Michael Laverty's rich vein of form continued at the all-new Silverstone Arena GP circuit, taking third position on the grid for today's opening British Superbike race.
Laverty topped the opening free practice session on Friday in wet conditions and was never outside the top three in the dry sessions and he is now well set up for whatever the Met Office throws at him on Sunday.
Alastair Seeley was also well in the mix during Friday's opening session in sixth place. But having crashed out of session two at the high-speed Farm corner, the Ulsterman was forced onto the sidelines until this morning - his team working frantically to repair his damaged machine. Seeley missed out on the final Roll for Poll session but made steady progress throughout Q1 and Q2, taking 1.2secs off his free practice best. He will start the opening race in 14th place on row four.
Michael Laverty:
"Practice and qualifying have gone to plan and we have chipped away in every session getting faster all the time and improving our race set-up. I haven't been out of the top three all weekend and we have that all-important front row start in the bag for race one. I'm feeling confident about our pace for tomorrow. The grip levels at this circuit are quite low but the Relentless by TAS Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike works well on worn tyres, which I believe will be the key for tomorrow's races."
Alastair Seeley:
"I was going ok in the wet and then I crashed at the start of the next session on the out-lap. I lost the front at high speed through Farm, so I have been building my confidence ever since. I'm disappointed with 14th in qualifying but we are going to make a few changes to the bike for warm-up and see if that helps me. Apart from that I just need a good night's sleep and hang in there tomorrow."
Philip Neill - Team Manager:
"I think that's pretty much the first part of our job done this weekend. We have not been shooting it out and leaving the brain in the toolbox going for pole position. Michael has shown consistent pace yet again in qualifying this weekend and he's doing it comfortably and confidently. The track is new to all the riders apart from Brookes and Kiyo who raced here at the World Superbike event, so to be within 0.26secs is more than pleasing.
"Alastair has had a disappointing and frustrating start to his weekend. He's had to pretty much start from scratch today after his crash on Friday. His confidence has understandably taken a bit of a knock, but he has made significant progress in today's sessions. He must now concentrate on finishing both races tomorrow."
Silverstone BSB Qualifying for Race 1:
1.Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 2m:06.215s 2.Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +0.122s 3.Michael Laverty (Relentless by TAS Suzuki) +0.260s 4.Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +0.362s 5.Loris Baz (Motorpoint Yamaha) +0.697s 6.Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.786s 7.Dan Linfoot (Motorpoint Yamaha) +1.206s 8.Chris Walker (Sorrymate.com SMT Honda) +1.393s 9.Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +1.410s 10.James Ellison (Swan Honda) +1.865s 14. Alastair Seeley [Relentless by TAS Suzuki]
