FIM Supersport World Championship
Cheng International Circuit, Thailand
March 21, 2015
Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:37.345
2. Jules CLUZEL, France (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:37.550
3. Kyle SMITH, UK (Honda CBR600RR), 1:37.776
4. Lorenzo ZANETTI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:37.799
5. Lucas MAHIAS, France (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.002
6. PJ JACOBSEN, USA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.069
7. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.227
8. Roberto ROLFO, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.438
9. Gino REA, UK (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.487
10. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.626
11. Marco FACCANI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.644
12. Martin CARDENAS, Colombia (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.689
13. Riccardo RUSSO, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.706
14. Ratthapong WILAIROT, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.808
15. Fabio MENGHI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:38.947
16. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:39.010
17. Decha KRAISART, Thailand (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:39.226
18. Chalermpol POLAMAI, Thailand (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:39.290
19. Christian GAMARINO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:39.435
20. Thitipong WAROKORN, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.586
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK:
Sofuoglu claims Thai WSS Pole Position
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) will start the second round of the World Supersport championship, the first ever to be held in Thailand, from Pole Position after an all-action 45-minute qualifying session. The Turk, who recently became a father for the first time, was in fine form from the start and with the humidity rising, the former champion moved to the top of the standings thanks to a 1’37.345s lap time.
Championship leader Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) will join Sofuoglu on the front row along with Kyle Smith (Pata Honda WSS Team), who despite being one of the fallers was able to cling on to 3rd. Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) also fell spectacularly after touching the artificial grass on the exit of Turn 4 – which was still wet from this morning’s rain shower.
The Italian will be joined on the second row for tomorrow’s 17-lap race by the Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres pairing of Lucas Mahias and PJ Jacobsen, who qualified in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Local rider and fan favourite Ratthapark Wilairot (CORE Motorsport Thailand) was cheered on by the packed grandstands as he claimed seventh place on the grid, where he will start alongside Italian Roberto Rolfo (Lorini Honda). Gino Rea (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda), currently third in the World Championship standings, will start from the ninth slot.
PJ Jacobsen and Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK#25) were the only other riders to fall. Both of them – along with Smith and Zanetti – were unhurt.
More, from a press release issued by CIA Landlords Insurance Honda:
Rea up for the challenge
CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA’S Gino Rea qualified ninth but is confident he can compete up the front in tomorrow’s second round of the World Supersport Championship at the Chang circuit in Thailand.
Gino said: “I’m not overly happy with the final position in qualifying. We still have some time to find and we are struggling in certain areas. Losing the wet session this morning didn’t help. We made a big change from yesterday and were setting the bike up in qualifying.
“I am frustrated with the end of the session as I was on for a lap in the top six but hit traffic. I am not too worried as it is going to be another close race. I have a similar race pace to Australia, so I will try to get away with the front group.”
Martin Cardenas qualified a strong 12th with Riccardo Russo 13th, in a group of riders very close on time and within half a second from seventh place.
Kieran Clarke made a step forward in lap times and took 22nd on the grid.
There is a warm up session before the race starts at 1430 local time on Sunday 22nd March.
CIA Landlords Insurance Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster said: “We couldn’t test the gearing and set up changes we planned this morning because of the wet session. It took Gino a little time to settle in this afternoon with them and at the end he had the pace for the top six but was held up. We will make more changes in warm up and are confident Gino can challenge for the podium.
“Martin is 12th and on a good lap time. Ricky is right behind him and both will be looking for good starts to get into contention for the top 10.
“Although Kieran is only 22nd, he’s improving all the time and is now only 2.5secs behind the leaders. If he can keep improving tomorrow he will finish well inside the top 20 and could challenge for a point.
“We are happy to have supported Honda Thailand here supplying two of our race engines for Thitipong Warokorn and Ratthapong Wilairot. It is good to see them both challenging in WSS and to see Ratthapong head the top speeds in qualifying using our engine.”
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Pole Position For Sofuoglu In Thailand
Ninja ZX-6R rider Kenan Sofuoglu secured his 20th and his Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team’s first WSS pole position trophy with a qualifying lap of 1’37.345 at the all-new Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. Marco Faccani took his San Carlo Puccetti Kawasaki to 11th place on the grid for round two of the season.
Sofuoglu and his team made changes to his machine set-up in practice that allowed him to make full use of the performance of his Ninja ZX-6R at the all-new track in Thailand in qualifying. More importantly Sofuoglu also feels he should have a good race pace on Sunday.
Kenan was 0.205 seconds ahead of his closest rival in the lone qualifying session at the 4.554km circuit and he is now in the perfect starting spot to keep that advantage on the first lap.
The next fastest Kawasaki qualifier was Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) in fifth place with his team-mate PJ Jacobsen in sixth place.
Dominic Schmitter (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) made it into the top ten after qualifying while Faccani aims to improve on his 11th place on the grid in Sunday’s race.
The second day of track action in Thailand was considerably cooler than the first, with even rain greeting the riders in the final free practice session this morning before the track dried out in time for qualifying.
Kenan Sofuoglu: “I found some pace and I am really happy – especially for my team as this is the first pole position for the Puccetti team in this championship. I am happy for them because they have worked very hard and they deserve it more than me. When I see how they work I feel pressure to give them a good result and today we gave them that kind of result. The goal is always the race itself and for sure I will try my best. It has been a long time since I won a race and I think the time has arrived but I would like to give my team at least a podium. The track is nice but it was a little bit difficult to set-up the gearbox. We have managed it well in the end. There is good grip from the track surface and I am happy to be here.”
Marco Faccani: “The track is quite good for me, I think. The bike, after the final session, improved a lot and I am happy to race tomorrow. I should do a good race I think and I think the top ten will be my target in my first visit to this venue.”
More, from a press release issued by Pata Honda:
Smith on Buriram front row for inaugural Thai race
Kyle Smith will start from the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s second round World Supersport race after setting the third fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session at the Buriram circuit in Thailand.
The Pata Honda CBR600RR rider topped yesterday’s timed practices and was confident going into this afternoon’s 45-minute session. However, a small crash near the end of qualifying prevented the 23-year-old British rider from getting closer to Kenan Sofuoglu’s pole position time.
World Supersport rookie Smith will be targeting his maiden world championship podium in tomorrow’s inaugural 18-lap race at the 4.554km Buriram United International Circuit 400km north-east of Thai capital Bangkok.
Kyle Smith – P3, 1m37.776s
I’m super happy with today’s result even though I had a little crash at the end of qualifying. I didn’t think it was such a big deal but then I saw how much work I gave the boys tonight so I have to apologise to them. The weekend’s been going really well apart from that and I just have to keep it up for tomorrow. We’ve worked pretty well and not made many changes to the CBR. I’m happy with the race pace and it seems decent compared to some of my main rivals, but Kenan [Sofuoglu] and Jules [Cluzel] are super-experienced. They’ll be really fast but there’s no reason why I can’t put up a fight tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.
Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator
It was a very, very interesting qualifying session this afternoon. Kyle immediately set a pace close to his best time from yesterday but some of the other guys went even quicker. Kyle had to step it up in his second outing but even then the others were going quicker. In the third outing, with fresh tyres, he pushed just a little too hard and had a small crash. His time was still good enough for third position on the front row and he has really good race pace so for sure he can fight for a podium position.