Lorenzo Zanetti finished as the third fastest rider after today’s opening free practice sessions at Imola in Italy for round four of the World Supersport championship.
His Pata Honda team-mate, Michael van der Mark, finished fourth fastest this afternoon at the 4.936km Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, just two hundredths of a second behind the Italian.
Riding at his ‘home’ circuit, Zanetti was fast out of the blocks in this morning’s opening session, finishing with the third quickest time, while van der Mark, fresh from his debut World Supersport victory at his own home round at Assen in the Netherlands two weeks ago, was third.
Both Pata Honda riders are confident of further improvements to the settings of their Honda CBR600RR machines in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions and are targeting front row starts for Sunday’s 17-lap race.
Lorenzo Zanetti – 3rd
I think I arrived here with a good motivation after Assen. I said to my crew yesterday that I wanted to start at a good level and try a race simulation immediately because I’m focused and concentrating on my home race. I want to fight for a win here because Michael won his own home race at Assen and I want to try the same here! Of course, it’s difficult because there are always four or five very fast riders at the front but I’m really motivated and I started fast this morning in first place. I improved my time this afternoon on an old tyre– it had ten laps on it already, and I had to pass a slower rider on my fast lap so I think I could have been higher. But anyway, I have a really good rhythm and tomorrow I will just concentrate on qualifying on the front row which is really important for t he race.
Michael van der Mark – 4th
I’m satisfied with today, although we struggled a bit with the set-up. In the end I think the lap time isn’t that bad and the pace is quite OK. Tomorrow we must improve some areas on the bike and I must improve some lines in certain corners but we can’t complain at the end of the first day. We know it’s a difficult track for us but, with Lorenzo third and me fourth, I think we can be really happy so far.
Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator
Lorenzo was really fast straight out of the box this morning. This afternoon he also continued to be one of the fastest guys on track, finishing in third position. We hardly changed the bike for him so we hope he can continue like this tomorrow. Michael wasn’t completely happy first thing so we made some small changes which worked out well this afternoon. He got a comfortable fourth position and he had a pretty good day, too.
Free Practice Results
| 1 | Kenan Sofuoglu | 1m51.744s | TUR | KAWASAKI | MAHI Racing Team India |
| 2 | Kev Coghlan | 1m52.090s | GBR | YAMAHA | DMC Panavto-Yamaha |
| 3 | Lorenzo Zanetti | 1m52.147s | ITA | HONDA | Pata Honda World Supersport Team |
| 4 | Michael van der Mark | 1m52.168s | NED | HONDA | Pata Honda World Supersport Team |
| 5 | Jules Cluzel | 1m52.292s | FRA | MV | MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport |
| 6 | Florian Marino | 1m52.461s | FRA | KAWASAKI | Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres |
| 7 | Roberto Tamburini | 1m52.741s | ITA | KAWASAKI | San Carlo Puccetti Racing |
| 8 | Jack Kennedy | 1m52.768s | IRL | HONDA | CIA Insurance Honda |
| 9 | Marco Bussolotti | 1m52.855s | ITA | HONDA | Team Lorini |
| 10 | Patrick Jacobson | 1m52.868s | USA | KAWASAKI | Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres |
