Superbike World Championship Round 2 Phillip Island, Australia March 3, 2006 First Qualifying: 1. Troy BAYLISS, Ducati 999F06, 1:33.387 2. Alex BARROS, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:33.790 3. James TOSELAND, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:33.851 4. Troy CORSER, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:33.868 5. Yukio KAGAYAMA, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:34.461 6. Steve MARTIN, Foggy Petronas FP1, 1:34.501 7. Noriyuki HAGA, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:34.577 8. Chris WALKER, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1:34.589 9. Pierfrancesco CHILI, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:34.601 10. Fonsi NIETO, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1:34.618 11. Roberto ROLFO, Ducati 999F05, 1:34.644 12. Ivan CLEMENTI, Ducati 999RS, 1:34.708 13. Karl MUGGERIDGE, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:34.756 14. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Ducati 999RS, 1:34.822 15. Sebastien GIMBERT, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:34.832 16. Andrew PITT, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:34.863 17. Norick ABE, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:35.010 18. Michel FABRIZIO, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:35.021 19. Ruben XAUS, Ducati 999F05, 1:35.024 20. Regis LACONI, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1:35.033 21. Lorenzo LANZI, Ducati 999F06, 1:35.202 22. Marco BORCIANI, Ducati 999F05, 1:35.502 23. Fabien FORET, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:35.917 24. Shinichi NAKATOMI, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:36.080 25. Franco BATTAINI, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1:36.126 26. Lucio PEDERCINI, Ducati 999RS, 1:36.151 27. Vittorio IANNUZZO, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:36.278 28. Craig JONES, Foggy Petronas FP1, 1:36.408 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: TOSELAND IN TOP THREE AFTER SUPERHEATED FIRST SESSION A keenly contested opening qualifying session at Phillip Island, held in high temperatures throughout, finally delivered third place to James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) as the Englishman fought it out with local riders Troy Bayliss and Troy Corser, plus former MotoGP rider, Alex Barros. The top four were all within less than half a second of each other, with the next rider, Kagayama, over one second from provisional pole. Toseland put his best time in late in the session, having completed tyre endurance tests and machine set-up trials in the earlier periods of qualifying. Following on from Toseland’s opening win of the year, one week ago in Qatar, his opening day performance In Australia proves that he and his bike are set to be perennially competitive in 2006. Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) was not running at his full pace, seeming to be over-anxious to get into contention right away, and losing ground in both set-up and individual lap times. His top 13 placing, from 28 runners, is expected to be improved upon in the final qualifying hour, to be held on Saturday morning. Hot track temperatures of over 50 degrees did not help any of the top riders in their search for outright grip, and made for a physically gruelling session. Ronald Ten Kate Team Manager “Normally in the Superbike class we have a slow start to the weekend, so to see James up there already, and doing so well, is very positive. He has been doing longer runs as well and setting fast times during them. The bike is very fast around here in top speed too. We had to take some pieces from our fairing, because it seems to out of spec with the rulebook, and now we are even faster in top speed. So that was a nice thing to be directed to do by the technical director. Karl is playing catch up at the moment, but he will get there. Maybe he is trying too hard, in front of his home crowd. I am expecting him to get the front of the second row and the bike in general is working very well, even though there are some more things to try tomorrow.” James Toseland SBK Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (3rd position 1’33.851) “We stuck a new tyre in the bike near the end and still did a pretty decent time. This tyre was spinning towards the end a lot more than the others so I think if we had the same tyre in the rear as we had earlier we could have challenged even more. The power of the Honda is awesome now so we need to try and get as much grip as we can. It’s no good to have this power and just get it spinning. But the bike is good, and I’m happy that I’m riding consistently.” Karl Muggeridge SBK Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (13th position 1’34.756) We just started off today on the wrong leg, just racing, racing around to try and get everything sorted out. I’m putting too much pressure on myself to try and get it right, rather than being calm. So I made too many mistakes and not getting things right. It’s a little bit foreign at the moment to I just need to get it settled down. It’ll work out for sure.” More, from a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: Phillip Island – Alex Barros second fastest in Qualifying I Second in Qualifying I and fastest Honda rider of the day this was Alex’ impressive performance today. For the last part of the Qualifying session the Brazilian even held the provisional pole. Only Troy Bayliss was able to achieve a lap time under 1’33.790. He was 0.403 faster than Alex. The top four riders, Bayliss, Barros, Toseland and Corser, were all within less than half a second. After this successful