The World Superbike Championship may have taken another big step into Carlos Checa direction, with the Althea Racing Ducati rider showing that he was a step above the rest by easily setting fast time in each Superpole session to take pole position. But perhaps an even more important contribution to Checa’s cause was the injury to title rival Max Biaggi, who suffered a fracture to the metatarsal bone in his left foot when it was struck by on-track debris. The Aprilia Alitalia rider reported that it became difficult to shift due to the pain, and he may not be able to take part in the races tomorrow depending on the result of treatments from the Clinica Mobile personnel. Checa currently holds a commanding 62-point lead in the championship with four events (eight races) left to run including tomorrow’s two races at the Nürburgring; Biaggi’s absence would put Yamaha’s Marco Melandri in the challenger seat, although he trails by an even greater 71 points from Checa.
The ease with which Checa topped all three Superpole sessions was certainly a lesson in domination. Still on race rubber, Checa quickly set his fast time with just one flying lap early in Superpole 1, and confidently returned to his pitbox to see if anyone would approach it. Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati’s Sylvain Guintoli and Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty were only able to get within three-tenths of Checa’s time by the end of the session, and the veteran Spaniard never had to leave the pits.
In Superpole 2 and still on used race rubber, Checa once again went out for one flying lap and set a slightly slower time of 1:54.709, and retreated to his pit box with softer qualifying rubber at the ready in case the field suddenly speeded up and he was in danger of the eight-rider cutoff point. Yamaha riders Laverty and Melandri both came close (Laverty only 0.016 seconds behind, and Melandri another 0.057 seconds adrift), but neither were able to do it, and Checa basically had two sets of soft rubber at his disposal for the final session.
Superpole 3 was literally a carbon copy of the first two sessions, as Checa swiftly set a lap of 1:54.144 on his first flyer, and retreated to the pitbox to see if anyone got close. No one did, with Laverty’s quickest lap some 0.368 seconds behind, and Biaggi another 0.231 seconds in arrears.
“Yesterday we learned a lot,” said Checa after his dominating display, “and the changes we made between yesterday and today’s sessions brought the right results. We’re really happy with the work completed, we’ve improved the bike and the lap times have come. In the first Superpole phase I was having a little difficulty, but the second and third sessions went better and I was able to take pole. The Nürburgring is one of those tracks where it’s difficult to make passes, so it’s certainly an advantage to start from the front here. Tomorrow I will be aiming to make the best possible start and do all I can to fight for the win; I think we’ll see two really exciting races.”
World Superbike Nürburgring Superpole qualifying results:
1. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati 1:54.144
2. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Yamaha 1:54.512
3. Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia 1:54.743
4. Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha 1:54.818
5. Nori Haga (JPN) Aprilia 1:55.113
6. Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki 1:55.223
7. Leon Haslam (GBR) BMW 1:55.237
8. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Ducati 1:55.249
9. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Honda 1:55.321
10. Jakub Smrz (CZE) Ducati 1:55.598