FIM Superbike World Championship Nurburgring, Germany September 2 Qualifying Session One Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Max BIAGGI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:55.524 2. Carlos CHECA, Spain (Ducati 1098R), 1:55.673 3. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:55.819 4. Michel FABRIZIO, Italy (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:56.085, crash 5. Eugene LAVERTY, Ireland (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:56.197 6. Sylvain GUINTOLI, France (Ducati 1098R), 1:56.319 7. Jonathan REA, Great Britain (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:56.325 8. Maxime BERGER, France (Ducati 1098R), 1:56.338 9. Tom SYKES, Great Britain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:56.353 10. Leon HASLAM, Great Britain (BMW S1000RR), 1:56.354 11. Joan LASCORZ, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:56.444, crash 12. Jakub SMRZ, Czech Republic (Ducati 1098R), 1:56.470 13. Noriyuki HAGA, Japan (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:56.517 14. Leon CAMIER, Great Britain (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:56.571 15. James TOSELAND, Great Britain (BMW S1000RR), 1:56.637 16. Troy CORSER, Australia (BMW S1000RR), 1:56.782 17. Mark AITCHISON, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:56.820 18. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 1:56.901 19. Roberto ROLFO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:57.560 20. Makoto TAMADA, Japan (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:58.016 More, from a press release issued by PATA Racing Team: Nitro Nori Haga just closed his first day of work. The PATA Racing Team rider has been working on both of the track’s conditions, since during the morning session it rained, and only during the finale the asphalt dried up letting the riders trying a few laps setting up the slicks. In the afternoon Haga tested different trade-off settings that didn’t completely satisfied him. The japanese rider will keep up his work tomorrow, when sun is forecasted, to later give his best during the Superpole. Noriyuki Haga – Aprilia RSV4R #41 – “It’s been a really helpful day within sight of sunday, when there will be high chances of rain. Tomorrow I’ll get to work again on the trade off and on the suspensions to show myself at the best for the Superpole. I’m pretty confident about it.” More, from a press release issued by Castrol Honda: Rea content with Nurburgring return Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea has declared himself happy with his return to the World Superbike championship after today’s opening practice and qualifying sessions for Sunday’s tenth round races at the Nurburgring in Germany. With the morning free practice starting in wet conditions, Rea ended the session on a fully dry track in seventh place and held the same position after this afternoon’s qualifying session, which was headed by Max Biaggi. After a two-day test at Assen in the Netherlands last week, Rea suffered no ill effects from the wrist injury that has kept him out of action for almost three months, but the 24-year-old from Northern Ireland says he needs a little more time to find a good rhythm on his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR. His team-mate for this weekend, Makoto Tamada, rode a Pirelli-shod Honda Fireblade for the first time today and the Japanese rider finished the day in 20th position, but he an d his crew are confident of an improvement in his lap times tomorrow. Jonathan Rea P7 Today was OK but we ran into some problems with the weather this morning when no-one was quite up to speed, which made it difficult to define where we were. This afternoon was fully dry and we were able to get down to some respectable lap times. I’ve been using some new softer rubber from Pirelli for the first time, although I think it’s been available for the other riders at a couple of races already. It was much better straight away but we still need to see what the tyre life is like at these temperatures. I was disappointed to make a few mistakes during the last stint, which prevented me from improving the lap time further, but I’m not quite back into a rhythm yet. I am pretty confident that we can improve more tomorrow with some changes to the engine braking. My wrist feels good, though and I’m looking forward to anothe r full day on it tomorrow. Makoto Tamada P20 Well the position is not so good and the lap time can definitely improve, but today was my first time on the bike here so there is very much to learn. The team has helped me to look for a good setting on the CBR today, but the wet start this morning did not help us very much. I hope tomorrow the weather will be dry so I can complete as many laps as possible and find the opportunity to make some good changes to the bike. I think I can improve my riding, too, so if we can do both these things I will be happy! More, from a press release issued by Team Alstare Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki news 2011 Superbike World Championship Round 10, Nurburgring, Germany Friday qualifying, 2nd September Circuit: 5.137 kms Conditions: Cloudy/sunny 22-25C (air), 25-37C (track) SUPERB TOP FOUR FOR MICHEL Team Alstare Suzuki rider Michel Fabrizio ended the first day of practice and qualifying at the Nurburgring fourth quickest, just behind the current championship leaders. This morning’s free practice started with a damp track and Michel – like many riders – just went out for a couple of laps before returning to the pits. He waited until the track was sufficiently dry, before going out on slicks. This afternoon’s timed qualifying took place in completely dry conditions and the lap times began to fall as the session progressed . Michel had a