PJ Jacobsen has claimed his third front-row start of the season by finishing today’s Superpole 2 of the FIM Supersport World Championship at Donington Park in second place. The 22-year-old American equalled his best qualifying result of 2016, which was scored at the opening round at Phillip Island exactly three months ago.
Between this morning’s free practice 3 and the early afternoon’s Superpole 2 session, Jacobsen was able to complete a good number of laps onboard his Honda CBR600RR #2 machine, showing once again great speed and consistency under East Midland’s blue skies. His 1’30.522 lap-time in the end was only 0.224 seconds shy of pole position.
The seventh World Supersport race of the season will get underway tomorrow at noon (GMT+1) and will be contested over a 20-lap distance.
Patrick Jacobsen 2
2nd/1’30.552
Things went pretty well today in qualifying. The time I was able to put together was quite a good one and I knew it would put me on the front row. I’m happy for that and also for the team, as everyone is working so hard to make sure I have the best possible bike. The Honda CBR600RR feels very well and I have a very competitive pace, so tomorrow it will be all about getting a good start, trying to stay near the front while saving the tyres and then see what happens in the final laps.
Pieter Breddels
Technical Manager
We did some fine tuning this morning in FP3: basically we went back to the front-fork settings of free practice 1 while making some rear-suspension adjustments, which gave PJ some more stability under braking. He was very happy with the set-up of the bike and was able to ride it the way he likes. I think we are in the right position for tomorrow’s race; the pace is there and it’s very good, so I think PJ can challenge for the podium, if not for the win.
