For the second time in succession, BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Leon Haslam has qualified on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s two races at the Moscow Raceway circuit in Russia. Matching his Superpole qualifying performance from Silverstone three weeks ago, the 29-year-old Brit qualified fourth fastest on his BMW S 1000 RR after a tense Superpole session at the 3.9 km Russian track. Team-mate Marco Melandri fought hard to make it through all three sessions and finally onto the second row, where he will start one place behind Haslam after finishing up fifth fastest.

At this historic 11th round of this year’s WSBK series – the inaugural round at this spectacular new circuit located 100 km west of the Russian capital – the BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders knew that today’s Superpole session would not be easy. Despite a successful official test earlier this week, both riders had struggled with set-up on softer tyres during practice and qualifying yesterday morning.

However, having both safely qualified for participation in Superpole after second qualifying, both riders were ready to battle for grid positions in this afternoon’s dry Superpole session, where Haslam set the sixth fastest time and Melandri was seventh fastest in the free practice prior to the all-important Superpole eliminator.

Both RR riders then went on to make it safely through SP1, with Leon finishing in seventh and Marco in 11th. As the grid narrowed from 16 to 12 riders for SP2, things were a little more nail-biting – especially for championship contender Melandri, who spent much of the session in the ‘relegation zone’, despite posting more laps than any other rider. With just three minutes remaining, and still outside the top 8, Marco pushed hard to post a lap of 1:35.209 – his fastest of the weekend so far – which put him in eighth place and through to SP3.

By contrast, team-mate Haslam only needed two laps of this session to post a time of 1:35.089 on a qualifier tyre, which was quick enough for him to safely qualify for SP3. He spent much of the remainder of this session in the team garage, watching the action unfold out on track.

SP3 saw the remaining eight riders battling for final positions on the front two rows of the grid. On a qualifier tyre, Leon posted a time of 1:35.170 on his first flying lap, which was good enough to guarantee him a front row slot, as only three riders were able to better his time in the final session. Despite again staying out on track for the majority of this session, Melandri wasn’t able to squeeze onto the front row on his RR and had to settle for the fifth fastest time – and a starting slot at the head of the second row for tomorrow’s two races.

With Carlos Checa securing his ninth career pole position, in front of Tom Sykes, Eugene Laverty and Leon, this means that there will be four different manufacturers occupying the front row of the grid at the Moscow Raceway tomorrow.

Leon Haslam:

“I am really pleased. It is always nice to be on the front row of the grid, and especially at Moscow where the first part of the track is quite twisty. Thanks to the boys who did a great job. It was hard work with the soft tyre. We did similar lap times on the soft tyre as with the race tyre, which is good for tomorrow. We made some good progress over the weekend and for me, we just need to do some fine tuning for the race and we can be strong. It will be difficult to overtake, but there is no one in front of me I don’t think I can’t beat. Carlos has a fast pace but he has one of the slowest bikes on the straight. Hopefully I can get in front of him and hold him up in the bits where he is strong and then pull away in the sections where I am fast.”

Marco Melandri:

“I am very happy because honestly I was pretty worried about qualifying. The good thing is that I have the feeling that we are in a quite good shape for the race. The negative thing is that we were still struggling with the soft tyres. It was difficult to make improvements. So for me to qualify for the second row was the best I could hope for and I am happy. A big thank you to my team. They really did an incredible job today. Now I hope to have a dry race tomorrow.”

Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations):

“We managed the Superpole very well because we were worried about our performance with the soft tyre. For some reason it does not work well with the characteristics of our machine. We were worried that we would throw away the good job done so far due to the difficulties with the soft tyre and the consequent grid position. But both crews managed their issues and qualified on the first and second row which is always our target. Especially on a small and tight track like this where overtaking will be difficult. I am confident for tomorrow’s races because we have shown that with race tyres our pace is competitive.”

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