FIM Superbike World Championship Phillip Island, Australia March 2, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. James TOSELAND (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:32.040 2. Troy BAYLISS (Duc 999F07), 1:32.641 3. Fonsi NIETO (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:32.769 4. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 999F07), 1:32.774 5. Troy CORSER (Yam YZF-R1), 1:32.900 6. Max BIAGGI (Suz GSX-R1000K7), 1:32.998 7. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000K7), 1:33.154 8. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1), 1:33.244 9. Ruben XAUS (Duc 999F06), 1:33.315 10. Max NEUKIRCHNER (Suz GSX-R1000K6), 1:33.523 11. Michel FABRIZIO (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.690 12. Steve MARTIN (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.748 13. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.783 14. Roberto ROLFO (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.865 15. Jakub SMRZ (Duc 999F05), 1:34.092 16. Josh BROOKES (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:34.521 17. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:34.571 18. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yam YZF-R1), 1:35.572 19. Christian ZAISER (MV Agusta F4-1000R), 1:35.745 20. Alessandro POLITA (Suz GSX-R1000K6), 1:35.847 More, from a press release issued by Motorcycling Australia: Toseland keeps Bayliss at bay Brit James Toseland has drawn first blood in perfect conditions, during qualifying at the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island. In the beautiful sunny weather, Toseland recorded the fastest lap-time during the one hour World Superbikes qualifying session, clocking 1:32.040 shaving a massive 0.347 seconds off Australian Troy Bayliss’ morning practise time. Bayliss had to settle for second overall, finishing ahead of Spaniard Fonsi Nieto who rounded out the top-three. The current World Champion, whose best time of the session was 1:32.641, held the top position for the best part of the hour before being overtaken by Toseland in the latter stages. Toseland is in fine form having won the opening round of racing in Qatar, and will be looking to double up in Australia to complete the perfect start to his racing year. Of the other Australians who were on the track, Troy Corser finished with the fifth fastest time overall, while Steve Martin clocked in at number 12. Karl Muggeridge managed the 13th fastest time, while Josh Brookes was the 16th fastest of the 22 riders competing. The second qualifying session for the World Superbikes will take place on Saturday at 1:45pm local time. More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: IN AUSTRALIA START THE ENGINES (Phillip Island 2007 March 2) First practice day un the Australian circuit of Phillip Island, under perfect weather conditions. Gianluca Nannelli recorded the third fastest in Supersport qualifying, as well he is not completely satisfied for today’s practices because he has not been able to find the right feeling with the 749R Ducati’s front. Nannelli however has a good improving possibility, also because during last January’s Pirelli test he recorded a lap time in 1’34.3 that he hopes to repeat tomorrow. “It has been a very hard day.” confessed Gianluca Nannelli at the end of the session “The engine pushed very hard and we were the fastest at the speed trap, but I’ve never been to find a right feeling with the bike’s front. In such condition I’ve been able to record a good fast lap, but I couldn’t be able to keep the pace for several laps. Now the team is looking, together with Pirelli’s engineers, to find a solution for that problem. Tomorrow we must be in 100% condition, because nobody has recorded the winter performance and I’m sure that most of our challengers will be faster tomorrow and we have to be ready to contest them.” Jakub Smrz in Superbike too got an excellent qualifying session, recording the fifteenth fastest after spending most of the session to set the handling for this track; Smrz’s lap time is not too far from the result scored by riders with a lot of experience on the Italian twin. “I know this track, but on a Superbike it looks different as I’m accustomed to.” said Jakub Smrz rejoining the pit “So we must spend a lot of time to set the handling, most the rear. At the end we got a good set up and I recorded a good lap time. Most of all I’m rather satisfied because I do improve more and more my feeling with the bike, as we can see from my lap time which is no more very far from the results recorded by Ducati’s long experienced and successfully rider.” More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group: TOSELAND SWEEPS TO FIRST DAY BEST – HOT DAY OF ACTION FOR TOP SBK STARS One weekend after the first race of the 2007 season at Qatar the World Superbike grid reformed at Phillip Island in Australia for the first qualifying session. Top of the first day times was a 1’32.040, set by James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), some 0.601 seconds up on 2006 champion and second best rider today, Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox). A superb qualifying session from Spanish Superstar Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) delivered