Pensavalle gets season best at Mondello.

There were mixed fortunes for M.P. Racing's Michael Pensavalle at Mondello Park in the fifth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Cup.

This was another new circuit for him to learn, so Friday practice was important to get in as many laps as possible.

Once again disaster struck as the chain snapped on his number one bike after only seven laps into first practice. He then went out again on his spare bike, which only has a standard engine, and managed to go faster as the bike was set up differently and handled better.

The team changed the number one bike to the same settings and second practice went well. Afterwards he said; "I think the Mondello Circuit is ace!" he claimed. "It has a lot of corners but I still really like it, and it was great to be able to get out on track again after my number one bike snapped the chain."

Unfortunately Michael crashed after a few laps in first qualifying when he lost the front end, but he was unhurt, so once again he was able to go out on his spare bike, but this unfortunately kept cutting out sporadically.

The team repaired his race bike and spare bike in time for second qualifying and things went very well this time, as he qualified in 27th place, his best qualifying position so far.

"I'm really please with my qualifying time and position, especially on a track I've never ridden before," he commented, "and I'm not on the back row of the grid for the first time, either!"

For the first race the team decided to use hard compound tyres. The race started well with Michael making one of his 'demon' starts, but by lap eleven the tyres lost grip and he crashed out of the race.

With the bike repaired again, and with softer compound tyres fitted, Michael was determined to do better in the second race.

Once again he made an excellent start and he rode really well throughout the race to finish in 21st place overall, his best so far, and fourth in the privateer's Cup.

"For the first race we took a gamble on hard tyres which didn't work out and I lost the front end, crashing into the gravel," commented Pensavalle. "I was a bit stiff for the second race after two crashes, but with softer tyres the bike was handling almost perfectly. I enjoyed that race and I'm well pleased with my finishing position. We made some progress this weekend and now I'm really looking forward to the next round at Croft."

Team Principal Corrado Pensavalle was pleased a difficult weekend ended with good progress.

"This has been a bit of an up and down weekend, but at least it ended on a high with Michael doing so well in the second race," he said. "The progress we made this weekend with the set up of the bike we can carry forward to the next round and then hopefully progress some more in the races."