Rea gets the nod on Checa for Friday top slot
Friday, 23 September 2011 15:08 GMT
Rea gets the nod on Checa for Friday top slot
Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) was the man to watch in Friday's first qualifying session at Imola as the Northern Irishman powered to a time of 1 minute 48.241 seconds, just a fraction away from the 2010 best lap set by Carlos Checa. There wasn't much in it however as the Althea Racing Ducati man, last year's double winner and favourite for this year's title, finished second just a tenth away. For the first time this season Rea was running a ride-by-wire throttle control system on his Honda machine.
Third place went to Britain's Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motosports), who took his S 1000 RR close to the top after looking competitive right throughout the hour. Leon was followed home in fourth by Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare), who also looked at ease on the newly-resurfaced Imola track.
Fifth was the other title contender Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike), ahead of Nurburgring winner and last year's Imola poleman Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike), while Frenchmen Sylvian Guintoli (Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati) and Maxime Berger (Supersonic Ducati) completed the provisional second row.
