Pata Honda riders Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark finished today’s opening two free practice sessions in ninth and tenth places respectively on combined times as they prepare for Sunday’s tenth round World Superbike championship races at Sepang in Malaysia.
With mixed weather conditions covering the two sessions, overall times were based on this morning’s dry free practice, which was headed by Italian Max Biaggi, with both Pata Honda riders just 0.6s from a provisional front row position. After a heavy rain shower during the lunch break, the 45-minute afternoon session started with the circuit still damp.
Because further rain is forecast over the weekend, Guintoli went out early in the session to get a feel for the wet settings on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP. Like many other riders, team-mate van der Mark opted to remain in the pitbox until the track began to dry late In the session.
Van der Mark ended the session fifth fastest, with Guintoli, having sat out the final 15 minutes as the 5.543km circuit began to dry, in eighth place. Free Practice 3 in the morning will determine which riders progress directly to Superpole 2 tomorrow afternoon where grid positions for Sunday’s two races will be finalised.
Sylvain Guintoli - P9, 2m05.961s
This afternoon’s session was wet at the start with mixed conditions so we just went out to sample the track and get some data in case Superpole or the races are wet. The CBR felt good and in the dry session this morning we kept the same tyres throughout, trying to work on race pace. We know that with the heat and the track layout that the race rhythm can drop quite a bit so we’re trying to get as much data as possible to get ready for the race. The most important thing this morning was to be top ten for Superpole 2 in case it rained this afternoon, and it might rain tomorrow as well. So, we’ve done that job and we’re only about four or five tenths from the front group.
Michael van der Mark - P10, 2m05.986sThis morning I had to get used to my usual CBR after the Suzuka 8 Hours last weekend, but after a couple of laps I felt pretty comfortable again and found some good progress. I stayed out quite a long time because I knew I needed those laps and afterwards we tried a couple of adjustments on the bike. I improved my time and we had planned a couple more small changes with suspension and electronics for the afternoon. It wasn’t wet enough for a full wet setting and it wasn’t dry enough to try the changes so we couldn’t do very much. At the end of the day I’m quite happy, and the gap to the front guys is not as big as it has been recently.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
The morning session was looking quite OK and both riders were closer to the front than they have been lately and there were no big issues with the bike. This afternoon we were presented with a damp but drying track and Sylvain went out immediately, setting the fastest pace. Michael did the opposite and waited until the track was drier and he was quite quick in those drying conditions so, all in all, it has not been a bad day.
