Leon Haslam and Michel Fabrizio, who is replacing the injured Jonathan Rea, finished in ninth and tenth places respectively at Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey this afternoon after the opening qualifying for Sunday’s two 11th-round World Superbike championship races.

The 5.340km circuit on the Asian side of Istanbul is new to many SBK riders and Haslam and Fabrizio spent this morning’s extended free practice session familiarizing themselves with its combination of corners and marked elevation changes.

As this afternoon’s qualifying session began, both Pata Honda riders began to attack the circuit more but will require tomorrow’s qualifying and free practice session to fine-tune the settings on their Honda CBR1000RR machines for Sunday’s two 18-lap races.

Leon Haslam – P9 1m57.699s

I’m really enjoying this new track. It was a little dusty first thing and there wasn’t much grip out there but it was getting better this afternoon. I felt pretty good this morning and got into a good rhythm but, when I went out this afternoon, we’d gone the wrong way with the setting. It was such that we couldn’t change back so we tried a few things and gathered some data and that was it. My quickest lap was the second one out so we were kind of resigned to it. We’ve got a good plan for tomorrow though, so I’m looking forward to going through it all tonight and getting out there again in the morning.

Michel Fabrizio – P10 1m58.340s

I am quite happy. The circuit is fantastic but I don’t have much feeling for it yet – the layout is quite difficult but I am enjoying riding it and learning more with each lap. It’s also step-by-step with the bike. I haven’t really changed anything with the bike yet. This morning I was three seconds from the front, now it’s two. Tomorrow morning, hopefully one, and then we are close! The bike is very good but I don’t want to upset Jonathan with many changes yet!

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

We lost quite a lot of time this morning with Michel’s bike with some technical issues, which should not have been the case. He took it fairly easy this morning and we asked him to push on a bit until this afternoon. There are some issues with the setting now that we need to work on – the front end, for example, and we need to find some more rear grip. All in all though, it was a solid day and we’ll hope for another one tomorrow! It looked quite promising for Leon for most of the day and he was always in the group of fastest riders. Unfortunately, he ended up ninth and, although he’s close to the riders immediately in front, we’d hoped to fine four tenths with some new tyres. That didn’t happen, but we’re finding our way with some issues he had this afternoon so that should improve the bike in order for him to improve the lap time tomorrow.


2013 World Superbike championship, round 11 – Istanbul Park, Turkey

First qualifying results:

1 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Aprilia 1m56.190s
2 Marco Melandri (ITA) BMW 1m56.749s
3 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia 1m56.949s
4 Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki 1m57.170s
5 Toni Elias (ESP) Aprilia 1m57.206s
6 Jules Cluzel (FRA) Suzuki 1m57.222s
7 Chaz Davies (GBR) BMW 1m57.391s
8 Davide Giugliano (ITA) Aprilia 1m57.649s
9 Leon Haslam (GBR) Pata Honda 1m57.699s
10 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Pata Honda 1m58.340s

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