Chili bounces back in Germany

Pierfrancesco Chili bounced back from his Monza heartache to set the pace in qualifying for this weekend’s World Superbike round at Oschersleben in Germany.

The Italian entered his home round leading the championship but a mechanical failure followed by an accident meant he left Monza without adding a single point to his tally.

That has left him on the back foot in the title race but the PSG Ducati rider responded with a lap of one minute, 28.740 seconds in first qualifying today.

Australian Steve Martin took his DFX Ducati to second spot, just over a 10th of a second behind Chili, while Noriyuki Haga was third for Renegade Ducati.

Troy Corser performed superbly to claim a provisional front row spot for Carl Fogarty’s Foggy Petronas Racing team.

The Australian former world champion was just over a quarter of a second slower than Chili on a twisty Oschersleben track which should suit his Petronas FP1 bike.

Championship leader Regis Laconi was fifth with his Ducati Fila team-mate James Toseland, from Sheffield, ninth.

Derbyshire’s Leon Haslam was 10th, although he was close to Chili as a second separated the top 12 riders.

Chris Walker, from Nottingham, ended the session 14th, just over a second off the pace.