FIM Supersport World Championship
Eurospeedway/Lausitzring
Lausitz, Germany
September 17, 2016
Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires):
From Superpole Session Two:
1. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:40.778
2. Niki TUULI, Finland (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.337
3. Gino REA, UK (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:41.470
4. Christoffer BERGMAN, Sweden (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.605
5. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:41.609
6. Jules CLUZEL, France (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:41.647
7. Lorenzo ZANETTI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:41.673
8. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.870
9. PJ JACOBSEN, USA (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.954
10. Luke STAPLEFORD, UK (Tri Daytona 675), 1:42.023
11. Federico CARICASULO, Italy (Hon CBR600RR), 1:42.071
12. Kyle SMITH, UK (Hon CBR600RR), 1:42.444
From Superspole Session One:
33. Braeden ORTT, Canada (Hon CBR600RR), 1:46.133
34. Casey TOBOLEWSKI, USA (Kaw ZX-6R), no time recorded in Superpole One
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Superpole Number Five Of The Season For Sofuoglu
As the FIM Supersport World Championship got underway again at the Lausitzring in Germany, after a long summer break since the previous round at Misano in mid-June, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Kenan Sofuoglu secured his fifth pole of the season with a lap of 1’40.778 – a new best at this circuit. Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was fifth on the grid after Superpole 2, having found more pure pace on day two, after making some significant set-up changes on his Ninja ZX-6R.
The remarkable run of pre-race success enjoyed by Kenan Sofuoglu in 2016 continued in the dry conditions of WorldSSP qualifying in Germany. He secured his fifth pole of 2016 and the 28th of his career. He now goes to extend his championship lead after Sunday’s race.
Starting from the second row, in fifth position after the Superpole, Randy Krummenacher and his crew made great improvements compared to day one. The Swiss rider expects even more improvements in his race set-up after analysing the data collected in both wet and dry conditions. Now Krummenacher’s mission on raceday is to cut into the points lead enjoyed by Sofuoglu, as the official Kawasaki riders currently sit 1-2 in the championship, with Kenan on 146 and Randy on 108.
After the disqualification of one of their rivals at the Misano round, a change in the pre-race championship scores now sees a reduction in the gap from first to second place in the championship.
After the long summer break some riders also had the complication of many of them not having tested at Lausitzring, or having raced there for many years. For Sofuoglu his recent track experience at the circuit has allowed him to make a strong start and just get faster, ending up completing Superpole more than half a second ahead of the next closest challenger.
Tomorrow’s race will take place at 11.20 and is scheduled for 19 laps of the 4.265km Lausitzring circuit.
Kenan Sofuoglu, stated: “I am happy and we are lucky. This morning it looked like it would rain all day but luckily the qualifying session was dry and we had been fast on the first day. I was not surprised then to do a good lap time in qualifying because we had already set a very fast time on Friday. I need to say a really big thanks to Kawasaki and the Puccetti Racing Team because months ago we did a test here and found a really good set-up. With this set-up I cannot say it is difficult to do good lap times. Our pace, times and set-up was nearly perfect. Tomorrow we hope for dry weather but it does not matter because in the wet we are also quite strong. I was third in the wet conditions this morning, in FP3. It is important that we get the maximum points from this weekend.”
Randy Krummenacher, stated: “Yesterday was very difficult and I had to learn the track a little. We struggled a lot with the feeling on the bike but we definitely made a step today. We are still missing a little bit but we are going to work very hard and analyse things very well. For sure tomorrow we will make another step to be ready to fight for the front. I have to say Kenan did a really great job and made a super, super fast lap today, but I am sure we will get closer again tomorrow. I got some confidence back in the wet conditions this morning and I feel quite well in both wet and dry conditions.”
ESS part-time rider (competing only at the European rounds of WorldSSP) Illia Mikhalchik (DS Junior Team Kawasaki) was 14th after Superpole, with another ESS competitor, Alessandro Zaccone (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) 15th. Kyle Ryde (Schmidt Racing Kawasaki placed 17th and yet another ESS participant, Axel Bassani (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) was 18th. Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) got himself to 24th on the grid, with Christian Gamarino (Team GOELEVEN Kawasaki) and Ondrej Jezek (Team GOELEVEN Kawasaki) just behind. Nacho Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) ended up 27th and Lachlan Epis (Response RE Racing Kawasaki) was 29th.
More, from a press release issued by Honda:
Third row start for PJ Jacobsen after German round Superpole
Round 9 – Germany
Lausitzring, Germany
PJ Jacobsen will start tomorrow’s ninth-round World Supersport race from the third row of the grid after finishing ninth in today’s Superpole 2 at the Lausitzring in Germany. The Honda WorldSSP rider clocked in 1’41.954 on his last flying lap before the chequered flag and was 0.3s away from qualifying on row two. The team are currently analysing today’s data in order to evaluate new settings for tomorrow, which will be tried by the young American during the morning’s 15-minute warm up session scheduled for 9am.
The ninth race of the 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship will get underway at 11:20am local time (GMT +2).
Patrick Jacobsen 2
9th
Today was really difficult for us. This is my worst qualifying of the year and in a long time. I don’t want to be too negative but third row on the grid is definitely not where we want to be. I will try my hardest tomorrow but the fact is that we’re still struggling a bit with the set up. I will stay focused and motivated and give it all, rain or shine. My pace is OK, but not good enough to fight for the podium, so we need to come up with something for tomorrow.
Pieter Breddels
Technical Manager
We made a change to the gearing for today but unfortunately the track was wet during FP3, so we didn’t get a full confirmation on whether it led to an actual improvement or not. In Superpole we improved our lap time by three tenths of a second but it was definitely not enough to get near the front. We now hope to get a dry warm up because we need to try a couple of more changes ahead of the race. It looks like we’re skirting around the problems without finding the right solution. Nothing is lost, the race is tomorrow and we’ll make sure to be ready for it.