day at Phillip Island everybody is excitedly awaiting what will happen tomorrow. Alex Barros: “I only had a few days for testing and we had to work hard on the settings of the Klaffi Honda Fireblade. Meanwhile I also got a good grip on the bike. And we are on the best way to reach our target. Conditions are nearly perfect now and I hope to improve my lap time tomorrow.” Results Qualifying I 1 Bayliss (Ducati ) 1’33.387 2 Barros (Klaffi Honda) 1’33.790 3 Toseland (Honda) 1’33.851 25 Weather Conditions: sunny and dry, 36°C More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) STORMS TO PROVISIONAL POLE IN FRIDAY QUALIFYING AT PHILLIP ISLAND Phillip Island (Australia), Friday 3 March: Troy Bayliss continues to make the headlines for the Ducati Xerox Team on his return to World Superbikes. The Australian former world champion set a time of 1m33.387s in glorious conditions at the spectacular Phillip Island track to take the provisional pole today. Ducati Xerox team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was fifth quickest in the cooler morning free practice session, but was outside the top 16 in qualifying. Brazil’s Alex Barros took advantage of a Bayliss slipstream to record second-quickest time while former Ducati Xerox rider James Toseland (Honda) and Troy Corser (Suzuki) make up the provisional front row. “Things went well this morning for the first exit, and I expected to go quite a bit faster in the second session but actually in the end the track was quite hot and a bit slower and I only bettered the time by a tenth of a second” said Troy. “I stayed out and did ten laps on the race tyre and my second-last lap was only two-tenths off my best. So it all went quite well but took a little while to get going, then in the end it all came together. We’ll see how tomorrow goes, we’ve got second qualifying first thing in the morning, when it’ll be cooler and I think it’s going to be better. I didn’t know Alex was behind me, which was when he did his time, but I know he’s going to be coming in the future anyway, that’s no problem. All I know is that I was consistent on my race tyre and that’s the main thing at the moment. At the end of the session the guys thought I was only going to do 3 or 4 laps to see how the bike was, but it was feeling really good so I ended up doing 10 and ran out of petrol on the way into Honda corner but luckily I could roll all the way back to the pits!” “We started off with a rear tyre that was too soft and this led us astray for a bit, and as we only have a limited number of tyres available, we couldn’t put on another set to do a quick time” declared Lorenzo. “This morning I went well so I’m pretty relaxed about everything. For tomorrow we had already decided to have the extra tyre that we didn’t use today. For sure tomorrow the weather will be fine and the times will come down because it won’t be as hot in the morning session. It’s a pity we made the wrong tactics because it meant that we went in the wrong direction immediately at the start of the session”. TIMES: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m33.387s; 2. Barros (Honda) 1m33.790s; 3. Toseland (Honda) 1m33.851s; 4. Corser (Suzuki) 1m33.868s; 5. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m34.461s; 6. Martin (Petronas) 1m34.501s; 7. Haga (Yamaha) 1m34.577s; 8. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m34.589s; 9. Chili (Honda) 1m34.601s; 10. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m34.618s; … 21. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m35.202s. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser posted the fourth quickest time of Friday World Superbike Qualifying at Phillip Island in Australia despite clutch and grip problems. The high temperatures in the afternoon caused grip problems for many riders, but series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) overcame them to set the day’s fastest lap, with a time of 1:33.387. Second quickest is Brazilian Alex Barros (Honda), with James Toseland (Honda) third. Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Yukio Kagayama also suffered with lack of grip and ended fifth fastest overall. Fabien Foret had problems with his bike set-up and finished 23rd fastest. Troy Corser – 4th, 1:33.868: “Today, and especially this afternoon, I had some problems with grip and also the clutch. The grip problems may have been to do with the high track temperature in the afternoon but I was just not entirely happy. The inconsistency of the clutch probably caused my little get-off – at Honda corner. The bike’s clutch didn’t seem quite right on the approach to the turn and then the bike just tucked under as I went in. It’s a slow corner and I wasn’t hurt at all, but it’s a bit of a worry if the clutch is going to continue to be inconsistent. It’s a new clutch for this year, but it worked perfectly well in the four day test at Phillip Island earlier in the year, so we are a bit of a loss to understand why it is playing up now. Either way, we will have to solve the problem soon or it will become a nuisance.” Yukio Kagayama – 5th, 1:34.461: “I also had some grip problems today and I think it was probably because of the heat and also some parts of the track were a bit dirty. The top section of the track was probably worse than the rest, but it is the same situation for all riders, so I must do better. There was quite a bit of traffic out there in qualifying but I did my best lap when I had other riders nearby. I used a very similar setting to when we tested here, but the bike didn’t feel the same at all! For tomorrow we will change the front end set-up and see if we can improve. I tried some different sets of clutches today