FIM Supersport World Championship Silverstone, England July 31, 2010 Final Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Eugene LAVERTY, Ireland (Honda CBR600RR), 2:09.426 2. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Honda CBR600RR), 2:09.456 3. Joan LASCORZ, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:09.461 4. Roberto TAMBURINI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:09.537 5. Robbin HARMS, Denmark (Honda CBR600RR), 2:09.816 6. Gino REA, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 2:09.916 7. Katsuaki FUJIWARA, Japan (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:10.190 8. Massimo ROCCOLI, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 2:10.256 9. Chaz DAVIES, Great Britain (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:10.258 10. David SALOM, Spain (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:10.262 11. Matthieu LAGRIVE, France (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:10.389 12. Miguel PRAIA, Portugal (Honda CBR600RR), 2:10.438 13. Fabien FORET, France (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:10.633 14. Alexander LOWES, Great Britain (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:11.053 15. James WESTMORELAND, Great Britain (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:11.084 16. Billy MCCONNELL, Australia (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:11.151 17. Sam LOWES, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 2:11.163 18. Ronan QUARMBY, South Africa (Honda CBR600RR), 2:11.507 19. Vittorio IANNUZZO, Italy (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:11.569 20. Mark AITCHISON, Australia (Honda CBR600RR), 2:11.605 More, from a press release issued by ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing: The ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing team ran into unexpected difficulties today and due to different track conditions compared to yesterday, was not able to find the best bike setup. Davies, Salom and Lagrive will start from row three on the grid, while Iannuzzo from the fifth. The results were not as expected despite the riders skills, who were all slowed down by the same problem. The team will try to find a solution in the warm up session tomorrow morning. CHAZ DAVIES | Triumph Daytona 675 | 9th in 2’10.258 : “I had the same problem as yesterday, only it got worse. I was really quick in the fast corners, but I went wide in the hairpin corners and couldn’t maintain trajectory. We’ll look into it this evening and hopefully will score a good result tomorrow”. DAVID SALOM | Triumph Daytona 675 | 10th in 2’10.262 : “As my teammate, I wasn’t very effective in the slow corners. I thought I could improve myself but didn’t. However, I won’t give up and will do my best in race tomorrow”. MATTHIEU LAGRIVE | Triumph Daytona 675 | 11th in 2’10.389 : “I felt more comfortable than yesterday, despite not doing very well in the slow corners. I’m confident that if I get a good start, I will gather important points for the overall standings”. VITTORIO IANNUZZO | Triumph Daytona 675 | 19th in 2’11.569 : “I’m not having a very good time lately. Unfortunately, the lack of traction prevented me from riding effectively, but with a little help from the team, I can recover a few positions tomorrow”. More, from a press release issued by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: Kenan Sofuoglu set the second fastest time in today’s final World Supersport qualifying session at Silverstone in the UK, splitting his two championship rivals on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s tenth round race. In one of the closest qualifying sessions on record, the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider was just three hundredths of a second behind pole position man, Eugene Laverty. Sofuoglu’s time was even closer to third-placed Joan Lascorz only five thousandths of a second. The Turkish ace currently leads Lascorz in the championship table by 15 points, with Laverty a further seven points back in third. Ronan Quarmby, Sofuoglu’s team-mate for the Silverstone weekend, will start from the fifth row of the grid for tomorrow’s 16 lapper around the 5.902km Silverstone circuit after setting the 18th fastest time. The 19-year-old South African has not only had to learn Silverstone revised layout t his weekend, but to work with a new team and get accustomed to a new Honda CBR600RR. Despite two crashes today, Quarmby improved by 1.5s over yesterday’s qualifying time and is looking forward to an even better performance in tomorrow’s race. Kenan Sofuoglu P2, 2’09.456s Step by step we are improving, which was the goal to improve the bike, the time, the position. I’m still not so happy with my lines in some corners on the track, especially in the final sector. Two or three times I was fastest until the last split, when I lost two tenths, which left me in second position. The team has some ideas to improve this and normally it’s not a problem to work on one split. Anyway, I feel I’m ready for the race tomorrow and hope that a good result is coming. The other guys in the championship are fast again, which I expected, but I think this is the closest qualifying between us yet! It shou ld be a nice race and I have to get as many points as I can. When I have a 25 point gap I might be able to close the throttle a little, but that won’t happen tomorrow. Right now my feeling is that I can go for the win tomorrow but, if it turns out that I can’t, I will have to settle for the most points I can get. Ronan Quarmby P18, 2’11.507s Well, it hasn’t been a good weekend so far, but then it’s never much fun when you’re crashing. My left ankle is quite swollen but the times have improved, at least, and my starts are usually