The World Superbike season has finally started and in today’s first two sessions at Phillip Island, Althea Racing team started very well despite the high track temperatures (53°C).
The Italian team was able to take the 3rd and 4th positions in the provisional qualifying grid, Davide Giugliano ahead of his titled team mate Carlos Checa, who after dominating most of the session lost the rear of his Ducati at the exit of turn 10, suffering a small tank slapper before running of track and then crashing out unhurt.
Davide Giugliano – 3rd“It didn’t go at all badly.
I had lost some feeling after my crash on Tuesday and so this morning was difficult but, with the team’s help, I was able to regain confidence by the afternoon.
Concentrating on finding feeling means that we couldn’t work on race pace but that will be on tomorrow’s schedule.
I had Carlos’ help in putting together those fast laps and it looks like we have the potential to be fast – now I just need to go out and find consistency on my own, which is difficult as I don’t yet have all the references.
Anyway, we’ve worked hard and we’ll see what happens tomorrow but today we leave the track very happy.
”Carlos Checa – 4th“We’ve worked well today.
All went well apart from the incident of course; I lost the rear, maybe because of tyre wear, and couldn’t keep hold of it but luckily I didn’t collide with the small wall in front of me! I was able to get back to the garage where we sorted the handlebar and changed the tyre.
I had the chance to try the narrower tyre but we saw that the wider tyre lasts longer.
The tyres were the focus of our work today really, identifying the best solution to ensure good race pace.
I’m satisfied with what we’ve got done.
I’ve always gone well with the Ducati at Phillip Island and so I think we can benefit from this ‘track factor’ come Sunday.
”