and found two that worked ok, so I am keeping them for the race on Sunday!” Fabien Foret – 23rd, 1:35.917: “Today was not so good and I am not so happy. I did more or less the same lap times in the afternoon as I did in the morning and of course I should have improved quite a bit! At the moment, I think it is the front end that is giving us problems, so we will look at the data and see what changes should be made. I hope that we find a good solution so that I can improve my lap times a lot – I need to be much higher up the order. ” Friday WSB Qualifying: 1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:33.387, 2 Barros (Bra-Honda) 1:33.790, 3 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:33.851, 4 Troy Corser (Aus-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:33.868, 5 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.461, 6 Martin (Aus-Petronas) 1:34.501, 7 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:34.577, 8 Walker (GB-Kawasaki) 1:34.589, 9 Chili (I-Honda) 1:34.601, 10 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:34.618, 23 Fabien Foret (F-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:35.917. More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi ROBY ROLFO ELEVENTH ON SUPERBIKE IN AUSTRALIA A fantastic summer weather, with air temperature about 35°C and more as 50°C on the track welcomed the World Superbike riders for the first practice day on the 4.445 meters of Australian Phillis Island circuit. The track, lying in front of Bass Straght often curly by the strong Antarctic winds, is in splendid conditions. Roberto Rolfo recorded the 11th fastest in the first qualifying session, a result not too far from the leaders, but that let a bitter taste in the mouth of the SC Caracchi 999F05 Ducati rider. “True I’m not too happy about today first qualifying session.” said at the end of the day Roberto Rolfo. “In the last part of qualifying session I’ve been not able to find the set up I actually wish. During the morning’s session we made a good job and we improved a lot during the whole free practice session; in the afternoon, on the contrary, we tried some new solutions, the bike increased a bit, but not as I was waiting to increase as during the morning. However I’m a bit satisfied for the work we’ve done, both me and the team. We have in any case got several positive pieces of information and some clear guide-line that tomorrow we could follow to catch for a good result in final qualifying.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Noriyuki Haga was the fastest of the Yamaha men in today’s opening qualifying session for round two of the Superbike World Championship, held at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia. Haga, who yesterday celebrated his 31st birthday, ended the day seventh fastest, just over a second behind provisional pole sitter Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Having chosen to test in Qatar rather than Australia in the winter break, both Haga and his Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt struggled to find ideal settings for their YZF-R1s. Haga complained of a lack of rear traction, while Pitt started off using the same settings that took him to a podium finish in Qatar six days ago. The local rider, who this weekend is wearing a new helmet design based on that of 1987 500cc Grand Prix world champion Wayne Gardner, also had the added disadvantage of carrying a ‘flu virus. Despite this he still managed to make the top 16 in a time less than one and a half seconds from pole. Sandwiching Pitt on the provisional grid are Yamaha Motor France duo Sebastien Gimbert and Norick Abe. Having tested at the circuit in January, the squad came to Phillip Island with a good base setting for their machines – although they were unable to match their testing times in the scorching weather. Yamaha Motor France’s third rider, Japanese newcomer Shinichi Nakatomi was able to set a personal best time around the circuit to end the day 24th, despite an off-track excursion. All three suffered chatter problems but are confident of finding an improvement for tomorrow morning’s final qualifying session. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “We need to try and find more rear traction tomorrow. We tried many things today but couldn’t quite find the correct setting. I think that it will be better tomorrow. We have a good idea of what we must do and the team will change many settings overnight. It is not so bad though. We did not test here, so we are starting from zero with the settings. Considering this we are quite close to the fastest times.” Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) “When we came here at the start of the year I was able to do 1:34.6 lap times, so although we are close I am still two tenths of a seconds slower than at the test. I had some problems with chatter today but we have some ideas on how to improve this. The times are very close but I am confident we can make some improvements and make the superpole.” Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “We are still trying to find a good balance around here. We tried the Qatar settings but they are just not working around here. I think we have found a good direction though. This is a more demanding circuit and we need to get more weight over the front to make it more stable. We’ll make a few changes overnight and see how things go in the morning.” Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “I came here with different settings on my two bikes: one set-up as we used it in Qatar and the other with the settings we finished our test around here. I preferred using the settings from the test, although we weren’t able to match our testing times. In the afternoon we changed the settings and I think we went too soft as we had a chatter problem and traction was not as good. We went back to a harder setting at the end and were able to do a 1:35 lap, which was better but not good enough. We have found a good direction though, and I think tomorrow will be much better.” Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) “After Qatar last weekend it has been good to come to a track I know from our test. I was not fully fit when we were here in January so already we are going faster and finding things we have to change. I also had some problem with chatter and if we can fix this I can go faster tomorrow.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yamaha Motor Italia) “Nori needs more rear traction but he has had a long discussion with his crew chief and suspension technician and they have a good plan tomorrow. Andrew has found it difficult here today but I am sure that he can turn it around and put in a good qualifying display in front of his home fans.” More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Steve sixth after first day at Phillip Island Steve Martin qualified in sixth place for tomorrow’s qualifying sessions at the second round of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island, Australia. But, with just four tenths separating 5th to 16th places, the competition in this year’s championship remains as hot as the weather at the coastal circuit. Craig Jones continued to progress along his steep learning curve and gradually improved his times throughout the day on his second visit to the circuit, which was afflicted by typically blustery conditions that affected lap times throughout the field. Troy Bayliss set the early pace with a time of 1:33.387, closely followed by rookie superbike rider Alex Barros. Steve said: “The track is definitely a lot more slippery than at the test so it is difficult to do the same sort of times. The wind has been up and changing direction all day and our bike seems to be sensitive to which way the wind blows here. We still have a fair bit to try to see if we can eke out a few tenths because it is so tight at the top. I did a good run of consistently good lap times and I am concentrating on setting the bike up for the race, not for qualifying.” Craig said: “I listened to what everyone wanted me to do, which was to keep the bike upright and go steady. I wanted to find the limit slowly and, although I am still not down to the times I did at the test here, I think there is a lot of time to find in set-up, track knowledge and also in myself. We are gradually chipping away and we have cured the wobbling that we experienced at Qatar, which is a massive relief. I’m not exactly happy, because I am not pushing 110 per cent like I always do but at least I know I’ve got a little bit in reserve and I will try and turn the wick up a little bit tomorrow. But the main thing is to come away from here with confidence for the remainder of the season.” Friday qualifying, Superbike World Championship, round 2, Phillip Island, Australia: 1 Bayliss 1:33.387; 2 Barros 1:33.790; 3 Toseland 1:33.851; 4 Corser 1:33.868; 5 Kagayama 1:34.461; 6 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:34.501; 7 Haga 1:34.577; 8 Walker 1:34.589; 9 Chili 1:34.601; 10 Nieto 1:34.618; 28 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:36.408 Free practice: 1 Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1:33.483; 2 Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:33.755; 3 Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:33.951; 4 Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.163; 5 Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1:34.208; 6 Haga (Yamaha Italia) 1:34.486; 7 Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.601; 8 Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:34.717; 9 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:34.785; 10 Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) 1:34.790; 13 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:34.877; 28 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:38.011 More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: PROBLEMS FOR TROY, BUT STILL ON PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW. Try finished the first day of qualifying with the fourth fastest time, despite grip and clutch problems. The afternoon high temperatures in qualifying caused grip problems for many riders, but Troy’s situation was compounded by an inconsistent clutch as well. Series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) set the day’s quickest time (1:33.387), with Alex Barros (Honda) second, James Toseland (Honda) third and Troy fourth. TROY – 4th, 1:33.868 Well that wasn’t the easiest of days and I could have done without any problems. But better to have problems today than raceday! This afternoon, in qualifying, I had problems with grip and with the clutch. The grip problems could’ve been caused by the very high track temperatures this afternoon and some parts of the track (the top section) seemed worse than the others. I had a small tip-off at Honda corner and that was because of the clutch, I’m sure. It felt a bit hesitant going into the turn and then the front just tucked under and I was down. Fortunately it is a slow corner and I wasn’t hurt, but it doesn’t make me feel too good. The clutch system is new for us this year but, in the four day tests at this same track in January, it worked really well and we had no problems at all. It is still working well – but not all of the time! That is going to be a bit of a problem. We need to get it sorted and we need it right, sooner rather than later.