2007 FIM Superbike World Championship Monza, Italy May 11, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. James Toseland (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:45.953 2. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:46.316 3. Karl Muggeridge (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:46.462 4. Regis Laconi (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:46.548 5. Josh Brookes (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:46.686 6. Ruben Xaus (Ducati 999F06), 1:46.775 7. Troy Bayliss (Ducati 999F07), 1:46.918 8. Roberto Rolfo (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:46.960 9. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:46.972 10. Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:47.125 11. Max Biaggi (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:47.205 12. Troy Corser (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:47.321 13. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:47.351 14. Michel Fabrizio (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:47.384 15. Marco Borciani (Ducati 999F06), 1:47.828 16. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati 999F07), 1:47.836 17. Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:48.005 18. Steve Martin (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:48.149 19. Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:48.384 20. Jakub Smrz (Ducati 999F05), 1:48.458 21. Alessandro Polita (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:48.785 22. Dean Ellison (Ducati 999RS), 1:50.307 23. Luca Morelli (Ducati 999RS), 1:50.704 24. Robertino Pietri (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:51.460 25. Marek Svoboda (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:52.373 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Toseland tops the timesheet in Monza The first qualifying session of round six of the 2007 World Superbike Championship took place at a warm and sunny Autodrome Nazionale Monza in Italy today. HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s James Toseland completed the session with the fastest lap time to secure a provisional front row start. Team-mate Roberto Rolfo qualified in eighth position. After a disappointing morning practice that saw Toseland experiencing a minor problem with his CBR1000RR, the British rider fought back in the official session to finish at the top of the timesheet. He set three fastest laps in quick succession towards the end of the hour-long qualifying, beating the existing Monza best Superbike lap by over half a second with a time of 1’45.953. Team-mate Rolfo continued to rise up the timesheet after two satisfying sessions in his home country. The 25-year-old secured his personal best lap at the 5.793km Monza circuit during the afternoon qualifying with a time of 1’46.960. Rolfo’s aim for the tomorrow is to finish in the top eight for a spot at the front of the grid for Sunday’s 18-lap race. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “So far I’m quite happy with the job of both riders in the HANNspree Ten Kate Honda team. James is leading the provisional grid, which is good. We still have a bit of work to do dealing with some small issues that cost us valuable track time during the session. Hopefully we can sort this out and concentrate on race distance tomorrow. I’m also happy to see Roby further up the grid – the progress he made at Assen is continuing at Monza. He is in eighth position so there is still a bit more work to do but hopefully tomorrow we will see him qualify on the second row to at least get a good start to the race with the front runners.” James Toseland: “It was a good session this afternoon, although this morning was really bad. We had a problem with the rear spindle and it took the guys about 15 minutes to put it right so that cost us some time. Anyway, we changed quite a bit in the session and we have a really good set-up for the bike – it’s feeling really strong. It’s nice to be quickest on Friday.” Roberto Rolfo: “I am happy with qualifying this afternoon. We worked with the race setting, which was important for me because I want to understand the track and improve my riding style on the bike. I wanted to find a good feeling for the corner exit because I think this is very important at Monza. I think I have improved and by the last part of the session I was improving lap by lap. I am happy with the time because it’s the fastest ever lap I have done at this track. I was good at the beginning and good at the end so we have to look at all the data and bring it together to get one great lap tomorrow.” Qualifying times: 1. J. Toseland 1’45.953 2. N. Haga 1’46.316 3. K. Muggeridge 1’46.462 4. R. Laconi 1’46.548 5. J. Brookes 1’46.686 6. R. Xaus 1’46.775 7. T. Bayliss 1’46.918 8. R. Rolfo 1’46.960 9. Y. Kagayama 1’46.972 10. F. Nieto 1’47.125 More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: STEADY START FOR BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) AT MONZA Monza (Italy), Friday 11 May: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) got his Monza World Superbike weekend underway with seventh quickest time in Friday first qualifying. The Australian, who has scored three double victories at Monza, was almost one second off the pace