ARAGON, SPAIN 02/04/2016 ROUND 3 OF THE WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP

The GRT Racing Team has tackled the third-round World Supersport Superpole today at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain. After finishing within the top 10 in the combined classification of yesterday’s two free practice sessions, Gino Rea automatically qualified for Superpole 2. The 26-year-old from London, England, was able to claim ninth place on the grid for tomorrow’s 16-lap encounter after logging in a time of 1’56.015. His teammate, Australia’s Aiden Wagner, made a significant step forward in terms of performance after the issues encountered yesterday and, with a 1’58.873 lap-time set in Superpole 1, he qualified in twenty-second place.
Rea: “Third row isn't too bad although I know we are capable of much more. We've had some small issues with vibrations and electronics that we are still trying to sort out. With the new qualifying format, we don't get as much track-time as we’d need so we are forced to evaluate new things during crucial sessions such as qualifying; this makes it hard to put together a quick lap. Despite that, we are reasonably happy and look forward to tomorrow’s warm up, as we need to try and improve further our package. The team is doing a great job and I'll be doing my best to deliver a strong result.”
Wagner: “We made an improvement this morning in FP3; the more I lap around Aragon the more I feel comfortable on the bike. The issues we had yesterday are now sorted thanks to the team and now we are moving in the right direction with the bike setup. I made a big mistake in qualifying by doing another lap before coming in for the new rear tyre. This meant that when I did get the new rear on I also got the chequered flag. That was my fault and I am sorry for this. Our sector times are looking really good though, except for the first split where I'm losing too much time. It’s now up to me to put the whole lap together in order to be faster. Twenty-second place on the grid is not the best but our pace is good so I’m looking forward to the race.”
The team’s technical director, Mirko Giansanti, is happy about today’s results.
“We can be happy with what Gino and Aiden were able to achieve today. In Superpole 2, Rea was able to finish with a ninth place, meaning he will start the race from the third row. I’m quite sure that with his race pace he’ll be able to stay with the front-runners. This is Aiden’s first weekend at Aragon and, after we managed to fix some issues, he managed to get up to speed and to lap reasonably fast. I’m sure they can make up several places tomorrow, so we can be confident ahead of the race.”