Hot-shot Haslam aims to overhaul champ Checa

Mar 27 2011 by Zoe Burn, Sunday Sun

BRITAIN’S Leon Haslam fired a warning shot to polesitter Carlos Checa last night as he vowed: “I will be having a go if I’m up there.”

The Derbyshire star qualified second on the grid for today’s two World Superbike Championship races at Donington Park, after being pipped by the speedy Spaniard in yesterday’s final Superpole session.

Checa and the Althea Racing Ducati team had been working overnight on small changes to the bike, which was clear during yesterday’s earlier sessions as the championship leader picked up where he left off in Australia last month.

He shot straight to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1.28:099.

And it was more of the same when it really mattered yesterday afternoon, as Checa sealed his second pole in a row at a cold, grey and windy Donington Park.

But if Haslam has his way, Checa will have his work cut out.

The BMW Motorrad Motorsport rider has been riding on the ragged edge all weekend and had looked on course to take pole at one point.

Hailing from nearby, Haslam’s fans were in abundance yesterday as he looked set for pole at one point.

Taking a well deserved third place on the grid today is fellow Brit Tom Sykes, who was delighted to grab a front row start on the Kawasaki World Superbike Team machine.

The next best-placed Brit was Alitalia Aprilia’s Leon Camier, who lines up seventh ahead of Castrol Honda’s Jonathan Rea.

Eugene Laverty will start from 13th spot after crashing his official Yamaha World Superbike machine on his outlap at the start of the firs Superpole session at Craner Curves.

The bike clipped his legs as it landed and he was lucky to avoid further injury.

He made it back to the garage in time to take his spare bike out for the final four minutes.

However, he was only able to squeeze two fast laps in and was unable to move up the order further meaning he was knocked out in the first wave of the shoot-out.

ZOE BURN

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP DONINGTON PARK, TOP 10 QUALIFYING POSITIONS: 1. Carlos Checa, Ducati, 1.28:099, 2. Leon Haslam, BMW, 1.28:365, 3. Tom Sykes, Kawasaki, 1.28:556, 4. Jakub Smrz, Ducati, 1.28:561, 5. Noriyuki Haga, Aprilia, 1.28:674, 6. Max Biaggi, Aprilia, 1.28:702, 7. Leon Camier, Aprilia, 1.28:737, 8. Jonathan Rea, Honda, 1.29:514, 9. Marco Melandri, Yamaha, 1.28:803, 10. Troy Corser, BMW, 1.28:836.