Badovini gets his maiden pole in the rain at Nurburgring

Nurburgring (Germany), Saturday 31 August 2013 - Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) scored a long awaited Tissot-Superpole win today at the Nurburgring, bringing the 1199 R on the top slot of the grid for the second time this year, after Carlos Checa's performance in the first round of the season at Phillip Island. As drops of rain started to fall few minutes before the start, the Tissot-Superpole was held under wet rules, with two sessions of 20 minutes each. Badovini seemed very comfortable under this type of conditions and led both Superpole 1 and 2 for the joy of team owner Francis Batta and his squad.

The battle for the front row positions for tomorrow's two races was very close, and Badovini had to push hard to outperform fellow Italian Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GolBet), who was second at the flag ahead of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team). The Brit managed to get an encouraging result despite a crash he had, in the final minutes, at Turn 3.

Despite his usual confidence under rain conditions, Sykes' team mate Loris Baz was fourth ahead of Pata Honda duo of Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam. Even leader in qualifying Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GolBet), seventh, lost control of his bike during the second session, as well as ninth place Jules Cluzel who high-sided at the first turn while accelerating to exit the corner. Championship leader Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) finished between the two above-mentioned riders in eighth place.

A disappointing Superpole for the other factory Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty, who's going to start tomorrow's races from the fourth row of the grid, after finishing twelfth behind Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing Ducati) and Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki).

FIM WSBK