FIM Supersport World Championship Brno, Czech Republic July 9 Final Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Fabien FORET, France (Honda CBR600RR), 2:03.548 2. Broc PARKES, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:03.611 3. David SALOM, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:03.681 4. Gino REA, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 2:03.909 5. Massimo ROCCOLI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:04.093 6. Sam LOWES, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 2:04.123 7. Chaz DAVIES, Great Britain (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:04.610 8. Robbin HARMS, Denmark (Honda CBR600RR), 2:04.639 9. Roberto TAMBURINI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:04.839 10. Miguel PRAIA, Portugal (Honda CBR600RR), 2:04.862 11. Florian MARINO, France (Honda CBR600RR), 2:04.959 12. Luca SCASSA, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:04.996 13. James ELLISON, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 2:05.135 14. Ondrej JEZEK, Czech Republic (Honda CBR600RR), 2:05.151 15. Vittorio IANNUZZO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:05.447 16. Alexander LUNDH, Sweden (Honda CBR600RR), 2:05.615 17. Patrik VOSTÁREK, Czech Republic (Honda CBR600RR), 2:05.744 18. Danilo DELL’OMO, Italy (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:05.832 19. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Honda CBR600RR), 2:05.854 20. Mirko GIANSANTI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:05.897 More, from a press release issued by Yamaha ParkinGO Team: The Brno circuit kept some unexpected difficulties for the Yamaha ParkinGO riders. Chaz Davies and Luca Scassa will start from second and third row with an unique goal, to gain positions during the race which has not yet a favourite to win. The qualifying session allowed both riders to improve their times and set up for tomorrow’s race, even though the track was slower than yesterday and with hotter tar not having a big chance to get better positions on the classification. Chaz Davies – Yamaha YZF R6 #7 – “We have been able to go a step forward, improving the chattering feeling I had. I am quite convinced that if the asphalt temperature wasn’t as high as it was, limiting the soft tires, I would have improved my time another half second. Anyway I am starting from second row for tomorrow’s race and I hope to have a good set up that allows me to arrive to the last laps with the tires in good condition. We still have the warm up to work on it to be able to get into the fight for the firsts positions.” Luca Scassa – Yamaha YZF R6 #9 – “My way of riding still influenced from SBK is giving me a few problems when I go into the corners. Today I have tried to change it but it’s not easy to modify your riding style built in years of experience. Any way I have been able to partially improve and I am confident that tomorrow during the race I will be able to gain positions. I think is very important to have a good start and try to join the leading group but of course I will need that the race has some good fights for me to reach them.” More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: PARKALGAR HONDA’S Sam Lowes will start from sixth on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s seventh round of the World Supersport Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic – and is part of six strong group that looks likely to contest the victory well ahead of the rest of the field. Miguel Praia scored a superb 10th on the third row of the grid just a fraction of a second from the second row on his Parkalgar Honda. The race starts at 1330CET tomorrow, July 10th. Sam: “I had an intermittent electrical problem during qualifying that made my job difficult but at least I am on the second row and well within touch of the leaders. With the fault fixed I expect to have more pace and I am happy. It’s going to be a long hard race but I am up for it and am consistently fast on race tyres – I’ll be in the mix for the podium, no doubts.” Miguel: “That was one of my best qualifying sessions and certainly my best this year. I struggled in the morning to find a good set-up but never gave up. The track was quite strange; showers overnight meant the grip level was poor today. We found a good solution and I am happy with my lap times – my Parkalgar Honda team was fantastic and worked very hard. The third row is good for us and I hope to find more speed in warm-up, we are confident for the race.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “Sam had an electrical problem on corner entry that we have identified and will fix – he will be in the hunt for the win tomorrow and is in great shape over race distance. “This is one of Miguel’s best events ever so far in my opinion. He is in a strong position to challenge inside the top eight, and is riding very well.” More, from a press release issued by Bogdanka PTR Honda: BOGDANKA PTR HONDA’s Pawel Szkopek qualified in 19th for tomorrow’s seventh round of the World Supersport Championship at his home track in Brno in the Czech Republic. The Polish ace crashed in the final minutes of the qualifying but is confident after showing a solid race pace. James Ellison on the other Bogdanka PTR Honda was 13th after improving his Friday’s lap time by almost half a second and is looking to challenge for top positions. Superstock 1000 rider, Marcin Walkowiak qualified in 29th and aims to improve in the race. Pawel Szkopek: “It was really hot today and not everyone improved their times from yesterday but we managed to do so, which was good. I’ve wanted to do well in front of my home fans and the bike felt really good but I’ve lacked a bit of smoothness and crashed as a result. It was a pity but I’m still confident as we have a really good race pace and can have a strong result tomorrow.” James Ellison: “We’ve found a lot of time today but so did others and we only moved up one place. We know what tyres to use for the race but we had to save the good ones for tomorrow, so we were mixing different compounds today. Our race pace is quite good and I’m always faster in the race than I am on one lap in qualifying, so I’m quite confident as long as we can have a good start.” Marcin Walkowiak: “I’m giving it my best on the bike, but I’m losing the front with no warning, sliding the rear and can’t do a good lap time. It’s my home race tomorrow so I’ll keep