Biaggi Nails Down Brno Pole
Cycle News Staff | July 9, 2011
It seems hard to believe that a man with a World Superbike Championship, 15 wins and 57 podiums could only have three pole positions, but that’s the case with Max Biaggi as the Italian earned just the fourth pole of his World Superbike career today at the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic.Biaggi rode the factory Aprilia to a best a lap of 1:58.58 in Superpole 3 to nail down his second pole of the season and his first since Monza on May 5. Biaggi, who was fourth in Superpole 1 and Superpole 2, held off fellow Italian Marco Melandri by .221 of a second when it counted most, the Yamaha factory rider coming up short in his attempt to earn his second straight pole position in his rookie season of World Superbike racing.
Championship leader Carlos Checa ended up third, .328 of a second behind Biaggi. Checa will start tomorrow’s two races with a 43-point lead on Biaggi in the series after eight rounds and 16 races.Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty will fill the front row for tomorrow’s races, putting the top four me in the championship together on row one.Row two will be headed by crowd favorite Jakub Smrz, the Czech rider ending up fifth and almost a second off Biaggi’s best. The Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati rider will be joined on the second row by Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio, Biaggi’s Aprilia teammate Leon Camier (who suffered a crash in Superpole 1, but rebounded to make the cut) and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.For the second race in a row, BMW’s Leon Camier failed to advance out of the first Superpole session. He’ll line up 13th on the grid as the second fastest BMW with Ayrton Badovini again out qualified the Brit with the Italian ending up ninth on his BMW Italia S1000 RR.Final Qualifying1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 1:58.580
2. Marco Melandri (Yamaha) 1:58.801
3. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1:58.908
4. Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) 1:59.055
5. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) 1:59.541
6. Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki) 1:59.908
7. Leon Camier (Aprilia) 1:59.925
8. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 2:00.303
9. Ayrton Badovini (BMW) 1:59.784
10. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) 1:59.800
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