Strategy paid off for Spaniard Santiago Barragan, netting him his first Repsol CEV Superbike pole position of the season today at Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana, in Valencia, Spain.
Rather than wait for the final qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, Barragan chose to use his one and only Michelin qualifying tire on his Team Stratos Kawasaki ZX-10R in Saturday morning’s provisional qualifying session. The 27-year-old topped that session with a time of 1:34.731, ahead of Calvo Kawasaki’s Caremlo Morales (1:35.087) and Palmeto PL Kawasaki’s Robertino Pietri (1:35.097), who also used his Michelin qualifying tire in the morning session.
Then in the Saturday afternoon qualifying session, it was too cool and windy for any riders to beat Barragan’s lap time (of the times of Morales and Pietri), which held up to earn him his first pole position of the season.
“I tried to use the qualifier in the morning because I knew the faster practice would be the first one,” Barragan told Roadracingworld.com. “Now in the second qualifying we tested a new race tire, but it was difficult to go fast because it was too cold and too much wind. I did not have enough grip from the front. This is my first pole position of the season, so I am very happy.”
The fastest rider in the afternoon qualifying session was American Kenny Noyes, who used his Michelin qualifying tire on his Palmeto PL Kawasaki ZX-10R to do a 1:35.254, the fourth-fastest time overall and good enough to take a spot on the second row of the grid. Noyes is second in the Championship point standings, four points behind leader Ivan Silva with only Sunday’s finale remaining.
Silva will line up right next to Noyes on the grid thanks to the 1:35.439 lap he did on his Michelin-qualifier-equipped Tangobank Motorsport BMW S1000RR in the second session. Angel Rodriguez earned the final spot on the second row with a time of 1:35.612 on his Suzuki Speed Racing GSX-R1000.
Row three will be comprised of Easyrace Superbike BMW’s Daniel Rivas (1:35.929), Pastrana Racing Team Kawasaki’s Roman Ramos (1:36.726) and Plassen Roadracing Team Ducati’s Ole Plassen (1:36.751).
There are 38 riders representing 11 different countries who qualified for the Superbike race.
American Jayson Uribe was 23rd out of 49 riders in Moto2 combined qualifying with a lap time of 1:40.894 on his AGR Motorsports Speed Up. Uribe said unsuccessful setup changes and windier conditions prevented him from going faster in the second qualifying session.
“So I focused on lines and brake markers more than getting a fast lap,” said 15-year-old Uribe. “I felt like I improved on my sector times, but the wind affected the straight line speed and it made it hard to stay online in the corners. But, I still had a great time and I got valuable track time.”
American Melissa Paris ended up 11th in 600cc Superstock qualifying with a lap time of 1:43.082 on her Team Stratos Kawasaki ZX-6R. Paris shaved 0.6 second in her second qualifying session, but it was not enough to move her up on the largest 600cc Superstock grid of the season.
American Daniel Costilla improved his lap time from 1:45.332 to 1:44.740 on his Larre Sport Honda in the second Moto3 qualifying session, but that was not good enough for the 14-year-old Californian to make the 44-rider grid. According to to Costilla’s team, the method of determining the Repsol CEV Moto3 grid varies during the year. At Valencia, the top 22 qualifiers from each of the Moto3 qualifying sessions made up the 44-rider grid. Costilla was faster than the 22nd rider in Group A (and fast enough to have qualified for the FIM Moto3 World Championship race at Valencia in his first visit to the track), but he was 24th in Group B and excluded from the race.
“Unfortunately, this group was filled with World Championship riders,” said Costilla. “It’s hard to be in this group, but it was a good experience. I was only four seconds off pole position, and I didn’t qualify. But that’s how this class is. There were 57 entries and only 44 qualified for the race.”