of provisional poleman James Toseland (Honda). Lorenzo Lanzi had a disappointing day, the 25-year-old Italian struggling to get to grips with the high-speed track. “All is going OK actually” declared Troy. “We did a lot of laps and I did that time on the thirteenth or fourteenth lap which was OK but still we just need to realise a few things that we haven’t done that we had last year so I’m confident in a couple of things we’ve got for tomorrow morning on the race set-up and I’m looking forward to getting out on the bike again to tell the truth. My top speed is pretty good as well, we’ve been working on that, just got to improve a bit of the feeling on the initial brake and we’ve got a little bit of movement in the fast right-hander but we’ve got a couple of good ideas in the morning and we’re pretty keen”. “For sure I am not happy with today’s performance, whenever I come to Monza it seems that I always struggle” commented Lorenzo. “In my opinion this track is one of the worst for my riding style. I’m giving my everything, the bike is fine, but the thing that I’m really not happy about is that I am almost two seconds slower than Toseland. This year it has never happened, not even when my team-mate set pole, at the most I was six or seven tenths off the pole. Now we will have to modify something on the bike to help me adapt my riding style on this track. I think we’ll change a few things both in the front and at the rear like the ride height and the springs, to help me get a better feeling.” TIMES: 1. Toseland (Honda) 1m45.953s; 2. Haga (Yamaha) 1m46.316s; 3. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m46.462s; 4. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m46.548s; 5. Brookes (Honda) 1m46.686s; 6. Xaus (Ducati) 1m46.775s; 7. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m46.918s; 8. Rolfo (Honda) 1m46.960s; 9. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m46.972s; 10. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m47.125s. More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: SUPERBIKE BACK IN ITALY: FIRST PRACTICE DAY AT MONZA A sunning and warm day did welcome the rider on the historical track of Monza for the sixth round of World Superbike and Supersport. The legendary and very fast track near to Milan did demand a lot to the engine and the braking system of the bikes running on the track. In Superbike Jakub Smrz, despite he didn’t know the circuit at all, rode quite well during the morning; unfortunately during the afternno some trouble forced him at several pit stops and, as well he improved his laptime, he lost some position. “During the free practice session in the morning I was focused to learn the track, completely unknown for me.” said Jakub Smrz at the end of the day. “When at the end of the session I tried to push also the laptime was not bad. During the afternoon on the contrary everything run wrong, with a lot of problems! During the first half of the session I’ve been for long time in 12th to 14th position, but when I joined the pit to set the bike, the water temperature did jump up. I rejoined the track, but the electronic device of the gearbox didn’t work properly and I rejoined the pit to change it, but any result. At that point a new stop and we remove the device, but at that point just seven minutes remained to the end of the session. Despite that I improved a little bit, but my rivals had the possibility to do better. I like this track, it’s rather demanding. Now the team will change the engine with one just overhauled because we’ll need every horsepower’s fraction; that’s very important on this track.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Haga takes provisional second in first qualifying Noriyuki Haga showed what is to come in today’s practice and qualifying sessions ending in second place. He set the pace in this morning’s free practice finishing it in the top slot and having led it for most of the session as well as setting the session’s fastest lap five times. It didn’t stop there though and in the first qualifying session of the weekend he held the top slot until Toseland knocked him down to second towards the end. Corser did not have as much luck as his team mate today, suffering a couple of problems throughout the day. The morning practice session went smoothly with the seasoned Australian getting down to the job of finding the right set-up. It was in the afternoon session that problems struck the #11 rider but he continued to ride through them to gather data for the team, riding almost race distance. He also posted his fastest time of the day and finished the session in 12th. Shinichi Nakatomi riding for the Team Yamaha YZF squad also had technical issues to resolve during today’s two riding sessions. The Japanese rider, who will start his 33rd race this weekend, stopped at one point on the track but rejoined the session later on to secure 19th place. Toseland heads the board going into tomorrow’s final qualifying session with Haga close behind and Karl Muggeridge in third. Noriyuki Haga (2nd – 1’46.316 – Yamaha Motor Italia) “Second is good although I am not too concerned with where I am on the grid at the moment. Tomorrow is the most important with the second qualifying and Superpole. I have learnt from Assen that I need to be on the front row going in to Superpole in case of having any problems! The bike is feeling good and I have already made a long run on a tyre today which I am happy with.” Troy Corser (12th – 1’47.321 – Yamaha Motor Italia) “I am not happy as you can probably understand. We didn’t get enough track time and we have some braking problems with the bike that need to be solved before tomorrow. It’s going to be a long night with the team checking all the data to identify and resolve the problem. All I know is that I have to go faster tomorrow and I know we can do better than twelfth.