Buttle for the champion title from the first line

SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Istanbul, Turkey

11 stage, 13 – 15 September 2013

Saturday, 14 September

The weather in Istanbul was not so good in the night from Friday to Saturday was cold and it started to rain. That was the reason to stop the  free practice of the WSS moving the hour. When the sun appeared in the Intercity Istanbul Park the pit lane was opened on 20 minutes.

Riders of the WSS could do just few laps on the track and it was enough for engineers of the Mahi Racing Team India to get wright settings and choose soft Pirelli tyres. However, the Yakhnich Motorsport engineers could do it yesterday. Inspired by the support of tribunes Kenan Sofuoglu speed up and could cross the time 2'00 given by Lowes on Friday. 

 

During the qualifications on dry but cold asphalt, Sam Lowes as expected, began to improve lap times. Sofuoglu joined in the middle of the session. Both riders easily stepped over 1'59. Sam even got 1'58, and was prepared to improve in the next turn, but was stopped by the dense traffic and then within 4 minutes before the end - with the red flag (due to the crash of Foret in the 12th turn). During the resume session, Sam managed to take just one fastest lap in 1'58"762. Kenan Sofuoglu was in a similar situation but he could made the faster lap. In the end, main rivals for the title of the champion 2013 will meet face to face tomorrow.

In the Yakhnich Motorsport garage all engineers worked hard with Leonov's bike which was broken on Friday. The work was done and during the practice Leonov could ride in the TOP-10 and even got the seventh position. Before the red flag some riders could improve their time, 14 riders were in a second and Vladimir got the 12th position.

Sam Lowes: "Today I was not so happy as Sofuoglu could go around me and the traffic was dense and couldn't  do anything. Tomorrow will be the hard day as Sofuoglu has found his rhythm".

Vladimir Leonov: "Today I felt better with my bike. I could return 11 positions and got very good pace. Hope tomorrow will be lucky day and I will try to finish on the high position".