Front Row Start For Red Bull Honda
Red Bull Honda rider Eugene Laverty qualified in a superb second place at Thruxton circuit today (16 April) and starts the third round of the British Supersport Championship from the front row.

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Red Bull Honda rider Eugene Laverty qualified in a superb second place at Thruxton circuit today (16 April) and starts the third round of the British Supersport Championship from the front row. Laverty ended his first qualifying session in fifth position aboard the Dunlop-shod Honda CBR600RR. The 19-year-old managed to improve on this in the second forty-minute session by claiming the fastest time, despite the windier conditions. The Red Bull Honda rider from Toomebridge recorded a fabulous lap time of 1m16.996s, a mere 0.009s shy of the pole-sitter, who set the fastest ever Supersport lap around the 2.35-mile circuit in the first session. Meanwhile, Red Bull Honda Superbike rider Jonathan Rea qualified his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade in eighth. The incident-packed Audi Performance qualifying session was red-flagged twice and the pace was such that the fastest-ever lap on two wheels around the circuit was set. The 19-year-old Louth-based rider, who starts both of tomorrow’s 22-lap races from row three of the grid, was holding sixth place aboard his Dunlop-shod machine for much of the session but was bumped down to eighth with just a couple of minutes to go and, unfortunately, was on a fast lap when the session was red-flagged with just over one minute remaining. Jonathan Rea: “I’m happy enough. I just never got up to speed in that qualifying session but it should be better in the race. A lot of people put qualifiers on in the last few laps and went past me. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the bike to accommodate the tyres going off which is just the nature of the circuit. Hopefully I can string a couple of good races together and come away with two top ten finishes.” Eugene Laverty: “The second session was a lot more windy than the first and that’s why no-one really improved on this morning’s times. I didn’t think I would improve but we put in a hard race tyre and I went a bit quicker, I nearly had pole but I got caught up with a back marker. Our race set up is better than ever so I’m after my first race win tomorrow.” Red Bull Honda Team Manager Havier Beltran: “Jonathan is confident with his race set-up and did a good qualifying time in that field. We’re looking forward to tomorrow for two good races and some good weather. We’ve made some good steps in the last two rounds and we’re set to continue that. Eugene has scored his first-ever front row start this year so we’re really pleased with that. He’s been working really hard on race set-up and I think it will pay off for him tomorrow. He’s probably the strongest rider out there on race rubber.” Supersport Qualifying 1, Leon Camier (Honda) 1m16.987s, 2, Eugene Laverty (Red Bull Honda) +0.009s, 3, Stuart Easton (Ducati) +0.370s, 4, Cal Crutchlow (Honda) +0.423s, 5, Dennis Hobbs (Honda) +0.525s, 6, Tom Sykes (Suzuki) +0.625s, 7, Steve Plater (Yamaha) +0.715s, 8, Jamie Robinson (Honda) +0.909s, 9, Steven Neate (Honda) +1.050s, 10, Martin Jessopp (Ducati) +1.089s. Superbike Qualifying 1, Leon Haslam (Ducati) 1m14.626s, 2, Karl Harris (Honda) +0.559s, 3, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) +0.593s, 4, Dean Thomas (Kawasaki) +0.871s, 5, James Haydon (Suzuki) +0.969s, 6, Michael Rutter (Honda) +1.115s, 7, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +1.149s, 8, Jonathan Rea (Red Bull Honda) +1.184s, 9, Shane Byrne (Suzuki) +1.514s, 10, Jon Kirkham (Suzuki) +1.740s. The first 22-lap British Superbike race takes place at 13.30, with race two at 16.15 and the British Supersport race at 12.40. The ITV1 broadcast window is 15.00 to 17.00.
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