Althea Racing

After a month’s break the second round of the World Superbike Championship got underway today at the historic Autodromo di Imola. Team Althea Racing, and its riders Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano made a solid start, closing first qualifying in seventh and eleventh position respectively.

2011 World Champion Checa got straight down to work in the first free practice session his morning, which took place in warm and sunny conditions (26˚C air temperature, 34˚C track). The Spaniard has always enjoyed racing at Imola, Ducati’s home track, and after just a few laps he was already near the top of the timesheets. He continued to improve during the session, particularly in the final stages, and concluded the session with the third fastest time (1m49.2), just behind Badovini and Guintoli.

His teammate Davide, rather than concentrating on lap times, worked with his technicians to refine the set-up of his Ducati 1198 so as to be fully prepared for the afternoon’s first qualifying. He therefore closed the session in 17th position, with a best of 1m51.4.

In the afternoon’s qualifying session and on a hotter track (41˚C), both Althea Racing riders continued to make good progress, lowering their lap times in line with their closest rivals. The first ten riders closed the session within 0.4 seconds of each other, Carlos finishing in seventh position with a best time of 1m48.3 while Davide, taking two seconds off his morning’s best time, closed just outside the top ten, in eleventh place, but with a fastest time of 1m48.7.

Carlos Checa:

“Tomorrow we’ll work more on race pace but, considering the fact that the conditions of this particular track tend to improve over the weekend, I’m feeling confident. We are, as usual, very close in terms of times but some of the frontrunners have only done a couple of flying laps so it’s doesn’t tell us very much really. Even here, a track that should be more ‘Ducati-friendly’, we are seeing the difference with regard to top speed but there’s not much we can do about that. We’ll see tomorrow. A lot will depend on track conditions and tires but, as I said, I’m feeling good about things.”

Davide Giugliano:

“This morning I didn’t rush into things, I saw that on new asphalt it was more sensible to take things slowly and work on the bike. This afternoon went really well, my head and my bike were both in a good place and I was able to make some good laps. I wanted to try a different tire as I thought that with that I could have gone better but today I’m satisfied, also because we’re only seven tenths from pole and that is very encouraging.”