In the end, everything fell into place again for Ilya Mikhalchik (alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW). The Ukrainian clocked an incredible lap time on the final lap of the final qualifying session at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder.
In doing so, he snatched pole position from his teammate Julian Puffe. To sum it up in the words of the 22-year-old from Kyiv: “Things are going well…”
If he were to add another victory now, Mikhalchik would also take the lead in the overall standings.
Julian Puffe was defeated in qualifying by a margin of 0.023 seconds.
Ricardo Brink (SWPN, Yamaha) will start from third place on the front row tomorrow. Erwan Nigon (Weber Motos, Kawasaki) will lead the second row. The Frenchman secured his spot with the fastest time from the first practice session; in the second session, he was forced to retire after just three laps due to an oil leak. The oil spilled onto the track, and the session had to be interrupted while the track was cleaned.
Kawasaki is lucky to have an employee like Nigon. Because one thing is certain: the 35-year-old is “old school.” If something on the motorcycle isn’t working as usual, he knows how to fix it himself. If the automatic transmission were to fail, he’d instinctively reach for the clutch lever.
And on Sundays before the race, Nigon stands in front of his Kawasaki, takes it as it is at that moment, and tries to win with it.
Alongside Nigon, Pepin Bijsterbosch (Team Dutch Comfort Houses, BMW) and guest rider Dominic Vincon (EGS Moto Racing) will line up on the grid. Toni Finsterbusch (Mayer Suzuki), starting from seventh on the grid, will once again be riding the fastest GSX-R 1000.
Alessandro “Alex” Polita is automatically the best Honda rider—simply because he’s the only one. He wasn’t able to secure a spot in the top ten on the grid. For the Italian on the Holzhauer Honda, the whole experience at Zolder was completely new territory. In free practice, he had 36 laps to get used to the track. It’s well known that the Honda is far from being the latest model. Nevertheless, Polita is determined to get the most out of it. Alex Polita is a real asset to the HRP-Honda team and a fan favorite back home as well. Honda Italy will soon be shooting a promotional video with him.