Carlos Checa grabbed his sixth pole of the 2011 World Superbike Championship season at the Imola circuit during Superpole qualifying on Saturday for tomorrow's races
World Superbike Championship points leader Carlos Checa took another step closer to the title by grabbing his sixth pole postion of the 2011 season at the historic Imola circuit in Italy on Saturday. With the Imola circuit’s tight “bus stop” chicane right after the start, being in front of the carnage that often ensues in the races’ first two turns is crucial to a good result, and the Althea Racing Ducati rider is in the best position possible in his quest for his first WSBK title. Castrol Honda’s Jonathan Rea was the only rider with a chance at unseating Checa from pole, but his effort as time was winding down in the 10-minute Superpole 3 session came up 0.078 seconds short. Pata Racing Aprilia’s Nori Haga continued his late season form by qualifying third, with Tom Sykes on the factory Kawasaki completing the front row.
The only rider with a decent chance at competing with Checa for the title didn’t even make the final Superpole cut. Marco Melandri will start from the third row on his Yamaha, and will have to make a great start in order to be with the leaders on the first lap. “We improved the race pace quite lot and did a good run with race tyres in the second qualifying session which went quite well,” said Melandri. “Unfortunately the qualifying tires in Superpole didn’t work out at all. We struggled from chattering in both in the second session and after half a lap the tire lacked performance and I wasn’t able to improve my times. It’s a pity as we have a good race pace but now we’ll have to push hard to get in front on a track where it’s not easy to overtake. "
“Yeah, Johnny (Rea) was very strong this whole weekend,” said Checa. “We knew it was going to be hard to beat him in the Superpole because he is normally quite fast in one lap. Basically we’ve been struggling with the qualifying tire, so we put the race tire on and we’ve been able to improve. I put in a really good lap, clean lap, no mistakes, it was fantastic; when I was close to the end, I thought it was going to be fast but I didn’t know how good a lap, and then I saw it. Then I didn’t know if anyone was going to be able to improve on it; for sure Johnny was the only one I thought, and at the end he was very close. But anyway, for us it’s very good to start in front, especially at this track.”
Photo Gallery: 2011 World Superbike Imola Superpole qualifying report/results—Checa on pole - Sport Rider Magazine
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