Editorial Note: American Melissa Paris qualified fourth in 600cc Superstock on her Team Stratos Kawasaki ZX-6R. Paris’ best qualifying lap time was a 1:55.197. Ferran Casas earned the pole position with a time of 1:50.445.
From a press release issued by FIM CEV Repsol Press Office:
Quartararo, Raffin, Noyes and LLorens lead in fast qualifying practice at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit
With suffocating heat forecast at the Catalan track it looked like being a tough qualifying day, but in the end the state of the track remained good throughout practice allowing Quartararo, Raffin, Noyes and Llorens, each in his respective category, to beat the best poles so far in this circuit in the championship. Their ultra-fast times gave each of the riders pole position for tomorrow.
Quartararo (FRA-Honda) was once again the protagonist in Moto3™, lapping in 1:50.135 to take pole position. In second place Rodrigo Gabriel (SPA-KTM) also achieved a great result – the best in his group – giving him serious possibilities of scoring points and being one of the best in the category. Hiroki Ono (JAP-TSR/Honda) was 0.428 of a second behind the Frenchman with a time of 1:50.563, putting him in third place on the grid.
In Moto2™, Jesko Raffin (SWI-Kalex), Florian Alt (GER-Kalex) and Steven Odendaal (RSA-Speedup) make up the first row of the grid and are clear candidates for the podium, though they will have to keep a close eye on Alan Techer (FRA-Tech 3), Xavi Vierge (SPA-Tech 3) and Sebastian Porto (ARG-Kalex) who are ranked immediately behind them and who are also strong contenders, as they have shown in previous races. The best Superstock 600 rider was Ferrán Casas (SPA-Yamaha) followed by Bertin Thibaut (FRA) and Jonathan Rastrero (SPA-Yamaha), who makes his debut in the championship.
Kenny Noyes (USA-Kawasaki) once again put in an excellent performance to take the Superbike pole for the third time running. Carmelo Morales (SPA-Kawasaki) and Iván Silva (SPA-BMW) join him on the front row, and still hold out hopes of catching the Kawasaki Palmeto PL Racing rider. The top Superbike privateer was Raúl García (SPA-BMW), followed by Alejandro Martínez (SPA) and Alejandro Esteban (SPA-Kawasaki).
The Kawasaki Z Cup is back in action. Pere Llorens (SPA) took pole in his first race this season. Joan Sardanyons (SPA) and Francisco Valera (SPA), as they did in the double inaugural races at Jerez, also start off from the front row of the grid.
Tomorrow’s race schedule is as follows:
• 11:00 Moto3 (16 laps)
• 12:00 Superbike (17 laps)
• 13:00 Moto2-Supertock 600 (17 laps)
• 14:00 Moto3 (16 laps)
• 15:00 Kawasaki Z Cup (16 laps)
As usual, the entrance to the paddock will be free on Sunday. In addition, FIM CEV Repsol fans who go tomorrow to the Accreditation Centre of the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit can collect passes to take part in the Pit Lane walk that will take place at 10:20, before the start of racing.
The racing can be enjoyed from home on the Movistar MotoGP channel of Movistar TV and the Energy channel of Mediaset Spain. Both channels share the signal and broadcast the racing live. French fans can follow the Moto3 race live on Eurosport, while in Italy the Moto3 race will be broadcast by Sky. In other countries, all the races will be broadcast on the Youtube championship channel.
All the results and information about the Championship are on the official website: www.fimcevrepsol.com
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Palmeto PL:
Qualifying Round 3 FIM CEV International Championship
Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya
June 21, 2014
Noyes, at Catalunya, Continues Pole Streak in FIM CEV
Championship leader, American Kenny Noyes, will start on the pole for Round 3 of the FIM CEV International Championship at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain. Noyes, on the importer-backed Palmeto PL Kawasaki ZX10R has been on the pole at the first three races and comes into Barcelona after a perfect weekend in the previous round at Motorland where he won both races and took a slim 5-point lead in the ten-race series.
Venezuelan Team mate Robertino Pietri qualified seventh and showed good pace on race tires but problems on Friday meant that they were still chasing setup on Saturday morning and did not get fell benefit from the Michelin qualifying tire
Noyes set a new qualifying record for the Superbike class with a time of 1m44.822, besting archrival the three-time class champion Carmelo Morales (Calvo Kawasaki ZX10R) by .454. Completing the front row is former Spanish SBK champion Ivan Silva (Targobank BMW S1000RR), nearly a second off the pole time.
More important than the pole was Kenny´s pace. Even with track surface temperatures reaching 120 degrees, he was able to lap consistently in the mid to low 145s on race tires. Both Noyes and Pietri were confident that they would be able to sustain a good pace on worn tires in spite of the heat, expected to send track temperatures into the 120s.
Kenny Noyes: Pole – 144.822 “Things went pretty close to perfect today. We solved some braking problems that we brought with us from Motorland and found that the new base set-up that we found after our last tests here works real good. We worked with the electronics here to get off the corners better and now I feel very confident with the brakes. This time I was able to get a bit more out of the qualifying tire and that let me be the first CEV Superbike rider to get under 1.45.
This track doesn´t have as much grip as Motorland so we worked a lot with the Kawasaki electronics package to find the right level of traction control to get us out of the corners better. This is going to be a hot and physical race, but we´re prepared to fight for the win.
Robertino Pietri: 7th – 1’46.441 “On Friday we ran in a new engine and lost a lot of the morning and then in the afternoon is was too hot to really understand what we needed to do have the bike ready for qualifying. We went into Q1 without a good setup and with a lot to do, but we found a pretty good pace. The main problem was that we couldn´t really make good use of the qualifying tire and that set us back to seventh. We´ll need a good start so we can stay in touch with the leaders. If we can go with them, we have a good pace on worn tires so we can be fast at the end.
Qualifying
1. Noyes (USA) Kawasaki ZX10R: 144.822
2. Carmelo Morales (Spain) Kawasaki ZX10R 1´45.276
3. Ivan Silva (Spain) BMW S1000RR 1´45.733
4. Dani Rivas (Spain) BMW S1000RR 1´45.773
5. Angel Rodriguez (Spain) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1´45.950
6. Santiago Barragan (Spain) Kawawsaki ZX10R 1´46.146
7. Robertino Pietri (Venezuela) Kawasaki ZX10R 1´46.44