Carlos Checa - Photo Credit: Althea Racing
Carlos Checa has congratulated Tom Sykes on his stunning Superpole performance and admits that there was no way he could've beaten him today. The reigning champion was third fastest behind the Kawasaki and Sylvain Guintoli's Effenbert Liberty Ducati and feels he would've been ahead of the Frenchman had he put in a clean lap in SP3.
“I used race tyres for the first and second phases of the Superpole, turning to the qualifier only at the start of the final phase. I wasn't able to put together the lap I wanted and so, with minutes to spare, I went back out on a race tyre and made the third fastest time (though unfortunately it wasn't a clean lap). We're satisfied, as it would have been difficult to beat Sykes here today – congratulations to him. I expect two exciting races tomorrow and would say the forecast is good is far as we're concerned.”
Althea Racing teammate Davide Giugliano also had a messy session with a crash in SP2 bringing his afternoon to an end. The Italian ended up 12th after failing to set a time in the second session and conceded that he was probably pushing too hard when he lost control at Variante Alta.
“I'm a bit disappointed of course because I thought I could have done a lot better this afternoon. Unfortunately in the first exit (of the second phase) a technical problem caused me to run off track. Then, with that resolved, I went back out on a qualifier and I was pushing hard to make the flying lap. Maybe I overdid it, because I crashed as I was following Biaggi. We'll start from the fourth row of tomorrow's grid so I'll need to make a great start and give it my all if I want to make up some places and put together two solid races.”