small tip-off at the start of the session, fortunately without injury, but returned to the pits quickly and got on his spare bike. At the end of the session, his time of 1:56.085 was good enough for fourth place. Reigning champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia) was quickest today, with Carlos Checa (Ducati) second and Marco Melandri (Yamaha) third. Michel – 4th, 1:56.085 Generally I am pretty satisfied with today, but obviously a little angry with myself because I had a crash and that meant I gave my mechanics extra work to do! It was a slow speed crash at the right-hander about as far away from the pits as you can get, but I didn’t hurt myself at all. I quickly got a lift back to the pits on a scooter and had plenty of time to sort myself out for the rest of the session. My number two bike has the same set-up as my number one bike, so I was able to get on the pace straightaway without a problem. Fourth is OK for the first day and I’m also happy because we are pretty close to having a good set-up for the race. Tomorrow we’ll just make some fine adjustments and see if we can make any improvements. We’ll try a few little suspension changes to see if we can improve the rear grip, but really there’s not that much to do – unless it rains of course! I would prefer it to be dry on Sunday, because this track is pretty slippery in the wet and it’s an easy track to have a crash. Hopefully it’ll be dry tomorrow and I can get a place on the front row of the grid. I haven’t managed that so far this season, so this would be a good place to do it. More, from a press release issued by Infront Motor Sports: Biaggi leads Checa and Melandri in Ring qualifying Nürburgring (Germany), Friday 2 September 2011 Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) pulled out all the stops at the end of first qualifying at the Nürburgring, the Italian setting the quickest time of 1 minute 55.524 seconds to take the overnight pole. The reigning champion was sitting in second position, behind points leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) for most of the session, but played his winning card right at the end to take the provisional pole by 0.149 seconds. Third quickest time, but just a fraction behind, was another championship challenger, Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team), ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare), who crashed at the start of the session. Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) notched up the fifth quickest time from Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert – Liberty Racing), while Jonathan Rea eased back into competitive action after recent injury with seventh place for Castrol Honda. Impressive privateer Maxime Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) posted a top eight time on his big vee-twin, with top Kawasaki qualifier to date Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) ninth and his countryman Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) rounding out the opening day top ten. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) powered his way to 11th in his first Superbike visit to Germany, with Guintoli’s team-mate Jakub Smrz (Effenbert Liberty Ducati) 12th. Japanese rider Makoto Tamada (Castrol Honda) stood in for the injured Ruben Xaus and was the final rider classified. Times: 1 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’55.524; 2 Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1’55.673; 3. Melandri M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’55.819; 4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’56.085; 5. Laverty E. (IRL) Yamaha YZF R1 1’56.197; 6. Guintoli S. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’56.319; 7. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’56.325; 8. Berger M. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’56.338; 9. Sykes T. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’56.353; 10. Haslam L. (GBR) BMW S1000 RR 1’56.354; 11. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’56.444; 12. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1’56.470; 13. Haga N. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’56.517; 14. Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’56.571; 15.Toseland J. (GBR) BMW S1000 RR 1’56.637; 16. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’56.782; etc. More, from a press release issued by Althea Ducati: CARLOS CHECA (ALTHEA RACING) IN GREAT SHAPE AT THE NÃœRBURGRING; SECOND IN FIRST QUALIFYING THIS AFTERNOON Nürburg (Germany), Friday 2nd September 2011: after the month long summer break, the Superbikes were back on track today, at the Nurburgring, for the start of the tenth round of the World Championship. Carlos Checa and the Althea Racing squad got off to a solid start, concluding today’s first qualifying session in second position. As a result of overnight rain that continued to fall early this morning, Carlos Checa and the Althea Racing team faced a damp track for this morning’s first free practice session. The majority of riders preferred to wait for the surface to dry out and so fast times did not come until the later stages of the session. Carlos, heading out at mid-session, made constant improvement and set a best of 1m57.2 that remained the fastest time of the session overall. Checa thus closed first practice on top of the pile in first place, a tenth of a second ahead of Lascorz in second. Althea Racing’s flagbearer, and current championship leader after nine of thirteen rounds, made the most of this afternoon’s dry track during first qualifying. Carlos immediately placed himself in the fastest group and, towards mid-session, recorded a very fast time (1m55.673) that projected him to first position. The Spanish rider continued to lap