him third best time, just ahead of second Ducati Xerox rider, Lorenzo Lanzi. CORSER AND BIAGGI WITHIN A SECOND ON DAY ONE Double World Champion Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia) was the second best placed Australian, fifth overall, while Losail race one winner Max Biaggi (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) qualified sixth, before falling off late on his slow down lap, walking back through the pitlane entrance with his number three machine being pushed behind him. Each of these riders was within a second Toseland’s impressive time. KAGAYAMA INJURED AFTER SETTING STRONG PACE Japanese ace Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) suffered a heavy fall in qualifying on day one, breaking his left collarbone and suffering a suspected punctured spleen, probably due to a suspected broken rib. He was flown to a hospital in Melbourne for more detailed checks and examinations. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) was next fastest rider on the stopwatches; eighth, with private riders Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Ducati) Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Germany) filing out the top ten places. TIGHT MIDFIELD SEES TEAM-MATES CLOSE TOGETHER Michel Fabrizio and Steve Martin from the DFX Corse Honda team ended day one 11th and 12th respectively, with another Aussie Honda rider Karl Muggeridge (Alto Evolution Honda) 13th. Roby Rolfo (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) had a struggle in qualifying to go 14th but a great run from new SBK rider Jakub Smrz (Caracchi Ducati SC) saw him 15th, one place up on local rider Josh Brookes (Alto Evolution Honda), who was struggling with his machine’s suspension settings. (Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) had a difficult first day, finishing 17th on his factory Kawasaki. SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Fabien Foret (Team Gil Motorsports Kawasaki) scored an important result for his team by finishing the first timed qualifying session on provisional pole, despite suffering a crash that destroyed his number one bike in the morning session. The 2002 World Champion was on top form throughout and beat the previous best lap time at PI with a 1’35.166 lap. In second place today, Kevin Curtain (Yamaha SSP Racing) was some 0.259 seconds from Foret, with Gianluca Nannelli (Caracchi Ducati SC) third quickest. Broc Parkes (Yamaha SSP Racing) was fourth after his first timed session at his home track. Current championship leader, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), was one place up on his team-mate Sebastien Charpentier (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda). More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: BAYLISS AND LANZI BOTH FRONT-RUNNERS FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM IN AUSTRALIA Phillip Island (Australia), Friday 2 March: Troy Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox Team) were both front-runners during the opening qualifying session for the Australian Round of the World Superbike Championship, taking place at Phillip Island this weekend. Bayliss ended the day second quickest behind provisional poleman James Toseland (Honda), while team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was third quickest for much of the one-hour qualifying session before being edged down a spot in the last couple of minutes. “I’m pretty happy with the way things went today because the track was quite hot this afternoon” declared Troy. “We did a full race simulation with one tyre and I’m quite pleased with that but tomorrow we’re going to do another one to try a different solution. But I’m very satisfied with the way things are looking, we’re going much better than we were last weekend at the opening race and I’m feeling a lot more confident on the bike. We’ll just have to move on from here tomorrow morning.” Lorenzo Lanzi, who scored his first podium of the year with third place in Qatar a few days ago, was also on good form. Despite a high-speed crash at turn 2 in the morning’s free practice session, the 25 year-old Italian was pleased with his overnight fourth place. “It was a pity about the last few minutes when I lost third place but fourth place is OK” commented Lorenzo. “Today we did a long-run, 17/18 laps, which went well. Now we’ll have to see tomorrow when we have a few more things to try, in particular with the rear suspension so I’m feeling confident I can improve. I had a small crash this morning in the free practice session but everything is OK, I didn’t do myself any harm. I immediately found the right feeling again with the front and managed to set some good times.” More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Toseland records fastest qualifying lap for HANNspree Ten Kate Honda James Toseland opened the second round of the 2007 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island in spectacular style today. The former World Superbike Champion recorded the fastest lap in the first qualifying session – more than half a second quicker than his nearest competitor. Despite high temperatures and the slippery track surface, Toseland was on great form from the off. He came in second fastest in morning free practice just 0.082 seconds behind Troy Bayliss. The British rider then defeated the Australian on his home turf to secure the best lap of 1’32.040 – 0.4 seconds inside the official race lap record for the 4.445km track. Toseland’s team-mate Roberto Rolfo started the day well and secured some excellent lap times in free practice during the morning. He showed that he is still improving and looked set to secure a top ten position on the qualifying time sheets. As the temperatures rose in the afternoon, the first half of the session went according to plan, but the final 20 minutes saw Rolfo unable to pass a pack of slower riders. His final time was 1’33.865 for 14th position on the results table. