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Donington Park Qualifying 2, March 26 2011, Saturday qualifying session commenced under grey, cloudy skies at Donington, with very low temperatures compared to yesterday.
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March 26 2011 - Donington Park Qualifying 2
Saturday qualifying session commenced under grey, cloudy skies at Donington, with very low temperatures compared to yesterday. Due to the poor weather conditions, Mark Aitchison and Roberto Rolfo were not able to improve on their best lap times set yesterday. Both of team Pedercini’s riders therefore concluded qualifying in the same position as yesterday, meaning that they were unfortunately unable to enter the Superpole. In the early afternoon’s free practice, both riders worked with their teams to solve some problems with the settings which prevented them from reaching the Superpole. At the end of the free session Aitchison was in eighteenth position (1’31”495) while Rolfo (1’31”537) closed nineteenth. Tomorrow they will both start from the fifth row of the grid for the two twenty-three lap races.
Saturday qualifying session : 1) Biaggi (Aprilia) – 2) Melandri (Yamaha) – 3) Checa (Ducati) – 4) Laverty (Yamaha) – 5) Smrz (Ducati)............. 18) Rolfo (Kawasaki) – 19) Aitchison (Kawasaki)
Saturday free session : 1) Checa (Ducati) – 2) Haslam (BMW ) – 3) Sykes (Kawasaki) – 4) Melandri (Yamaha) – 5) Smrz (Ducati).............18) Aitchison (Kawasaki) – 19) Rolfo (Kawasaki)
Superpole : 1) Checa (Ducati) – 2) Haslam (BMW ) – 3) Sykes (Kawasaki) – 4) Smrz (Ducati) – 5) Haga (Aprilia) – 6) Biaggi (Aprilia) – 7) Camier (Aprilia) – 8) Rea (Honda)
Roberto Rolfo: “I’m a little bit disappointed with today’s qualifying practice. We still have some set up problems to solve and in these conditions I can’t push hard enough to improve my lap times so as to enter Superpole. I worked with my team trying some different settings but I was not able to find the right feeling with my bike. I’m satisfied with the work we have done over these two days and also this afternoon we worked a lot on suspension and electronics to find a solution for our setting problems in view of tomorrow races. Anyway I will be trying my absolute best for the races although I expect it to be very tough tomorrow.”
Mark Aitchison: “In the morning’s qualifying we tested some new settings to make me more comfortable on the bike, but unfortunately we did not move in the right direction and so I missed out on Superpole. The weather conditions were colder and there was less grip, but the main problem was that I did not find the right feeling with my Kawasaki. In the afternoon free practice I worked very hard with my technicians and we found some good improvements on my bike set up. Tomorrow’s races will be very difficult, starting from fifth row, but I’m still feeling positive, also because the bike’s potential is very high and the team is doing a great job considering the little time we’ve had”.
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