pushing and we’ll see what we can do.” Simon Buckmaster: “Pawel is a good 19th after a crash in the session – he is still looking strong and like he can score points here tomorrow. The team is disappointed in James’s qualifying position, there is no real reason for him to be so far down the grid. He is a better rider than this and we want him to dig deep in the race and show what he can do.” More, from a press release issued by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: Fabien Foret will start tomorrow’s 18-lap seventh round World Supersport championship race at Brno in the Czech Republic from pole position after setting the fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session. Foret lapped the 5.403km Brno circuit in a time of 2m03.548s to top the timing sheets for the second time today, having been the only sub-2m03s rider in this morning’s second free practice session. His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Florian Marino, experienced an up-and-down day after a technical problem restricted his morning practice to just four laps. The Frenchman bounced back during qualifying, however, to secure 11th place on the grid for a third row start. Fabien Foret P1, 2m03.548s Oh, I’m pretty happy, really! We did the best lap time this morning in cooler conditions but then, this afternoon, it was quite hard to get a good feeling from the front in the higher track temperatures. It took a bit of time and we made some small adjustments so I was able to push a bit more. At the end I was going for a fast lap when I came across a slower rider, so I decided to come in and change tyres to try again and we made it on the final lap. Of course, it’s not the race that will be very different tomorrow but at least this is done and it’s great for the mechanics and the whole team who have worked very hard. The first few laps it was hard to go faster than this morning and I had to ride a bit more smoothly, but it paid off and, if the weather is hot again tomorrow, we know a bit more how to handle it. Florian Marino P11, 2m04.959s I was pushing everything I knew in qualifying this afternoon to get the best time I could. But after the technical problems this morning I was just lacking in track time. We are definitely getting better, but it takes time to try ne w things and you don’t have so much time during qualifying especially after I only did four laps this morning. I improved the lap time today, changing my style and using as many different things as I could think of to keep improving. We’ll have to make some more changes for the warm-up tomorrow and hope we can have the luck with us for the race. I feel OK about 18 laps in the heat tomorrow and, even if the top three may be a bit unrealistic, I just want to be able to make a good start and then fight as hard as I can right to the end of the race. Ronald ten Kate team manager Fabien’s pole position is a good reward for all the hard work the team has done, not only this weekend but also back at the workshop after the last race in Aragon. We had some revised settings on the bike and tried a slightly different way of working, which is obviously paying off for Fabien. I think his race pace is quite s trong so we’re looking forward to tomorrow. For Florian, the different approach and settings didn’t work quite as well but we’re sure we’ve found a good way for him. It will take a bit more time, but we hope for a solid result tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Second And Third Grid Spots For Broc and David WSS, Brno, Czech Republic, 9 July 2011 Broc Parkes and David Salom were in contention for pole position all the way at Brno and finished second and third respectively. Each will now start from the front row in Sunday’s 18-lap race. Both riders are involved in a fight for the championship lead itself as the second half of the season begins at Brno but the immediate task is to finalise race set-up choices, which will be determined by the weather on raceday. Heavy overnight rains have been a factor in changing the track characteristics after the first day and there is a possibility of thunderstorms on raceday, despite all practice sessions being held in dry conditions so far. In terms of a dry race set-up Salom is more confident of his current settings than Parkes but each rider will have a warm-up session on Sunday morning to make final choices before the race, scheduled for 13.30 local time. Lorenzini By Leoni Kawasaki rider Massimo Roccoli is making genuine progress with his Ninja ZX-6R machine and he moved to the second row of the grid today. He set the fifth best combined qualifying time, 0.5 seconds from pole man Fabien Foret. Roccoli’s team-mate Vittorio Iannuzzo was 15th in qualifying. Broc Parkes: “I am not sure if the grip wasn’t quite as good as it was but I had a couple of crashes this morning and we don’t really know why. I pretty much wrecked one bike so we had to replace quite a lot of parts and then we started the afternoon knowing we could make a good time. We concentrated on getting my bike ready for tomorrow. I had a bit of traffic at the end and could not go for a faster lap but we need to sit down tonight and find something for tomorrow’s race.” David Salom: “I tried out the tyre I expect to use in the race and my best time came with this tyre. I think we have a good race pace and I think the other riders are not very close to that. I think I should be strong and I really feel good in hot conditions like we had today. Today is not raceday, so we have to see how things are tomorrow. Broc and I are close on lap times so we seem in good shape as a team. I got caught out by another rider on my best lap so I think I could have done a better lap time, but we are both on the first row of the grid.” Massimo Roccoli: “After a sometimes difficult start to the season, including me having a fever at Assen, I have more feeling with the bike now. In Aragon, for all practice sessions, the team, the bike and I all functioned well from the start and the result was good. I also went to race in the Italian championship in Misano the week after Aragon. For me these three days were very good. It was like the test that we could not manage to do before the season started. During race weekends it is important to make a good lap time and qualify well, so it is difficult to try something new in practice. We did that at the Misano CIV round and we found improvements that we brought here.”