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Pole Position for Byrne and Airwaves Ducatti |
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Saturday, 05 April 2008 |
Shane Byrne rode the quickest lap of the weekend to secure pole position in
round one of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch today. Leon
Camier put in a strong performance to place himself 6th on the grid for
tomorrow’s races.
Having set the fastest time in final practice this morning Shane was confident
going into qualifying. His pole winning time of 1:25.832, set on Pirelli tyres,
is only one tenth short of the current lap record set in 2007 by Gregorio
Lavilla. Once he had set his quickest time on lap 10 of 11, he did not return to
the track and his pole position was unthreatened for the remainder of the
session.
Shane was clearly delighted with his day saying; “I was
chatting with the team earlier and we reckoned that the pole position time would
be 1:26.5 as it has been a lot colder today than this morning and yesterday. I
felt good when I first went out but then on my second Pirelli it all came
together brilliantly and I dipped into the 1:25’s. I was pretty confident I had
set the best time of the session and I think even without the rain cutting
qualifying slightly short it still would have been good enough for pole. I have
to thank the whole Airwaves Ducati team, they have done a great job and this has
been a perfect start to the season, bring on tomorrow.”
Leon exceeded
the team’s expectations with his performance in practice and he had specific
aims for today’s qualifying session. He completed an impressive 25 laps, more
than anybody else in the field, his quickest time of 1:26.833 came on his
penultimate lap putting him in 6th.
He commented afterwards; “I am happy
with that, although I feel a bit sore now! If I can string those times together
consistently then I think I can secure a good result. To not be 100% fit and
still be close to the top of the field feels good. I think that the likes of
Shane, Haslam and Crutchlow will be in the leading pack in the race but if I can
stick as close to them as possible and conserve my Pirelli tyres then I should
leave Brands in a fairly strong position.”
QUALIFYING RESULT
1.
Shane Byrne – Airwaves Ducati 1:25.832
2. Cal Crutchlow – HM Plant Honda
1:26.155
3. Karl Harris – Team Yamaha 1:26.364
4. Leon Haslam – HM Plant
Honda 1:26.552
5. Tom Sykes – Rizla Suzuki 1:26.641
6. Leon Camier –
Airwaves Ducati 1:26.833
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