quite good. Without the crashes, today was definitely better than yesterday, so I hope tomorrow is better again. It was difficult this morning and I hit a patch of water with an intermediate tyre in the rear and went over the high side. I’ll do my best in the race tomorrow and try to have more fun than today. Ronald ten Kate team manager So far so good in Supersport, with everything going according to plan with Kenan. We’ve caught up with the front massively and were already in contention today for the pole position. The task for tomorrow is to dial out the problems in the final sector which is where Kenan is losing all his time. For sure, it’ll be a frantic battle again at the front with the usual three, but this time with maybe as many as four or five riders in the leading bunch. May the best man win! For Ronan, everything is new the track, the team, the bike but he’s chipping away with his times as well, and improved massively on yesterday. Overnight we’ll go over the data again and try to find further improvements for tomorrow and we’re hoping he can have a nice race and finish close to the top ten. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Both Ninja ZX-6R Riders In Good Shape For Silverstone Raceday WSS, Silverstone, Great Britain, 31 July 2010 Joan Lascorz and Katsuaki Fujiwara had work to do in the early stages of practice at Silverstone but each earned strong starting places for Sunday’s 16-lap Supersport race. Joan will launch his Kawasaki Motocard.com Ninja ZX-6R from third place on the grid after finishing only 0.035 seconds from pole. Both his main championship rivals are also on the front row but Joan is confident he can make a strong showing at this long circuit, after a good period of practice and qualifying. Katsuaki is really enjoying his return to Silverstone, even if he had to re-learn most of the track, which is now the longest on the calendar. He feels his machine works particularly well around this circuit and ‘Kats’ himself is now fully fit after a period of illness a few weeks ago. Kawasaki Lorenzini by Leoni Ninja ZX-6R rider Fabien Foret was 13th in the overall qualifying rankings. Joan Lascorz: “It is very close out there but I am happy with the bike and the way the team has worked in practice. We have done a good job but I had a small problem on my fast lap, missing a gear two corners before the end. But I am happy with my race set-up and tyre choice. We will just use warm-up to try something else, but not make a big change. The track is fast and fun, and I have a good feeling here, more than I did in Brno at the last race.” Katsuaki Fujiwara: “Seventh was OK today and the track is good, maybe the long tracks are best for us. On Friday we started down the order but the team worked very well to find a set-up quickly. Then we improved again in the afternoon today and finally qualified seventh. The track is nice, I enjoy racing it, and there are some corners that seem the same as last time, but there are a lot of new ones as well. It is a little bumpy in the faster corners, but our set-up is coming good.” More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty took a brilliant pole position at his home track at Silverstone in the UK beating off his title rivals to set up a thrilling 10th round of the World Supersport Championship. Miguel Praia will start from 12th and the third row of the grid after a tough qualifying session when he failed to improve on his lap time from yesterday. Wild card rider for this round Christian Iddon took 2.5seconds from his lap time yesterday and will start from 23rd on his World Championship debut. The race takes place on Sunday August 1st at 1330 local time at Silverstone in the UK. Eugene: “There is not much in it at the front of the grid. I am happy to get a pole position here at the team’s second home round after Parkalgar in Portugal especially as I made mistakes on my last two-laps. The difference in lap times from using a worn to a new tyre is very little; I can do similar lap times on either. I think we are in a good position, our race set-up is strong.” Miguel: “After my crash late in yesterday’s qualifying I approached today differently and tried to go through my crash corner in a different gear. I tried in second gear, the same as Eugene, but it didn’t work for me. In the end I went back to third gear and it was better. In the second half of the session I tried to go quickly by myself and found that I have a good rhythm for the race even though I am disappointed to have dropped down the grid; it is very close here, I am only 1-second from pole position.” Christian: “Before the session I had a chat with Eugene and he told me the lines I need to take. I am still riding more like a Superbike and struggling to let the bike run through the corners; I want to stop it, turn and fire out but that doesn’t work on a 600. But the important thing is I am quicker than before and making progress every session for the first time I could feel the bike move and now have an idea where some limits are. The Parkalgar Honda bike and team are absolutely mega and in the race I want to try and get with the group in front and challenge inside the top 20.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “That was a great qualifying lap from Eugene and he backed it up with several laps close to the same time, he is in good shape to contest the win. Miguel was consistent but didn’t improve his lap time he needs to dig very deep now and keep his confidence high for the race because he is better than 12th place as qualifying suggests. Christian has really cut his lap times and is learning fast, if he can find more in warm-up then a top 20 result is possible for him which would be outstanding given the level of competition here.”