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “It’s been a good day for James here at Phillip Island. He was already fast this morning and his consistency is very good. Now we just have to work on the small details to get the bike ready for the race and make James’ life as easy as possible. Roby kicked off very well this morning and we were very happy with his times in the practice. It’s just a shame that during the qualifying he got stuck during his last laps behind some slow traffic. We know there is more to come from him tomorrow and he is only half a second from where we want him to be.” James Toseland: “It’s been a great day. I’ve had in the back of my mind all day that I wanted to be quickest – it’s my manager’s birthday today and I can’t think of a better present for him! I knew as soon as I went out this morning that the bike was working really well. We had a great setting on the bike during the test in January so I knew we were starting from a good point. To finish 0.6 seconds ahead is a pretty good gap. I don’t want to peak too early, but so far so good.” Roberto Rolfo: “I don’t feel too bad because this morning’s session went very well, I was very quick. For the afternoon it went well for the first half of qualifying as I tried to improve the race set-up of the bike. Unfortunately at the end I was in the wrong place at the wrong time because there some slower riders in front of me. I tried to overtake but it was not easy and I lost my last part of the session. I think tomorrow I get do a lot better.” More, from a presss release issued by Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra news 2007 Superbike World Championship Round 2, Phillip Island, Australia Friday qualifying, 2nd March Circuit: 4.445 kms. Conditions: Dry, sunny 24 – 26 C. SIXTH FOR MAX, HOSPITAL FOR YUKIO. The first day of qualifying for the second round of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island was a dramatic one for Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra. Joint series leader Max Biaggi finished with the sixth fastest time of the day, just ahead of team mate Yukio. But Yukio had a heavy crash in the afternoon session is unlikely to take any further part in proceedings. At first, it was suspected that Yukio had broken his left collarbone, a few ribs and damaged his spleen in the process but after he was helicoptered to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne there was some doubt about the extent of his injuries, so the medics there decided to carry out further tests. All hopes are that the injuries are not as bad as originally thought. James Toseland (Honda) set the day’s quickest time, with a lap of 1:32.040, easily inside the lap record set by Troy Bayliss (Ducati) last year. Bayliss is second fastest today, with Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki) third and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) fourth. MAX – 6th, 1:32.900 Today was OK and we tried a few things to get the bike working the way I wanted. We began with the bike more or less set up as in Qatar and then tried to improve it. I felt we were losing a little time in all the sectors, so we tried some smaller discs in the first session. But the pads didn’t get up to temperature, so we had to change back to the bigger discs for the afternoon qualifying session. Today we were using a Qatar engine and it didn’t feel very strong, but tomorrow we’ll put in a fresh engine. I also focussed on getting the right tyres for the races on Sunday, so today’s lap times weren’t so important. I think that, whatever tyres we use, we’ll all be having problems seven or eight laps before the end of the race. Phillip Island is a great track, but it’s very demanding on tyres because there are many left turns and not many rights. That means one side of the tyre wears quicker then the other, so you have to be careful and try and conserve the tyres the best you can. I really like the SBK two race formula, because you get a second chance if something happens in one of the races. At first, I didn’t know if my physical condition would be OK for two races, but it’s been fine and I’m looking forward to Sunday’s races and a big fight on the track. YUKIO – 7th, 1:33.154 I lost the front in turn two and crashed. Very painful! I felt I had been run over by a truck! Maybe my collarbone is broken and there is pain in my spleen area, so I am going to hospital for many checks. I hope I can rejoin my team before long. Good luck to Max in the races! Friday qualifying