The Althea Racing Ducati pairing of Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano were at the top of the practice leaderboard after Friday’s provisional timed qualifying at the Nurburgring round of the World Superbike Championship. Checa managed to better his teammate late in the session, after Giugliano emerged with the quickest time in the opening morning practice. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was third quickest after leading the majority of the session, while Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty recovered from a crash in the morning practice to go fourth quickest. Championship points leader Marco Melandri didn’t do himself any favors by crashing in the opening minutes of the afternoon qualifying session, and was forced to wait until his bike could be repaired (unlike MotoGP, WSBK riders do not have a spare bike). The Italian returned with about 30 minutes left, and managed to card the 12th quickest time in the session.
American John Hopkins is confident he’ll make the cut for the World Superbike Superpole knockout sessions tomorrow (only the top 16 qualify) despite finishing in 18th spot at the Nurburgring on Friday. "I have no memory of this track from the last time I was here,” admitted Hopkins, “so I had to relearn it today. We tried many different settings and threw every possible tire at the FIXI Crescent Suzuki today to see if we could find some solutions to our chatter problems this year. Unfortunately, the tire combination we had at the end of today's qualifying was not the right one and I couldn't lap as fast as I wanted, but the good news is that we have made improvements and tomorrow will be a lot better. This is a fun track to ride and I am enjoying it a lot, so I expect to safely get into Superpole and then take it from there."
Controversy and rumors continued to swirl around the Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati team on Friday at the Nurburgring, as long-time World Superbike rider Jakub Smrz was suddenly and inexplicably replaced at the last minute by Lorenzo Lanzi for the Nurburgring weekend. The team had skipped the Moscow race in order to “regroup and focus attention on 2013” according to a press release, and this weekend’s surprise move was said to be part of the team’s “reorganization of its human, technical and logistical resources for the next racing season.” The team has been the center of controversy ever since the Monza debacle where the team threatened to pull out of the World Superbike series after the cancellation of the second race due to rain. They followed that with the resignation of rider Sylvain Guintoli after he arrived on the eve of the Brno race to discover that none of his mechanics were present. The team then fired back at Guintoli after his resignation, stating that the Frenchman had been sacked because of “poor results”—this despite the fact that the French rider had won the team’s first race this year. Canadian rider Brett McCormick and Maxime Berger are still with the team, although both riders reportedly brought sponsorship money with them in a pay-to-ride agreement.
World Superbike Nurburgring Friday provisional qualifying results:
1. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati 1:55.307
2. Davide Giugliano (ITA) Ducati 1:55.750
3. Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki 1:55.802
4. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia 1:55.813
5. Leon Haslam (GBR) BMW 1:55.828
6. Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia 1:55.838
7. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Honda 1:55.891
8. Leon Camier (GBR) Suzuki 1:55.949
9. Chaz Davies (GBR) Aprilia 1:56.399
10. Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Ducati 1:56.461
11. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Ducati 1:56.465
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) BMW 1:56.497
13. Loris Baz (FRA) Kawasaki 1:56.981
14. Ayrton Badovini (ITA) BMW 1:57.024
15. Michel Fabrizio (ITA) BMW 1:57.077
16. Niccolo Canepa (ITA) Ducati 1:57.434
17. David Salom (SPA) Kawasaki 1:57.468
18. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki 1:57.592
19. Maxime Berger (FRA) Ducati 1:57.729
20. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Honda 1:58.286
21. Lorenzo Lanzi (ITA) Ducati 1:59.145
22. Brett McCormick (CAN) Ducati 1:59.712
23. Alexander Lundh (SWE) Kawasaki 1:59.763
24. Norino Brignola (ITA) BMW 2:00.676