FIM Supersport World Championship Kyalami, South Africa May 15, 2010 Final Combined Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Eugene LAVERTY (Honda CBR600RR), 1:40.812 2. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Honda CBR600RR), 1:40.896 3. Michele PIRRO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:41.415 4. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.415 5. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:41.418 6. Chaz DAVIES (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:41.675 7. Massimo ROCCOLI (Honda CBR600RR), 1:41.700 8. Joan LASCORZ (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.856 9. David SALOM (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:41.874 10. Robbin HARMS (Honda CBR600RR), 1:42.060 11. Lance ISAACS (Honda CBR600RR), 1:42.335 12. Gino REA (Honda CBR600RR), 1:42.358 13. Fabien FORET (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:42.416 14. Jason DISALVO (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:42.839 15. Miguel PRAIA (Honda CBR600RR), 1:43.133 16. Bastien CHESAUX (Honda CBR600RR), 1:45.050 17. Andrea BOSCOSCURO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:44.146 18. Alexander LUNDH (Honda CBR600RR), 1:44.182 19. Danilo DELL’OMO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:44.944 20. Jacques PESKENS (Honda CBR600RR), 1:45.630 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Pole position for Eugene PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty took pole position for Sunday’s sixth round of the World Supersport Championship at Kyalami, continuing his impressive form after being fastest in every session. Miguel Praia improved his lap time on his Parkalgar Honda but slipped to 15th on the grid. The race is tomorrow, Sunday 16th May at 1330CET. Follow all the action on www.parkalgarhonda.com. Eugene: “I wasn’t sure I wanted pole position but now I’ve got it I’m cool. We improved my Parkalgar Honda further in the direction of last year’s set-up and there is still a bit more to come. I am not 100 per cent happy with the bike but then as a rider you never are. My main rival is Kenan; he is right on the limit and pushing hard. I thought Lascorz may have got it together by now but it may be too late for him and he could be fighting for third tomorrow – I don’t think he’ll get away with Kenan and I. It will be a scrap between the pair of us for the win and an interesting race. I have had two poles earlier this year and failed to win; I want to set that straight tomorrow.” Miguel: “That was not too good; it took me longer than I wanted to get into my rhythm and I don’t think I could have gone much faster. I need to find a little more speed in warm up and will be talking with my crew chief to see what we can try in the morning.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “I’m happy with Eugene, he set pole time without using his last tyre and while working on set-up. No-one has won from pole this year yet so let’s hope it is third time lucky for Eugene. Miguel was below par. He has the package with his Parkalgar Honda and the potential is there but he has to learn to find his form during practice if he wants to make the step up and compete at the next level.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Front Row For Katsuaki As Joan Fights Hard Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Motocard.com) had the honour of finishing top Kawasaki rider in WSS qualifying at Kyalami, fourth overall. His team-mate Joan Lascorz starts the race eighth on the grid. Katsuaki’s front row qualification came is slightly peculiar circumstances, as he set a personal best lap of 1’41.415, exactly the same lap time set by the rider ranked third on the grid, Michele Pirro. Kats was a threat all through qualifying, and got his reward with his second front row start of 2010. The Kyalami track surface, bumpy and scarred, was a tough one for both Katsuaki and Joan to find a good set-up for, with Joan in particular unable to use his usual prowess in late braking. This is the first time in 2010 that Joan has not been on the front row with his Ninja ZX-6R, but he knows that improvements can be made in terms of real race pace on Sunday. Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We had a good start to our season this year, but in Monza we went in the wrong way with set-up. When we came to Kyalami we found a better way, after good work from all in the team. We are still a bit behind the leading riders in setting one fast lap time but things are going well and I am looking forward to making a good start in the race.” Joan Lascorz: “We had more than one problem trying to set the bike up today and we could not get to the lap times we wanted. I have some trouble in braking. We will try things out again in warm-up. The track temperature will be important tomorrow and I am sure we will have a better race pace than our qualifying pace.” More, from a press release issued by ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing: Team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing missed the front row by only three thousands of a second, but the goal for tomorrow will be the same: battling for the podium. Matthieu Lagrive, who finished second yesterday and suffered a fall in the opening laps of qualifying today, will start fifth in the grid, alongside Chaz Davies, who finished sixth, after fully learning the track. David Salom qualified in the third row after posting the ninth fastest time today, while Jason Di Salvo will start from the fourth row after finishing fourteenth due to an electrical problem. MATTHIEU LAGRIVE | Triumph Daytona 675 | 5th in 1’41.418 : “I fell after just a few laps and hurt my calf. I quickly returned to the pit and rode the second bike, but I wasn’t at my best and so I couldn’t improve my time from yesterday. There’s nothing to worry about though, the starting position is good, as my pace so my goal is to battle for the podium tomorrow”. CHAZ DAVIES | Triumph Daytona 675 | 6th in 1’41.675 : “I constantly made progress in the last two days. All the changes we made to the bike were good, and so I found a good feeling with the track. Too bad I made that mistake by the end of the session, when I was going faster with the new tyre on. I could’ve qualified in the front row. However, I won’t make any changes and I’m confident I’ll be able to battle with the leading pack”. DAVID SALOM | Triumph Daytona 675 | 9th in 1’41.874 : “It’s an OK starting position, I only have to make some small changes to the machine to improve the braking performance and when entering the corner. I’ll use the warm up session for that and hopefully finish in the top 5”. JASON DI SALVO | Triumph Daytona 675 | 14th in 1’42.839 : “I’m not very lucky lately. I had to wait in the pit for a long time due to an electrical issue. I didn’t do many laps and so I didn’t fully learn the track”. More, from a press release issued by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: Kenan Sofuoglu and Michele Pirro will both start tomorrow’s sixth round World Supersport championship race from the front row of the grid after setting the second and third fastest times respectively in this afternoon’s final qualifying session at Kyalami in South Africa. Sofuoglu and his crew were particularly pleased after finding a new solution to the bumps that are so prevalent at the 4.263km Kyalami circuit just north of Johannesburg, allowing the Turkish ace to take his sixth successive front row start of the season. Pirro fought back well from a crash late yesterday afternoon to take third place on the grid, just over half a second back from his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate and pole-sitter, Eugene Laverty, the latter two separated by less than one tenth of a second. Kenan Sofuoglu P2 1’40.896s Everything went quite OK today, and we made a very big change to the bi ke which I am very happy with. I always say that my first goal of the weekend is to qualify on the first row and today it was true again. Also, my ideal time is the fastest so I am very happy with the pace we will need to run in the race tomorrow. It’s important to win again here and I don’t have the responsibility of pole position, which has not worked for me in the last two races. It looks like me and Laverty will have a big battle tomorrow, but I am sure some other guys will want to join in. Michele Pirro P3 1’41.415s The front row is very good for me and I am happy the way everything went today, especially after the problem of that unnecessary crash yesterday. I need a good start in the race tomorrow but, perhaps more important is that I finish the race and get a good number of points to improve my championship position. My CBR is more stable over the bumps here now and it’s more comfortable to ride so a big thanks to my team for working so hard to make the bike even better. Ronald ten Kate team-manager Thanks to good team-work today, we have both riders on the front row, which is a very satisfying result for us all. We knew what we needed to change but that didn’t work this morning, so we tried another set-up with both riders this afternoon which seems to be the key for Kyalami’s individual characteristics. It’s going to be, for sure, another intense battle up at the front tomorrow and we’re also aiming to get Michele climbing the podium steps again.