BMW Motorrad

In scorching sunshine in the Algarve, today’s qualifying sessions from Portimao threw up a few surprises, as Troy Corser failed to make the final 16 and Leon Haslam eventually qualified in 11th place after a dramatic Superpole 2 session.

Many of the riders had struggled throughout practice and timed qualifying to find a good machine set-up, with the extra bumpy track making it difficult to post consistently fast lap times. Having only qualified 18th fastest in the morning’s second timed session, BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Troy Corser failed to make it though into the afternoon Superpole eliminator.

It was left to Leon Haslam and BMW Motorrad Italia’s Ayrton Badovini to make an impression with their S 1000 RR Superbikes. Early signs were good, as Badovini made it through SP1 in ninth, after a flying lap of 1:43.054 with his first qualifier tyre. Leon left it until there was just three minutes left of the session to put one of his qualifiers in to make sure he could progress to SP2. It proved to be a wise decision as his time of 1.42.919 – the quickest of his weekend so far – moved him up to sixth place right at the closing stages.

Both Haslam and Badovini set off on their first SP2 laps with their last remaining qualifier in – the objective being to try to post a lap quick enough to see them safely through to the final Superpole session of the day, where only the fastest eight riders would be left to fight for the grid positions on the front two rows.

Badovini posted an excellent lap of 1:42.645, which looked fast enough to see him safely through to SP3. Haslam’s best SP3 lap of 1:42.879 didn’t give him the chance to sit in the top eight, so even though he no longer had a qualifier left, Leon returned to the pits, put another tyre on and headed back out on track. Visibly working hard on a race tyre, the tough Brit did his best but it wasn’t enough to progress, as in the end the fastest eight qualifiers were only separated by four-tenths of a second!

Leon finished in 11th place, while Badovini finished in ninth, after a late charge by several riders relegated him from what seemed like a certain progression to SP3. This means that Leon and Ayrton will start from the third row of the grid tomorrow, with Troy Corser on row five.

Leon Haslam: “On Friday we had an issue which meant we missed out on a lot of valuable track time, but today we have worked well and made some positive adjustments with the chassis. Obviously qualifying didn’t go according to plan, as we struggled to obtain the full potential from the qualifying tyres, but on race tyres we are looking good. The times are close and with the leaders so I am still confident. The start tomorrow from the third row will be really important but if we can run with the leaders in the early laps then we could be on for a good result. We will have to wait and see.”

Troy Corser: “Sadly we have struggled to combat the issues from yesterday. The track’s bumpy and undulating nature has made a good set-up very hard to find. We have been working overtime to try and pull everything together but sadly we ran out of time and missed out on Superpole completely. Now we have to do our utmost with the time available tomorrow to try and find a good setting for the races and hopefully improve on what is an obviously disappointing starting position.”

Rainer Baumel – Head of Race Operations: “It continues to be a difficult weekend for us. Today we were able to progress with both riders, but for unfortunately for Troy it was not enough to qualify for Superpole. Overall, our gap to the very front still is too big. We will work hard and try to reduce this gap tomorrow. In the races, a lot is possible. Leon is a fighter and for sure will give his best and you can easily overtake on this track. Troy is facing an even bigger challenge starting from the fifth row. But in Free Practice we were able to improve his bike in many areas. So also for him still a lot is possible.”