WSBK ; Ayrton Badovini takes maiden pole position at wet Nurburgring

It was raining for this afernoon’s Superpole at Nurburgring, and as the session was declared wet, instead of three stints, it was two twenty minute stints.

It was a tricky Superpole as Ayrton Badovini scored his first pole position of his Superbike career, giving the Ducati Alstare team their second pole position of the season (and their only podium finish) after Carlos Checa’s in the opening round in Australia and giving the Belgium team something to smile about after Checa didn’t make the Superpole cut.

Badovini had already lead the first stint posting a 2.13.459, but in the second stint he bettered his lap time to stop the clock in 2′09.513 and pipping a battling Marco Melandri by one tenth of a second.

Tom Sykes will close the front row, but the Kawasaki rider crashed out in the dying minutes at the Mercedes Arena (turn 2), but he wasn’t the only one as Chaz Davies highsided at turn 2 and Jules Cluzel also binned it (turn 1) in the difficult conditions, but they will take off in 7th and 9th respectively.

Loris Baz who is a specialist in wet and damp conditions was fourth, while Sylvain Guintoli who is also very good in the wet was just 8th, a position that will create some problems, if the conditions should continue to be wet as he may not want to risk hurting himself again and jeopardize his title chances.

On the second row with Baz will be Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam, while Eugene Laverty’s chances of taking a podium this weekend took a nose dive as he qualified only 12th, behind Max Neukirchner and Leon Camier.

After some impressive lap times in the previous sessions Michel Fabrizio dropped to thirteen, but at least he was in front of the other Aprilia privateer Davide Giugliano.

2013 WSBK Nurburgring Superpole results:

1. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale 2′09.513
2. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 2′09.616
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 2′10.136
4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 2′10.401
5. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 2′11.204
6. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 2′12.006
7. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 2′12.663
8. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 2′13.177
9. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 2′14.454
10. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale 2′15.975

via Twowheelsblog