FIM Supersport World Championship Silverstone, England May 26 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Sebastien CHARPENTIER (Hon CBR600RR) 1:30.516 2. Kevin CURTAIN (Yam YZF-R6) 1:30.711 3. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:31.001 4. Pere RIBA (Kaw ZX-6RR) 1:31.492 5. Massimo ROCCOLI (Yam YZF-R6) 1:31.657 6. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Hon CBR600RR) 1:31.692 7. Javier FORES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:31.963 8. Johan STIGEFELT (Hon CBR600RR) 1:32.136 9. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Hon CBR600RR) 1:32.320 10. Yoann TIBERIO (Hon CBR600RR) 1:32.450 11. Mauro SANCHINI (Yam YZF-R6) 1:32.533 12. Kai Borre ANDERSEN (Suz GSX-R600) 1:32.595 13. David CHECA (Yam YZF-R6) 1:32.649 14. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600) 1:32.732 15. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Yam YZF-R6) 1:32.755 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: CHARPENTIER ON PROVISIONAL POLE AT SILVERSTONE A dramatic first qualifying session in Supersport saw Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) take the fastest lap, while his team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu slid to a lowly 18th. The day had dawned wet and wild, and the track had not fully dried before the start of qualifying, which was red flagged twice and finally terminated with 45 seconds remaining on the clock. The slowly drying track conditions meant that Charpentier’s best lap of day one was not close to his own previous record best at the short 3.619km English circuit, despite being clearly the fastest man once more, with a 1’30.516. Sofuoglu toiled hard to improve his best time, but had to settle for a 1’33.274, having crashed in the wet morning session, and struggled to find perfect machine set-up in the times session. Ronald Ten Kate Team Manager “A bit up-and-down because in these conditions it will always be difficult for all the riders, with the climate changing all the time. Even during the session it changed and Sebastien kept his head cool and took provisional pole in a very mature way. For Kenan – I feel sorry for him because our new strategy is to start more slowly and make progress through all the weekend. But in these conditions that will push you down the order. The weather forecast is a bit better for tomorrow, and I hope that he can improve quite a bit. We have some issues with his bike to resolve, as this is not the easiest track in the world to set-up suspension. We still have some work to do overnight, and I hope that we can have a dry session again tomorrow.” Sebastien Charpentier Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (1st Position 1’30.516) “Because of the changing conditions today it was important to try and go for a good lap at the correct time and managed to do that. This is a good opportunity because I am on ‘pole’ after the first day. In the wet session this morning I did not push to the maximum, but I got some feeling for the rainy conditions. I hope we have good weather tomorrow; for sure it was not possible to make a faster lap right at the end because another rider crashed. The set-up is not perfect yet, so we will try to find something even better.” Kenan Sofuoglu Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (18th Position 1’33.274) “It was very difficult for me today because of the wet weather this morning and I had a crash in that session as well. In the qualifying session it was partly wet and partly dry out on the track and that made some problems for us. I did not know what to do about gearing, and when I was riding in the rain it was completely different from when I was riding in the dry. I also tried to find the best suspension set up. If it is dry tomorrow, I am sure we can improve, because 18th is not normal for me.” RESULTS QUALIFYING 1: 1. Charpentier 1’30.516 2. Curtain 1’30.711 3. Parkes 1’31.001 4. Riba 1’31.492 5. Roccoli 1’31.657 18. Sofuoglu 1’33.274 More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes gave a good showing on the opening day of supersport action in Silverstone, ending a damp day second and third on the overnight grid. After a morning of rain, supersport qualifying started in damp conditions. Running dry weather tyres the fastest men lapped around two seconds off lap record pace in the difficult conditions. Despite a clear dry line having formed around the circuit, the riders were faced with standing water streaming across the circuit at several points and the mental problem of a light drizzle being blown into onto their visors. Fastest in the session was championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), who set a best lap of 1:30.516 – one-and-a-half seconds off his own lap record. Curtain set a best of 1:30.711 in the closing stages of the session, with Parkes a further three-tenths behind on 1:31.001. Both YZF-R6 riders declared themselves happy with their day’s work, believing that they would have set quicker times had a red flag not stopped the session prematurely. Wild-card Pere Riba (Kawasaki) completes the provisional front row with Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli leading the second row. Spaniard David Checa was 13th fastest on the Yamaha GMT94 YZF-R6 with Gianluca Vizziello 15th on the other Yamaha Team Italia machine.