Kyle Smith will start tomorrow’s final 2015 World Supersport race from the second row of the grid after setting the fifth fastest time in this evening’s qualifying session at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
After yesterday’s Free Practice performances which gave the 24-year-old British rider a provisional front row start for the 15 lap race, Smith was confident of further improvement in today’s sessions. However, despite an improvement in his lap time, he ended up missing the front row by just 0.1s with fellow Honda riders Gino Rea and PJ Jacobsen ahead of him and new world champion Kenan Sofuoglu on pole position.
Smith is confident that a good start in tomorrow’s race will see him battling for the top positions to enable him to finish his debut World Supersport season on a high note.
Kyle Smith - P5 2m02.058s
It’s been an eventful day and we did a fair bit of work on set-up this morning, which I wasn't really expecting after yesterday. We found a pretty good setting for FP3 and I felt comfortable enough to push hard in qualifying and I put some good laps in. I did my best, but my best was a P5! I’m pretty gutted but I know there were a bunch of riders following each other and getting slipstreams in front and they just pipped me on the last lap. It was a bit of a bummer because I was in P3 at one point. But I’m in a good position on the grid for a strong start and as long as I’m near the front I think the pace is pretty good.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
I think Kyle did a really good job in qualifying. He improved his lap time massively and in the end he was fifth but he was really close to third and the front row. The pace on used tyres is not so bad so for sure he can race tomorrow and target a good result.
Weather
Night Race
Air
31°C
Track
36°C
Humidity
69%
Qualifying Results
1 Kenan Sofuoglu 2m00.989s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
2 Lucas Mahias 2m01.781s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
3 Gino Rea 2m01.908s GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda
4 Patrick Jacobson 2m01.953s USA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
5 Kyle Smith 2m02.058s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
6 Lorenzo Zanetti 2m02.283s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
7 Nicolas Terol 2m02.294s ESP MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
8 Marco Faccani 2m02.523s ITA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
9 Christian Gamarino 2m02.528s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
10 Roberto Rolfo 2m02.632s ITA HONDA Team Lorini