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator Yamaha Motor Italia) “We tried to prepare for this race as best as possible. Noriyuki had a good practice and he is quite confident in his and the bike’s potential this weekend. With regard to Troy, we discovered a couple of problems today which we are resolving now. We believe he is be able achieve the same good result as he did last year. We have a lot of guests here at our home round and we are hopeful of providing them with a good result.” Shinichi Nakatomi (19th – 1’48.384 – Team Yamaha YZF) “I didn’t expect to be right on the pace today but I didn’t expect to have technical problems either. But despite technical issues I feel we have made some slow progress today. We have already identified the issues and are working to resolve them in time for tomorrow’s second qualifying session. I am positive for tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: FRUSTRATION FOR TROY The first day of qualifying for the sixth round of this year’s Superbike World Championship at Monza ended with Troy frustrated. Problems with braking into the corners plagued Troy all day and so he was unable to push hard and finish higher then twelfth place. Series leader James Toseland (Honda) led the way today smashing the lap record by nearly a second. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) was second quickest, with Karl Muggeridge (Honda) third and Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) fourth. TROY – 12th, 1:47.321 Well that was a very frustrating day for me and the team. At the moment I cannot seem to brake and stop the bike at all going into the turns. The bike just wants to go straight on! And when you have a circuit like this one, with so many chicanes and hard-braking points, it is vital you have a bike that brakes and stops, so that you can then exit the corners fast. If I try and brake later, the bike wants to try and run off the track and this is very frustrating. At the moment I am losing about one or two tenths of second each chicane and on the entry to the Parabolica, and that is a lot here. We are going to sit down and look at the telemetry and the data and then work out what has to be done. Hopefully we will come up with a solution tomorrow will be better – I hope so! See ya! Troy More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Max Biaggi spent the opening day of qualifying for this weekend’s Monza World Superbike round learning the circuit, which he has never ridden on a Superbike. The Italian posted 11th place initially just behind team mate Yukio Kagayama, who also spent time working through some clutch and braking issues in readiness for tomorrow’s Superpole. Series leader James Toseland (Honda) led the way smashing the lap record by nearly a second. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) was second with Karl Muggeridge (Honda) third and Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) fourth. Yukio Kagayama – 9th, 1:46.972: “I am not so happy how today went and I hope we can improve tomorrow. This morning I had some problems entering the corners, so we made some changes to the clutch and the engine braking. Normally this problem is easy to fix but we were not able to find the solution although we did improve the chassis feeling and I am sure I can push harder tomorrow.” Max Biaggi – 11th, 1:47.205: “Monza is a new track for me really, because the last time I was here was a long time ago. I have never ridden a Superbike here so I have to learn the track before I can begin to push hard. Although this track is not difficult to learn, you have to know the correct braking points if you want to go fast. It is so important to find your braking points and it’s easy to lose tenths of a second if you don’t know what you are doing. We had a little stability problem today so we’ll make some changes to the bike for tomorrow. I always ask a lot of myself, so I don’t really feel any extra pressure on me here. This is my first WSBK race in Italy and I want to do well for my team and all the fans.” Friday WSB Qualifying: 1 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:45.953, 2 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:46.316, 3 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:46.462, 4 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1:46.548, 5 Brookes (Aus-Honda) 1:46.686, 6 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:46.775, 7 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:46.918, 8 Rolfo (I-Honda) 1:46.960, 9 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:46.972, 10 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:47.125. 11 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:47.205.