Repsol CEV International Championship
Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana
Valencia, Spain
November 15, 2014
Combined Superbike Qualifying Results:
1. Santiago Barragan, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:34.731
2. Carmelo Morales, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:35.087
3. Robertino Pietri, Venezuela (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:35.097
4. Kenny Noyes, USA (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:35.254
5. Ivan Silva, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:35.439
6. Angel Rodriguez, Spain (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:35.612
7. Daniel Rivas, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:36.612
8. Roman Ramos, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:36.726
9. Ole Plassen, Norway (Duc 1199 Panigale), 1:36.751
10. Chris Cotton, Canada (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:36.772
11. Alejandro Martinez, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:36.981
12. Mathieu Dumas, France (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:37.127
13. Antonio Alarcos, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:37.144
14. Sebastien Suchet, Switzerland (BMW S1000RR), 1:37.389
15. Nicolas Pouhair, France (BMW S1000RR), 1:37.725
16. Alexander Mateos, Spain (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:37.740
17. Pierre Texier, France (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:37.828
18. Guillermo Llano, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:37.869
19. Fran Rodriguez, Spain (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:38.132
20. Eeki Kuparinen, Finland (BMW S1000RR), 1:38.467
More, from a press release issued by Repsol CEV Press Office:
Pole positions in Valencia for Rodrigo in Moto3, Vierge in Moto2, Barragán in Superbike and Sardanyons in KZC
Changeable weather is dominating the final round of the championship: there was fine rain in the free practice sessions on Friday, and in the qualifying sessions today there were strong gusts of wind but also some sun to reward a good number of fans with an intense day’s qualifying.
Moto3 proved to be a popular category, with 56 riders in contention. Facing such fierce competition, the eventual pole-position rider Rodrigo Gabriel (ARG-KTM) went out early and set an unbeatable time of 1:40.369 in the morning session, bringing him his second pole of the season. Jorge Navarro (SPA-Honda) – already wearing the colors of the team he will be joining next season – nabbed the second fastest time on his antepenultimate lap of the afternoon session. Champion Fabio Quartararo (FRA-Honda) will start from the third slot on the grid tomorrow, with John McPhee (GBR-Honda), Albert Arenas (SPA-KTM) and Marcos Ramírez (SPA-Ioda) making up the second row.
Xavi Vierge (SPA-Tech 3) will lead off the Moto2 race as he did in the previous event in Portugal. The Targobank Motorsport rider set a best time of 1:37.356 on his final lap of the afternoon session. Jesko Raffin (SWI-Kalex) also set his best time in the second session to earn second place in the front row. Steven Odendaal (RSA Speedup) will join them, taking the third slot as he did in Catalonia, equaling his best qualifying finish of the season. Quickest Superstock 600 rider was Alex Siderol (SPA-Kawasaki).
In Superbike, Team Stratos rider Santi Barragán (SPA-Kawasaki) ends the season with his first pole position. He was the only rider to go under one minute 35 seconds in an intense qualifying session, in which less than a second separated the top six riders. To his right will be Carmelo Morales (SPA-Kawasaki), and Robertino Pietri (VEN-Kawasaki). Kenny Noyes (USA-Kawasaki) and Iván Silva (SPA-BMW) – leading riders in the overall ranking – will start from the second row. Ole Planssen (NOR-Ducati) proved to be the best privateer rider.
The Kawasaki Z Cup riders finished the day, still with everything to play for. With twenty riders chasing their best times, the pole finally went to Joan Sardanyons in the very last moments of the qualifying sessions. Also on the front row of the grid tomorrow will be Francisco Valera and José Jiménez.
The race schedule for next Sunday is as follows:
11:00 Moto3 (18 laps)
12:00 Superbike (19 laps)
13:00 Moto2-Supertock 600 (19 laps)
14:00 Moto3 (18 laps)
15:00 Kawasaki Z Cup (18 laps)
As usual, entry to the paddock will be free on Sunday. In addition, the first FIM CEV Repsol fans on Sunday from 9AM to go to the Accreditation Centre located in the access control booth can get a pass to take part in the Pit Lane walk which will take place before the start of racing.
Regarding television coverage, the following channels have confirmed they will broadcast some or all of the races live: the Movistar MotoGP channel of Movistar TV and the Energy TV channel of Mediaset Spain; Eurosport in France; Sky in Italy; and BT Sports in the UK. For all other countries, races can be seen live in English on the Championship’s Youtube channel.
All the results and information about the championship can be accessed on the official website: www.fimcevrepsol.com