PARKALGAR HONDA racers Eugene Laverty and Miguel Praia qualified fourth and 11th for the opening round of the World Supersport Championship at Phillip Island in Australia but are confident they can score higher in the race.
Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz took pole position in good weather conditions. The race is at 1330 local time on Sunday, 28th February.
Eugene: “It was important to get on the front row and if I hadn’t achieved that I wouldn’t have been happy. I didn’t quite have the pace I hoped for but I am feeling real good and my Parkalgar Honda is performing well. I had an electrical problem this morning which lost me time and didn’t help. Lascorz and Sofuoglu are very quick and I’d like to find a bit more time in warm-up before the race. I think our tyre strategy is strong and will perform better over a race and we should be faster in the second half of the race. I will be pushing for the podium.”
Miguel: “I went faster as expected but then I didn’t expect riders like Roccoli and Harms to go as fast as they did. We know qualifying is not my strongest point and that over the race distance we should be quicker than them. My Parkalgar Honda is OK but we are still considering whether to use the new or old Pirelli tyres as it seems dependant on temperature and wind conditions – we will make the decision in warm-up.”
Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “We are race ready and raring to go. Eugene essentially is happy with his bike and on a similar pace to Lascorz and Sofuoglu and I think the winner will come down from one of these three. He might have wanted to be higher up the grid but we are working to win the race, not qualification. Miguel in 11th has a very good opportunity to fight for the top eight, in a close tight group of riders. Both riders are working on the two Pirelli tyres and can go quickly on either. Congratulations to Lascorz on pole position, it is nothing less than what we expected from him and it will make for a good race.”
Qualifying
1 26 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1′33.847
2 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1′34.116
3 51 Pirro M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1′34.156
4 50 Laverty E. (IRL) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1′34.300
5 37 Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1′34.494
6 25 Salom D. (ESP) Triumph Daytona 675 1′34.873
7 7 Davies C. (GBR) Triumph Daytona 675 1′34.939
8 127 Harms R. (DEN) Honda CBR600RR 1′34.999
9 55 Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1′35.051
10 99 Foret F. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1′35.072
11 117 Praia M. (POR) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1′35.398.
