Portimao Saturday Qualifying
GeeBee
Karl Muggeridge, replacing the injured Ruben Xaus, made further progress today as he continued to re-familiarise himself with the Portimao circuit and his CBR1000RR. The 37-year-old Australian was 19th fastest today for fifth row qualifying slot.
Karl Muggeridge – P19 1m45.268s
It’s still a big job for me to get to grips with the bike and the tyres here. We made some progress today but it’s going to be tough to muscle the bike around here tomorrow. I don’t really have enough confidence yet in the bike so we’ll just have to work a little more tonight to bring that on. It’s still difficult to accelerate out of the corners properly but the entry has improved a lot, which is where I struggled big-time yesterday. I just need to work on getting off them now but it’s all right and we’ll keep chipping away tomorrow.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Karl is improving lap by lap so we hope tomorrow, with some more laps under his belt, that he can collect some points and enjoy his weekend with us.
2011 World Superbike championship, round 13 – Portimao, Portugal
Final qualifying results:
1 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Castrol Honda 1m41.712ss
2 Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati 1m41.951s
3 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Yamaha 1m42.173s
4 Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha 1m42.259s
5 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Ducati 1m42.627s
6 Jakub Smrz (CZE) Ducati 1m42.710s
19 Karl Muggeridge (AUS) Castrol Honda 1m45.268s
