Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki’s Troy Corser earned provisional pole position during World Superbike qualifying Friday at Brands Hatch Circuit, just south of London, England. After a damp Friday morning practice, Corser went straight to work Friday afternoon, spending much of the session at the top of the leader board. Toward the end of the one-hour period there was a flurry of activity on pit lane, and the lap time leader board, as some riders chose to use one of their two Pirelli qualifying tires to ensure a spot in Superpole in case Saturday morning’s final qualifying session is rained on. When the dust settled, Corser was on top with a lap of 1:27.123 on his GSX-R1000. Half a second behind at 1:27.652 was Regis Laconi on his Xerox Ducati 999F05. Putting his home track knowledge to work was Chris Walker, third-fastest with a 1:27.656 on his PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R. His first time riding a Superbike at Brands Hatch, Karl Muggeridge earned the last spot on the provisional front row with a lap of 1:27.742 on his Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR. Corser’s teammate Yukio Kagayama got up from a crash into the inflatable safety barriers outside of the fast final corner and returned to the track on his spare bike to record the fifth-fastest time of 1:27.767. SC Caracchi Ducati’s Fonsi Nieto also crashed during the session. He was reported as “OK” by the timing and scoring monitors. Second-quickest in the damp morning practice, American Ben Bostrom suffered several minor problems in his qualifying session and ended the session 15th with a 1:28.926 on his Koji Renegade Honda CBR1000RR. Friday Afternoon World Superbike Qualifying Results: 1. Troy Corser, Suzuki, 1:27.123 2. Regis Laconi, Ducati, 1:27.652 3. Chris Walker, Kawasaki, 1:27.656 4. Karl Muggeridge, Honda, 1:27.742 5. Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, 1:27.767 6. Andrew Pitt, Yamaha, 1:28.023 7. Chris Vermeulen, Honda, 1:28.056 8. James Toseland, Ducati, 1:28.072 9. Pierfrancesco Chili, Honda, 1:28.205 10. Max Neukirchner, Honda, 1:28.271 11. Steve Martin, Foggy Petronas, 1:28.318 12. Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, 1:28.541 13. Marco Borciani, Ducati, 1:28.746 14. Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, 1:28.750 15. Ben Bostrom, Honda, 1:28.926 16. Pere Riba, Kawasaki, 1:28.926 17. Gianluca Vizziello, Yamaha, 1:28.960 18. Norick Abe, Yamaha, 1:29.044 19. Dennis Hobbs, Yamaha, 1:29.093 20. Garry McCoy, Foggy Petronas, 1:29.093 21. Giovanni Bussei, Kawasaki, 1:29.228 22. Ivan Clementi, Ducati, 1:29.531 23. Fonsi Nieto, Ducati, 1:29.845, crash 24. Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, 1:29.863 25. Lorenzo Alfonsi, Yamaha, 1:29.880 26. Jose Luis Cardoso, Yamaha, 1:30.656 27. Alessio Velini, Ducati, 1:31.358 28. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati, 1:31.508 29. Michel Nickmans, Yamaha, 1:31.540 30. Miguel Praia, Yamaha, 1:31.715 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW FOR MUGGERIDGE AT BRANDS Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Karl Muggeridge set the fourth fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s eighth round World Superbike championship races at Brands Hatch in the UK. The pace was set by championship leader, Troy Corser, with Muggeridge’s team-mate, Chris Vermeulen, seventh fastest. After morning rain prevented any meaningful set-up work in free practice for the 4.2km undulating Brands Hatch circuit, this afternoon’s qualifying session was run in dry conditions with sunnier weather forecast for tomorrow and Sunday. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “I think that this afternoon was pretty OK for our first dry track session and I’m happy enough after day one. It’s good to see Karl on the provisional front row because, even though it’s one of his favourite circuits, it’s his first time here on a superbike. Chris is quite near the pace of the front runners after his time at the Suzuka 8-hour last weekend. But I think he adapted really quickly to the change in tyres and what is really a very different machine. I’m sure we’ll find some more improvements to the bike tomorrow when, hopefully, the weather will be a more consistent factor.” Karl Muggeridge fourth fastest, 1:27.742 “Yeah, this track is certainly pretty different on a superbike it suddenly looks a lot skinnier than I remember! I’m wheelying all the way down the back straight at the moment and having to duck my head to get the front wheel down. We started with a brand new setting here but, to be honest, we were quite a long way away. I still need to be more confident in the front going into corners and to be able to open the gas on the way out over the bumps. But we know what we’re after so we just need to put it in the bike and use tomorrow to make those improvements to get it in the right area.” Chris Vermeulen seventh fastest, 1:28.056 “I’m not too unhappy with seventh considering the big difference between the bike and the tyres that I rode at the 8-hour last weekend. I expected to struggle a bit more than I did actually and was really just aiming to qualify for Superpole today. But the bike’s feeling pretty good after the team made a lot of positive changes after our test at Lausitzring. I ran into a bit of traffic when I put the qualifier in so I wasn’t able to go much faster. There’s some work to do tonight and tomorrow but I think we’ll be able to get it up there.