Sylvain Guintoli will start tomorrow’s two ninth-round World Superbike championship races from row three on the grid after setting the ninth fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole at Laguna Seca in the USA.

The 33-year-old French rider found an expected better lap time with Pirelli’s qualifying tyre in his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machine in today’s final qualifying shoot-out, but feels that there is still work to do to improve his overall pace and unlock performance potential for tomorrow’s two 25-lap races.

Guintoli has benefited from minor chassis adjustments and an upgrade in engine management software over the last two days of free practice at the 3.61km Laguna Seca circuit and is aiming for two strong results tomorrow.

Visiting the demanding Lagaun Seca circuit for the first time, Pata Honda team-mate, Michael van der Mark, will start both races from the fifth row of the grid. The 22-year-old Dutch rider struggled for a positive front-end feeling throughout yesterday’s practice sessions but a different front tyre choice improved his feeling today.



Sylvain Guintoli - P9, 1m23.406s

This afternoon we lacked a lot of grip and, to be honest, I think I got most of what the CBR was able to give me. I made a tiny mistake on my fast lap but it felt a lot faster than it actually shows on the time sheets. So we’re still missing some speed but I’ve done my best and don’t think I could have done much more. We’re still planning to try a couple of things tomorrow morning and try to find some forward steps to get a little more for the races. We still have to carry on working and that’s what we will keep doing to find the improvements we need.

Michael van der Mark - P15, 1m24.461s 

I’m still really enjoying riding this new track but obviously we need to find some more pace to be competitive in the races tomorrow. We were able to improve things a little when we used a different front tyre, but there is still a lot of work to do, of course. The guys will work through everything tonight and I’m sure there will be some things to try in warm-up. The position is not great right now but it’s awesome to ride here so I’ll try to enjoy myself with a couple of strong races tomorrow.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator 

Michael has not had an easy day, especially with the front-end feeling and a lack of grip at the rear. In the end we put an SC2 in the front and that seems to be better and we’re making small improvements. We’re still a little behind though and that’s why he ended up 15th. With Sylvain we’ve been trying a lot of geometry settings and, in the end, we went back to Friday morning’s arrangement which offered the best compromise. He is also suffering rear grip issues but overall it’s not too bad. I think he can probably fight for top six placings tomorrow.
Qualifying positions  

1 Chaz Davies 1'22.101 GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 
2 Davide Giugliano 1'22.297 ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
3 Jordi Torres 1'22.414 ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
4 Tom Sykes 1'22.526 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Jonathan Rea 1'22.854 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Leon Haslam 1'22.991 GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils
7 Niccolo Canepa 1'23.256 ITA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
8 Alex Lowes 1'23.285 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 Sylvain Guintoli 1'23.406 FRA HONDA Pata Honda
10 Leon Camier 1'23.990 GBR MV AGUSTA MV Agusta Repart Corse
11 David Salom 1'23.998 ESP KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
12 Ayrton Badovini 1'24.663 ITA BMW JR Racing Team
13 Matteo Baiocco 1'24.146 DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Leandro Mercado 1'24.166 DUCATI BARNI Racing Team
15 Michael van der Mark 1'24.461 NED HONDA Pata Honda
16 Roman Ramos 1'24.619 ESP KAWASAKI Team Go Eleven
17 Randy de Puniet 1'24.771 FRA SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
18 Christophe Ponsson 1'25.485 KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
19 Gabor Rizmayer 1'26.489 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
20 Santiago Barragan 1'26.968 KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
21 Gianluca Vizziello 1'27.480 ITA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
22 Imre Toth 1'28.254 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth