The Samsung Honda team suffered a challenging qualifying session in drying conditions at Thruxton with Jon Kirkham and Michael Laverty starting tomorrow’s opening race from ninth and thirteenth position respectively.

Kirkham had been steadily building during the session and qualified for the final top ten Q3 stage however he was unable to maximise the different tyre and will start from the third row in ninth. Laverty meanwhile encountered traffic on his fastest lap which dashed his chances of qualifying for the Q3 session. Both riders do however feel confident of the pace of the Samsung Honda and are prepared to battle during tomorrow’s two races.

Michael Laverty:

“It was another disappointing qualifying for me and I was disappointed that we are starting from the fourth row. I was up after the first split but as I came into the chicane there were some riders on their in laps and I had to roll off. It was frustrating but I was trying to be careful and building up to faster laps in those conditions and didn’t want to make a costly mistake. The sun is coming back tomorrow though and we should be up there in the race.”

Jon Kirkham:

“I was happy to make it through to Q3 as the conditions kept changing out there but I tried the SC0 for the first time and I didn’t expect it to be so grippy straight away and I lost the opportunity really. I think we have a good pace for the race so we just need to get off the line and see what we can do from there.”

In Superstock 1000, Jason O'Halloran qualified on the front row in fourth place after the first qualifying session determined the grid positions as the wet conditions set in for Saturday afternoon’s session.

Jason O’Halloran:

“A front row start is what we need as we know we have a good race pace for tomorrow. Hopefully then it will be dry and we should have a good race, we just need to get a good start.”

Havier Beltran, Team Manager:

“They were testing conditions today and the track dried very quickly despite starting wet. Michael still needs to feel a little more comfortable with the front end and I am sure he will with some final changes in warm up tomorrow. Jon was there or thereabouts for most of the session but he hadn’t tried the SC0 tyre and he couldn’t believe the grip but he knows he should have pushed harder to begin with and then in the last stages he dropped down the order. Both riders though are confident of a good race tomorrow in what we are expecting to be dry conditions. Jason has been happy and it is good to see the Samsung Honda starting from the front row.”

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