Superbike: First and second row for Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri

The riders have been repeating for days that on a technical and demanding circuit like that of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola it is important to start from the front and get off to a good start: Aprilia has achieved its objective, taking the first and second row tomorrow.

In a second Superpole session fought to the end and on the edge of thousandths, Sylvain Guintoli somewhat surprisingly conquered second place on the grid, preceding Davide Guigliano by just one thousandth.
Marco Melandri instead took fifth place, immediately behind the other Ducati of Chaz Davies.

Having qualified for the decisive session, even in the last free practice before the Superpole, the two Aprilia riders never stopped working on their race pace, looking for the best set-up for tomorrow's races which promise to be extremely close, as evidenced by the extremely small gaps that separate the top of the class.

Concrete and effective as always, Sylvain Guintoli seemed more in the shadow of his teammate during the timed practice sessions: in reality he always worked from a race perspective without failing to attack in the Superpole which he led until a few minutes from the end.
“Another good Superpole for us, the starting position here is important given that it is a twisty track where it is difficult to overtake and it is necessary to be able to set your pace from the first laps” - said a satisfied Sylvain Guintoli after qualifying - “As always we worked hard for the race, but many other drivers did the same, so it promises to be a really interesting Sunday. I want to give my best for Aprilia, for my team, we are in Italy and this gives me an additional boost."

Marco Melandri was the protagonist of a positive two days of testing, which led him to find a good feeling with his RSV4.
Good sensations that Marco carried up to the decisive Superpole session: the gap contained in just 45 hundredths from first place testifies to the extreme balance between the leaders.

“The second row is ok, I'm gaining confidence in Superpole too. Even though I made some mistakes on the good lap, losing a couple of tenths, I am really satisfied with the result” - he declared Marco Melandri– “We are in a good moment, tomorrow it will be important to start from the front because there are more riders with a good pace. The races won't be easy for anyone, the real difference will be made after the tenth lap. As regards the race pace, we worked well, after a lot of effort we are ready to fight until the end."