who is showing that, despite two years away from this championship, he has returned to win it, with a time of 1:35.377.

This consolidates Kawasaki in this event, where everything points to the Supersport team having done excellent work ahead of this season.

The rider who improved greatly in this second session was Sam Lowes, who, on the Honda CBR600RR, moved up from ninth to fourth fastest.

These are the overall times for the day in Supersport:

99 Foret F. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’35.140
54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’35.377
23 Parkes B. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.412
11 Lowes S. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.652
16 Cluzel J. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 1’36.115
38 Nemeth B. (HUN) Honda CBR600RR 1’36.165
65 Leonov V. (RUS) Yamaha YZF R6 1’36.740
52 Pesek L. (CZE) Honda CBR600RR 1’36.784
32 Morais S. (RSA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’36.924
31 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 1’37.102
55 Roccoli M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’37.130
22 Tamburini R. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.164
25 Baldolini A. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 1’37.172
10 Toth I. (HUN) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.231
20 Scholtz M. (RSA) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.311
34 Quarmby R. (RSA) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.358
69 Jezek O. (CZE) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.714
19 Szkopek P. (POL) Honda CBR600RR 1’37.848
3 Metcher J. (AUS) Yamaha YZF R6 1’37.861
64 Day J. (USA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’38.237
98 Lanusse R. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’38.524
13 Lombardi D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’38.573
40 Jessopp M. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 1’38.676
87 Marconi L. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’38.819
61 Menghi F. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’39.231
8 Antonelli A. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’39.536
27 Caiani T. (SUI) Honda CBR600RR 1’40.877
33 Polzer Y. (AUT) Yamaha YZF R6 1’41.913

Moving on to the big brother, the World Superbike championship: nobody has been able to beat Checa’s time of 1:31.947, set during the first session, which remains unbeaten. Ducatis have always performed very well at the Australian track, both in MotoGP and WSBK. Many attribute this to their slightly greater length (they tend to be marginally longer), which helps them adapt better to the fast corners of this circuit.

Behind Checa is the “coco”, Max Biaggi, who will fight all season to win back the title he won in 2010. He managed to gain a couple of thousandths in the second session, but as already mentioned, track conditions did not allow for major improvements, and he finally set 1:32.132.

Marco Melandri, although his time has not improved much, has improved his position: with his lap he managed to overtake several rivals and finished the session in third fastest place.

What we can take from these figures is how close the riders are: from second to ninth, everyone is within the 1:32 range. It seems the track temperature will make everything very even.

Closing out the top ten is one of our own, Lascorz, very close to dipping below 1:33.005. Let’s hope he breaks that barrier in the first race.

The rider who suffered a mishap is Leon Haslam, who could not take part in this second training session due to a crash in the first. They are currently studying whether he will need to undergo surgery on his leg so he can compete in the next race.

These are the overall results in Superbikes:

7 Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1’31.947