As the opening day of on track action draws to a close WorldSBK caught up with the top 3 riders on the combined classification ahead of FP3 and Tissot-Superpole tomorrow.

Fastest in the dry Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team), 2^nd overall but fastest in the wet FP2 (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) reviewed their individual performances from day one and look forward to what they hope will be a rain free Saturday at the Sepang International circuit.

Max Biaggi – Fastest overall: “that’s what happens here in this part of the world in August. Lot of rain and within a couple minutes everything is wet and that’s what happened in FP2. I made just one or two laps to check the wet setting as it’s been a while since I rode in the wet. It was good information incase we need to go out with a wet setting on Sunday. Looks like the days testing I had was good but the conditions today were not the same, it’s not the heat it’s the humidity that changes the grip on the track so we must look to see what we can improve here.” Commented the former WorldSBK champion. When pressed about the differences on his Aprilia RSV RF from his last outing in Misano the Italian continued jokingly “the fairing and the decals, this one has Sepang circuit on it. All the rest of the bike is the same.”

Chaz Davies – 2^nd overall, fastest in FP2: “It could have been a lot worse, we could have been on track during the torrential thunderstorm that we had a bit earlier but actually it was a question of just not wasting tyres so we re-used tyres from FP1 to do the lap in FP2. In terms of where we are compared to Aprilia, we aren’t too far which is great testament to the work by Ducati over the last 12 months. I’m pretty happy. We are close to Max and I am positive, my ideal lap is as fast as I managed on a qualifying tyre 12 months ago. It’s a shame that we are only flying half the flag with Davide absent, and I’m sure everyone in the team wishes he was here. For myself I am pleased of course to arrive here after Laguna and it’s good to see the team with little smiles of satisfaction but this is another race.” With times seemingly so close wet or dry, we then challenged Chaz about the potential run into turn 1 on Sunday and if he May treat Max Biaggi a little differently to his other rivals. The Welshman continued “No not really, it’s another rider. I respect Max a lot and what he has achieved but testing or racing you have to be prepared to mix it.”

Jonathan Rea – 3^rd overall: “We had some problems with the bike this morning which meant I was in the box for 20 minutes and we couldn’t make any changes to the electronics but nevertheless we made a good time at the end of FP1. We have some things to try in the morning so I hope that it isn’t wet.” Looking at the overall championship standings, Rea could mathematically clinch the title on Sunday. WorldSBK asked him how he would attack Sunday’s two races and if two podiums would be ok. “Hell yeak!” Rea continued. “Tom has been strong of late so in terms of the championship it will be tough to wrap it up here. We will work hard ahead of Superpole and try some things in both sessions tomorrow before qualifying to be in the best position for the races.”

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