Sylvain Guintoli will start tomorrow’s two ninth-round World Superbike championship races from row three on the grid after setting the ninth fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole at Laguna Seca in the USA.
The 33-year-old French rider found an expected better lap time with Pirelli’s qualifying tyre in his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machine in today’s final qualifying shoot-out, but feels that there is still work to do to improve his overall pace and unlock performance potential for tomorrow’s two 25-lap races.
Guintoli has benefited from minor chassis adjustments and an upgrade in engine management software over the last two days of free practice at the 3.61km Laguna Seca circuit and is aiming for two strong results tomorrow.
Visiting the demanding Lagaun Seca circuit for the first time, Pata Honda team-mate, Michael van der Mark, will start both races from the fifth row of the grid. The 22-year-old Dutch rider struggled for a positive front-end feeling throughout yesterday’s practice sessions but a different front tyre choice improved his feeling today.
Sylvain Guintoli - P9, 1m23.406s
This afternoon we lacked a lot of grip and, to be honest, I think I got most of what the CBR was able to give me. I made a tiny mistake on my fast lap but it felt a lot faster than it actually shows on the time sheets. So we’re still missing some speed but I’ve done my best and don’t think I could have done much more. We’re still planning to try a couple of things tomorrow morning and try to find some forward steps to get a little more for the races. We still have to carry on working and that’s what we will keep doing to find the improvements we need.
Michael van der Mark - P15, 1m24.461s
I’m still really enjoying riding this new track but obviously we need to find some more pace to be competitive in the races tomorrow. We were able to improve things a little when we used a different front tyre, but there is still a lot of work to do, of course. The guys will work through everything tonight and I’m sure there will be some things to try in warm-up. The position is not great right now but it’s awesome to ride here so I’ll try to enjoy myself with a couple of strong races tomorrow.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Michael has not had an easy day, especially with the front-end feeling and a lack of grip at the rear. In the end we put an SC2 in the front and that seems to be better and we’re making small improvements. We’re still a little behind though and that’s why he ended up 15th. With Sylvain we’ve been trying a lot of geometry settings and, in the end, we went back to Friday morning’s arrangement which offered the best compromise. He is also suffering rear grip issues but overall it’s not too bad. I think he can probably fight for top six placings tomorrow.
Weather
Sunny
Air
24°C
Track
43°C
Humidity
51%
Qualifying Results
1 Chaz Davies 1m22.101s GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
2 Davide Guigliano 1m22.297s ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
3 Jordi Torres 1m22.414s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
4 Tom Sykes 1m22.526s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Jonathan Rea 1m22.854s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Leon Haslam 1m22.991s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
7 Niccolo Canepa 1m23.256s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
8 Alex Lowes 1m23.285s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 Sylvain Guintoli 1m23.406s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team
10 Leon Camier 1m23.990s GBR MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
15 Michael van der Mark 1m24.461 NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team