Althea Racing

Althea Racing’s Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano faced a more difficult afternoon today at the Donington Park circuit. At the end of a hard-fought Superpole session, Checa qualified in ninth position for tomorrow’s Superbike races, Giugliano thirteenth.

The Althea riders faced sunny but still very cold conditions (10˚C air temperature, 18˚C track) for the second qualifying session this morning. Davide Giugliano continued to make good progress, consistently lowering his times and recording several laps in under 1m30. His best lap of this morning’s sessions was sixth tenths quicker than his fastest set yesterday and thanks to this time he closed in eleventh position, easily qualifying for this afternoon’s Superpole. Carlos Checa got on with the work started yesterday, concentrating together with his team on the setting of his Ducati 1198. In the final minutes of the session he recorded a very fast lap (1m28.9) which positioned him third. Only the top three riders - Checa, Sykes and Smrz – lapped in under 1m29.

Superpole 1: the first phase of the Superpole went well for Carlos. He immediately made a fast lap and the time recorded – 1m28.6 – positioned him third. With this time there was no need to return to the track and he closed the session in fifth position. Davide had difficulty making a clean lap and as a result his fastest time positioned him thirteenth, just a tenth of a second from Badovini, in twelfth.

Superpole 2: Checa went out first on a qualifier but, seeing that he needed to make a second exit, he went back on track but this time on race rubber. The times recorded was not as low as the Spaniard had hoped for and he closed in ninth place, a fraction of a second from Camier, eighth.

Carlos Checa: “We had tried the qualifying tire at the start of the second Superpole phase but when I saw that I needed to go out again, I opted for the race tire. I thought I’d be able to make a low 1m28. I gave it all I had but it seemed like I didn’t have the same level of grip that I had had in the morning, and I couldn’t do quite enough. Anyway, it went like that and tomorrow I’ll need to make a really strong start.”

Davide Giugliano: “In the morning things were going okay but then in Superpole, with the race tire, I wasn’t able to put together a lap like I had been doing in the morning. Perhaps I was a little on edge, I don’t know, but it’s a shame because I missed out on phase two by just a tenth of a second. We need to make a strong start tomorrow, which won’t be easy from the fourth row but I’ll do my best.”