FIXI Crescent Suzuki's Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel will both be looking to make improvements in different areas during day two of this weekend's eni FIM Superbike World Championship event from Imola in Italy.
Camier was happy enough with his day's work onboard the Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R, as he used both of today's sessions to work on the behaviour and performance of his machine on used tyres by completing a number of long runs on the same rubber. He made significant steps and even recorded his fastest time on the very last lap of a long run at the end of the first qualifying session this afternoon, to give him the eighth quickest time. Camier will now be looking to work on getting the most out of a tyre over one-lap to enhance his qualifying prospects and give him more of an opportunity in Sunday's two races.
Cluzel spent his first day on a Superbike at the 4,936m Italian track learning how to adapt his riding style to that of the FIXI Crescent Suzuki and made steady progress throughout the day, before ending the qualifying session in 14th place. He will be working with his crew this evening to make the set-up work better from him, so that he can take the next step in performance as the weekend progresses.
Today's two sessions were held in fine conditions as the predicted rain that was forecast failed to materialise. Track temperatures during this afternoon's qualifying session reached 38C, as Kawasaki's Tom Sykes set the fastest time and took provisional pole position.
Camier and Cluzel will have a second qualifying session tomorrow morning to cement their positions in the afternoon's Superpole, where they will battle it out to get the best grid places for Sunday's two races.
Leon Camier:
"We have done a lot of laps on used tyres and doing some longer runs to see how the tyre behaves when it has started to wear and I think we are quite consistent, because I feel that I am going faster and faster on older tyres. We now need to concentrate more on one-lap so we can get a good qualifying position and make more of a difference with a new tyre at the start of a race. I went quickest on my last lap of a 10-lap run, so that is quite confidence inspiring, but now we need to get more out of me and the bike on a new tyre."
Jules Cluzel:
"It has been a difficult day and this morning was quite hard because it was the first time I've ridden a Superbike here at Imola. I think this is the most difficult circuit for me to adapt to the Superbike style. This afternoon I thought it would be a better session, but at the end I found it hard to improve on my lap-time. I didn't really enjoy myself on the bike today, so I hope we can get an improved setting for tomorrow to make the bike work better and then we should be able to go faster."
Paul Denning - Team Manager:
"The predicted bad weather for today stayed away and it meant that we were able to get a lot of laps done to start the preparations for Sunday's races in decent track conditions. Imola is one of the classic circuits, but it is a difficult place to extract the maximum from a Superbike and we have a lot of details to work on this evening to make the job easier for both riders. That said, Leon being in eighth place and less than a second from the provisional pole, is encouraging and as always he has a consistent rhythm. We just need to lift that pace to a higher level to compete with the fastest guys.
"Jules's guys are also working hard to make his life a little easier and the bike more predictable on corner exit. As I say it's not an easy track - especially the first time on a Superbike - so with a night's sleep under his belt and some improvements to the FIXI Crescent Suzuki, we will see a stronger showing from him tomorrow."
Imola Friday Qualifying Image Gallery: CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS
Imola - eni FIM Superbike World Championship - Qualifying 1: 1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'47.218: 2. Jonathan Rea (Honda) +0.112: 3. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia) +0.401: 4. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati) +0.456: 5. Davide Giugliano (Aprilia) +0.486: 8. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) +0.929: 14. Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1.932.
