Aprila Superpole Results
The Superpole of the Portuguese round of the SBK took place today with excellent weather and track conditions at Portimao, which led to an exciting duel, with Crutchlow taking first place with the top time of 1:42:092, a new record for this track, ahead of Max Biaggi on his Aprilia RSV4 and Spaniard Carlos Checa.
Max Biaggi will start of from second place tomorrow after having stopped the clock at 1:42:513, just 0:421 behind the English driver on his Yamaha.
The Roman driver, who, along with Smerz, had the best time from the qualifying round this morning, moved into Superpole 1 in third place using racing tyres. During the second stage he changed to his first qualifying tyre and passed the round in second position.
In Superpole 3 Max battled it out until the end for pole position, but surrendered to Crutchlow who managed to set a new record thanks to a perfect, final intermediate time.
Leon Camier finished in eleventh place with a time of 1:43:039 who was not able to qualify for the final stage. The young British driver finished Superpole 1 in twelfth position with the first qualifying tyre. During the successive phase, he used the second one as well and stayed in the race for the Final 8 up until the last few seconds.
Max Biaggi
"I’m very happy," said Biaggi. "This first row is the result of the excellent work that’s been done in recent days. After the problems we had in Australia, the situation here has improved a lot and we’ve returned to the competitive levels that we had during the final races of last year. The classification is quite a short list, we’re all very close, so it’s important to start off in front and this makes me optimistic about the two races tomorrow. I want to thank my team and the Aprilia technicians for the great work that’s been done up until now."
Leon Camier
"I’m a bit disappointed about this qualifying round," said Camier. Unfortunately, once again I wasn’t able to find a good lap. On the other hand, I have an excellent rhythm and this is what keeps me calm for tomorrow’s races. It will be important to start off well and make a lot of passes during the first few laps in order to be able to keep up with the lead group from the outset and it will also be important not to make mistakes."
Race 1 and Race 2 of World Superbike (SBK) motorcycling racing ar up next.