consistently fast for the remainder of the session, working with his technicians to find the best possible set-up and try various tyre solutions. At the end of this first qualifying session, Checa was in second position overall, satisfied with the work completed during the day. Carlos Checa: “This morning we didn’t get a lot done due to the mixed track conditions, but after a month’s break the session was nevertheless useful and gave us the chance to get back into our stride. In the afternoon we began to work with the tyres, to better understand performance and we also concentrated on finding a solid set-up. We still have some work to do but I think that tomorrow we’ll have time to get it all done, testing the tyres that we didn’t try today and working more on the setting as it seems that in certain points of the track we’re still having a little trouble. I think there is room for improvement tomorrow and I’m feeling quite confident.” More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsport: Weather conditions: Sunny with some clouds in the afternoon. Temperature: Air: 22 25 °C, Track: 25 37 °C Number of riders participating: 20 from 13 teams Fastest lap Free Practice: Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1:57.296 min Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) 1:55.524 min Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport has started its home round at Nürburgring (GER). The iconic track hosts the tenth round of the 2011 FIM Superbike World Championship. Factory rider, Leon Haslam (GBR), finished the first Qualifying Practice in tenth position. His team mate, Troy Corser (AUS), lost track time in both of today’s sessions due to some technical issues and qualified provisionally 16th. James Toseland (GBR) and Ayrton Badovini (ITA) of the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team finished in 15th and 18th respectively. Leon Haslam: Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:58.368 min (P9)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:56.345 min (P10) “It was a good day. I am not worried about the position. We were riding at the front for the whole session, and were in P1 and P2. We were really working on a base set up and I did not use the soft tyre, like a few of the other guys did. We have learned a lot of useful things for tomorrow. For sure we have some improvements to do, but 0.2 secs would have put me in the top five, so it is pretty close out there and I am looking forward to tomorrow.” Troy Corser: Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:58.965 min (P16)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:56.782 min (P16) “We had quite a few small technical issues in the practice and qualifying sessions and lost useful track time. In the morning we had a gearbox issue that made me swap to the other bike, which I was not going to ride that much. Because of this we lost the whole session. Then right at the end of the first Qualifying Practice we were able to work out quite a good set-up and I went quite a bit quicker. Anyway the gap to first place is not that big, and I am pretty confident that we can make a good step tomorrow.” Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations): “With Troy we had some smaller technical issues and, due to this, we could not work through our programme as planned. We were missing two or three outings with him. Leon was with the front guys from the beginning on. Only in the end he could not improve his time. We will now analyse the data to improve for tomorrow. Overall we are very confident that we will have two strong races on Sunday.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: Despite some bike problems and finishing sixteenth fastest in qualifying today, Troy is confident that tomorrow will be a different story. Both of Troy’s bikes had issues in practice and qualifying and Troy was forced to use both to try and solve the problems, and so was unable to get down to some quick lap times until the final few minutes of this afternoon’s qualifying session. Although Troy is only sixteenth fastest today, if he had gone just one second quicker he would’ve ended third overall. Reigning Champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia) set the day’s fastest lap, with a time of 1:55.524, with Carlos Checa (Ducati) second, Marco Melandri (Yamaha) third and Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki) fourth – four different manufacturers in the top four. Troy -16th, 1:56.782 Today was a day of problems and we spent a lot of time trying to sort them all out. The track was a bit wet at the start of this mornings free practice, but the rain had stopped, so I just went out for a couple of laps to see what the conditions were like. It wasn’t long before the track was dry enough for slicks and then we were able to make a proper start. I began with a bike set up like last year’s Nurburgring bike because it had worked pretty well last year, so we thought it would be a good start. However, after about six laps there was a problem with the engine, so I had to swap to the other bike. This one had the set-up from the last round (Silverstone) and was quite a bit different. In the afternoon, I switched back to the first bike (which now had a different engine) but immediately had problems getting the thing to stop. When the team changed the engine, it seems that that the throttle needed re-calibration as well, so I changed to the other bike again. I had problems backshifting on this bike, so went back to the other one again and by the time all this was done there was not much time to put down a lot of good laps. I put in a tyre to go for a quick lap, but there was only time for two laps and that wasn’t enough. But only a second separates me from third place today, so once again things are pretty tight. I know that tomorrow will be better and fell pretty confident that I can be much, much faster as long as there are no major problems. The track was actually OK today, though it was pretty dirty if you went off-line, but I am hoping that it doesn’t rain on raceday especially as the track is pretty slippery in the wet and there could be many crashes. