Courtesy of KRT – Kawasaki Racing Team
Kawasaki Puccetti Racing competitor Lucas Mahias was seventh in the Motorland Aragon WorldSSP Superpole qualifying session, with his fellow Puccetti rider Hikari Okubo ninth.
Having spent the first two days of track
action in Spain improving his machine set-up, and his overall riding
position, 2017 World Champion Mahias has made some important steps, all
of which should count in his favour not only at this round, but in the
future.
Without the help of a slipstream from another rider down
the long back straight at Aragon, Mahias set a lap time of 1’54.446.
This single lap pace was only 0.474 seconds behind the pole position
rider.
Trying possibly a little too hard in Superpole, Okubo
finished up ninth after setting a personal best lap of 1’54.894. He will
start from the same third row of the grid as his team-mate Mahias for
the 16-lap contest.
Sunday’s race at the 5.077km long circuit
in the North East of Spain will be the third of the 12 round season, and
will begin at 12.15 local time.
Lucas Mahias stated: “My lap
time is not bad because I rode alone and I did not have any slipstream
on the long straight. For me you can lose three tenths there, so if you
take three tenths from my lap time, we would be in the top three or four
positions. Sure, I am a little bit disappointed because we worked well,
the position on the bike is good, but the position on the grid is
seventh. I am taking only the positive points away from today. I have
started to go fast riding alone and have a good feeling. This is the
most important thing for the rest of the season. It is possible to
overtake in the race because I am fast in the small corners and maybe
with the slipstream of some others it will be possible to get to the
leading group.”
Hikari Okubo, stated: “I think today maybe I was
thinking too much about qualifying, and maybe being too aggressive. I
understand this now so I will relax tonight and change the approach
tomorrow. The qualifying itself was OK and my feeling on the bike was
not so bad. If I get a good start and a good track position in the first
or second lap I think it is possible to get on the podium in the race.”
Ayrton Badovini (Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) qualified 11th in Superpole, with his new team-mate Kyle Smith in 13th place first time out on the Kawasaki. Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team Kawasaki) was 19th in Superpole and Nacho Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) 22nd. Gaetan Matern (Flembbo Leader Team Kawasaki), in his first WorldSSP weekend, was 25th.
Rob Hartog (Team Hartog – Against Cancer Kawasaki) has had to withdraw
from the Motorland race due to an old wrist injury, and has just
undergone successful surgery in Spain.