The remarkable run of pre-race success enjoyed by Kenan Sofuoglu in 2016 continued in the dry conditions of WorldSSP qualifying in Germany. He secured his fifth pole of 2016 and the 28th of his career. He now goes to extend his championship lead after Sunday’s race.
Starting from the second row, in fifth position after the Superpole, Randy Krummenacher and his crew made great improvements compared to day one. The Swiss rider expects even more improvements in his race set-up after analysing the data collected in both wet and dry conditions. Now Krummenacher’s mission on raceday is to cut into the points lead enjoyed by Sofuoglu, as the official Kawasaki riders currently sit 1-2 in the championship, with Kenan on 146 and Randy on 108.
After the disqualification of one of their rivals at the Misano round, a change in the pre-race championship scores now sees a reduction in the gap from first to second place in the championship.
After the long summer break some riders also had the complication of many of them not having tested at Lausitzring, or having raced there for many years. For Sofuoglu his recent track experience at the circuit has allowed him to make a strong start and just get faster, ending up completing Superpole more than half a second ahead of the next closest challenger.
Tomorrow’s race will take place at 11.20 and is scheduled for 19 laps of the 4.265km Lausitzring circuit.
Kenan Sofuoglu, stated: “I am happy and we are lucky. This morning it looked like it would rain all day but luckily the qualifying session was dry and we had been fast on the first day. I was not surprised then to do a good lap time in qualifying because we had already set a very fast time on Friday. I need to say a really big thanks to Kawasaki and the Puccetti Racing Team because months ago we did a test here and found a really good set-up. With this set-up I cannot say it is difficult to do good lap times. Our pace, times and set-up was nearly perfect. Tomorrow we hope for dry weather but it does not matter because in the wet we are also quite strong. I was third in the wet conditions this morning, in FP3. It is important that we get the maximum points from this weekend.”
Randy Krummenacher, stated: “Yesterday was very difficult and I had to learn the track a little. We struggled a lot with the feeling on the bike but we definitely made a step today. We are still missing a little bit but we are going to work very hard and analyse things very well. For sure tomorrow we will make another step to be ready to fight for the front. I have to say Kenan did a really great job and made a super, super fast lap today, but I am sure we will get closer again tomorrow. I got some confidence back in the wet conditions this morning and I feel quite well in both wet and dry conditions.”
ESS part-time rider (competing only at the European rounds of WorldSSP) Illia Mikhalchik (DS Junior Team Kawasaki) was 14th after Superpole, with another ESS competitor, Alessandro Zaccone (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) 15th. Kyle Ryde (Schmidt Racing Kawasaki placed 17th and yet another ESS participant, Axel Bassani (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) was 18th. Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) got himself to 24th on the grid, with Christian Gamarino (Team GOELEVEN Kawasaki) and Ondrej Jezek (Team GOELEVEN Kawasaki) just behind. Nacho Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) ended up 27th and Lachlan Epis (Response RE Racing Kawasaki) was 29th.