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Yamaha World Superbike Riders Get off to a Flying Start at the Nurburgring Yamaha World Superbike riders, Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty didn’t delay in getting straight down to business today at the Nurburgring and shaking off the dust after the long five week summer break from racing. Melandri encountered the track for the first time in his career while team-mate Laverty was familiar with “the Ring” but enjoyed experiencing the demanding track on his YZF R1 Superbike machine. Melandri spent the morning’s free practice session getting acquainted with the historic German circuit and getting back into the swing of things. The wet weather did not damper his spirits despite losing some valuable time in the initial stages of the Free practice session. A gradually drying track provided more ideal conditions and the Italian was able to make constant progress and proceed to complete the afternoon’s first qualifying session in third place. Laverty was also on impressive form throughout the day. After completing just two laps on a set of wet tyres in the morning’s free practice session, the Northern Irish rider swapped over to a set of slicks for the rapidly drying track. Due to a slight lack of grip, Laverty made some minor modifications to his chassis set up prior to the afternoon’s qualifying session where he put in a series of consistent lap times to finish up in fifth place. Marco Melandri Yamaha World Superbike Team , 3rd – 1’55.819 “It was a good first day today. I was a bit concerned this morning as it’s a difficult and technical track and time to learn the lines is valuable. I lost some time during the free practice session due to the wet conditions. As it was drying off, I improved and gained more confidence. The team and I worked hard and made progress and this afternoon’s qualifying session went much better. There are a few areas of the track where I am not totally confident but hopefully tomorrow will be another dry day and we can work towards improving further ahead of Sunday’s race.” Eugene Laverty Yamaha World Superbike Team – 5th -1’56.197 “Today was a good first day to the weekend. I wasn’t worried about the position in the morning’s free practice, I was just getting a feel of the bike. I expected some areas to be very tough but in the end I found them less difficult on the Superbike than on the Supersport machine. The Yamahas are up there and can be strong on Sunday. A top five finish on a Friday is a very positive result. I am aiming for a front row tomorrow and a race win on Sunday.” Andrea Dosoli – Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager “The weekend got off to a good start today for both riders. Marco learned the track really fast even if he did lose some time this morning due to the wet track conditions. He made progress and improved his lines this in the afternoon’s session. He is struggling a little with the first and fourth sectors and still has to discover some of the tricks of “the Ring”. Eugene did very well also. He struggled with grip in the morning’s free practice but changed tyre compound and resolved the issue by the first qualifying session. He also experienced some difficulty in the first sector of the track. Overall both riders did very well today but need to be more consistent to be as competitive as their competitors, Checa and Biaggi.” More, from a press release issued by Aprilia: MAX BIAGGI GETS OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT AT THE NURBURGRING. FIRST IN QUALIFIERS ON FRIDAY, THE CORSAIR IS READY TO DO BATTLE FOR THE GERMAN WSBK WEEKEND. Nurburgring, September 2nd, 2011 After the rainfall this morning which compromised the first session, the Friday afternoon qualifiers on the German Nurburgring track start to show interesting times. Key player in the standings is Max Biaggi, with a decisively motivated first place at the end of the day. The Corsair is obviously working quite hard on the set-up of his Aprilia Alitalia RSV4: the clock, which is the true judge of the competition, gives hope for tomorrow’s Superpole and the races on Sunday. The details still need to be refined, especially on the rear of the bike where Max still hasn’t found the right feeling. There are, however, some physical problems: during the qualifying session Max was struck on the left foot by a piece of drainage grate, kicked up by the rider ahead of him, causing a bad contusion. Max is in a positive frame of mind after the first two sessions: “It’s good to put a helmet and racing leathers on after a month long break. My adrenaline confirms that I still have a strong desire to get on the track and do well. We’re working as we always do on the set-up and we have identified the line to follow where we’ll be working to find the best compromise. Especially regarding the feeling with the rear, which is still not doing what I’d like it to”. Leon Camier is sizing up the track, fifth in the morning but only fourteenth in the second session. The English rider is confident and seems to have identified the points that need work. “I’m still trying to familiarize myself with the track and the bike confirms Leon even if we’re not too far off on the pace. I haven’t been able to take a truly fast lap, but I’m sure that with a few adjustments to the bike and a bit more feeling on my part we’ll be able to keep up with the front riders”.