It was a case of ‘mission accomplished’ today for BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Marco Melandri, as he qualified his S 1000 RR on the all-important front row for tomorrow’s two Superbike World Championship races at Magny-Cours in France. His team-mate Leon Haslam is just one row behind – in seventh – despite riding while nursing a hand injury sustained in practice yesterday.

For this final round of the 2012 WSBK season, Melandri had already showed good form, even though he is bravely riding with cracked ribs from the heavy crash he suffered at the last round a fortnight ago in Portimão. Putting the pain to one side, Melandri had been the fastest rider on his RR in the two combined qualifying sessions prior to Superpole, with a best lap of 1:38.152.

In dry conditions this afternoon at the physically demanding French circuit, it was Leon Haslam who found himself in provisional pole early on in the first Superpole session. His time of 1:38.145 was certainly good enough to see him safely through to SP2, so he returned to the garage to watch the action unfold out on track. Despite a small excursion off the track while pushing hard, Melandri recovered to post a provisional front row time on his next flying lap.

Having both made it through to SP2, it was Marco who put in a great time of 1:37.685 to go second fastest in the early stages. This time was only bettered by two other riders throughout the remainder of the session, so Melandri finished SP2 in a strong P4, just in front of Leon in P5.

For the final 10-minute SP3 session of the year that would decide the all-important grid positions for tomorrow’s two races, Marco posted a provisional pole time of 1:37.792 halfway through the session, just moments before Carlos Checa put in the fastest lap of the weekend so far at 1:37.422. Then, true to form, Superpole specialist Tom Sykes went even faster – posting an untouchable time of 1:36.950 to claim his ninth pole position of 2012.

Despite this, Marco went marginally quicker than he had done earlier, with a time of 1:37.658 helping him to finish the session fourth fastest and – importantly – on the front row for tomorrow with a clear track in front of him. Leon’s time of 1:38.280 will see him start his final two races for BMW Motorrad Motorsport on the second row in seventh place.

With mixed weather conditions forecast for tomorrow, and the WSBK championship title race still to be decided, all results are still possible – setting the scene for an exciting climax to what has surely been the best WSBK season in recent memory.

Marco Melandri:

“Superpole was very good for me because my physical condition is not the best. To be on the front row is a big result for me. We could not expect that yesterday so for sure I am happy. I was struggling with the qualifying tyre because with the extra grip you can change directions faster but for me with my injury that was impossible. I am very happy about my RR, we worked well this weekend with the team. Tomorrow is going to be another difficult day. We have to wait and see what the weather will do. It looks like it is going to be wet. And we have to see how my physical condition will be. It is the end of the season and for one more time we will try our best. At this last round I hope to give another good result to BMW Motorrad.”

Leon Haslam:

“Most of the year we have struggled with the qualifying tyres. With my first qualifier in SP2 I had massive issues, so I decided to not waste any time as I needed to make sure I got into the top eight. For this reason, I used the other qualifying tyre, and with it we managed to get into Superpole 3.

“As a result I had no qualifying tyre left, so it was difficult but I am happy with the second row position achieved. Our race pace is good and I think for tomorrow the weather might take a turn, so we really need to try and anticipate what might happen. If it is going to be similar to the past two days then I am feeling pretty confident with it all.”

Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations):

“For both riders it was again a good Superpole. Our target is always to start from the first two rows and we achieved that once more. This is important for tomorrow’s races. Both riders have improved their feeling for the bike. They are able to lap faster and have a clear plan for tomorrow’s races.

“Leon has done a good job. In practice, he has improved his performance and we are sure that he will start well from the second row and fight with the top guys. Marco feels a little bit better compared to yesterday but it will be a tough challenge for him to ride two races of 23 laps. He is fast on a flying lap but we know that it will be difficult for him to keep the pace for a race distance. But we are confident that he will do a good race because he feels more comfortable on the bike and he is a strong guy. Overall we are looking forward to tomorrow.”

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