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: FIRST PRACTICE DAY AT BRANDS HATCH: WELL NANNELLI, CAUTION FOR LANZI AND NIETO On the demanding 4197 meters of Brands Hatch, near London, first practice day characterized by rain and cold; only during the afternoon the track dried, but always with no more as 20°C degrees temperature. Very well the 749R Supersport by Gianluca Nannelli that reached the second position behind the championship leader Charpentier. Some difficulties on the contrary for the 999RSs Superbike by Lanzi and Nieto: both the riders started with caution looking for the best machine’s setting, also because the weather forecast show dry weather for tomorrow ant the lap times scored today are destined to be improved. “I’m quite satisfied with the session of today”. commented at the end Gianluca Nannelli. “We could test different tyres and with one of them I got a good feeling looking at the race, but all look to be an improvement with the past production. I’m sure that with a harder riding, looking at the performance, I could be able to reduce my gap to Charpentier, I found a good race setting and I like that track. More the bike is always on the top as top speed, so I’m quite confident for the week end.” A bit les satisfied is Lorenzo Lanzi, just 24th in the afternoon session, also if both today’s sessions have been all dedicated for the bike setting for the demanding englis circuit. “We tested several set up solutions.” declared Lorenzo Lanzi. “Unfortunately the continuous weather conditions changing didn’t help us. We never use soft tyres, sparing them for tomorrow, but in any case we’ll have a lot of work to do. Now we’ll see with all the team which could be the actions to do for the final session tomorrow morning.” Fonsi Nieto never visit before Brands Hatch, and the Spanish rider had alto to pay the “toll fee” at this track, crashing at the middle of qualifying session. “That’a a very demanding track.” said at the end Fonsi Nieto. “At the beginning of the session, with the track not perfectly dried, I was not in bad position. But after my crash the track dried very quick and a lot of riders passed me. Tomorrow we have to be early focused to get a good result that allow us to make the Superpole and start in front.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: LACONI (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) TAKES PROVISIONAL SECOND IN FRIDAY BRANDS QUALIFYING – TOSELAND EIGHTH Brands Hatch (UK), Friday 5 August: Régis Laconi set second quickest time in today’s opening qualifying session at Brands Hatch, the Ducati Xerox Team rider clocking a 1m27.652s, half-a-second off the pace of early frontrunner Troy Corser (Suzuki). James Toseland was in eighth place on the provisional Friday grid, but just four-tenths of a second off his team-mate’s time, as four different manufacturers took the top four slots on the timesheets. “I am quite happy with the session, we’ve still got a bit more work to do because the bike is not yet perfect to ride” declared Laconi. “The feeling is good however and I think that with two or three changes we can go even quicker tomorrow. I have to say that this track is beautiful to ride, the ups and downs are fantastic. I think that I can improve mainly in the final part, from the Westfield right before Dingle Dell. This year they have closed up the entrance to the curve and it’s ruined it. We’ve still got to get the bike set up well for this part because in the first split it’s going really well.” “I’m not overjoyed by the position to be honest and we’ve still got a lot to do on the bike. It feels so different after the good setting we had at Mugello this week and we’re quite a way off” commented Toseland. “But despite this I’m quietly confident and we know which direction to go in. To be only point four off second place after riding it like that, I’m quite pleasantly surprised to be honest. I finished the lap and the time was good, although I felt that it was up in the 35s. I lost the front twice on two of my quick laps and I had a few problems and before you know it I had lost about 25 minutes of the session. And to only have had that much lap time I’m quite happy.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: WSB : Pitt leads the Yamahas at Brands Round: 8 – Europe Circuit: Brands Hatch Date: 5 August 2005 Temp: 20ºC Weather: Overcast Yamaha’s superbike riders enjoyed a good opening day for this weekend’s eighth round of the Superbike World Championship at the Brands Hatch circuit in the United Kingdom. With the morning practice session affected by rain, Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga used the afternoon qualifying session to work on machine settings for Sunday’s two 25-lap races around the undulating English circuit. Despite being the team’s first visit to the circuit with the YZF-R1, both riders declared themselves happy with the base machine settings, setting the sixth and 12th fastest times despite opting to save their soft qualifying tyres for tomorrow’s final session. Pitt rode strongly to end the day sixth with a best of 1:28.023, less than a second behind fastest man Troy Corser (Suzuki). The Australian run consistently fast in both the morning and afternoon sessions and expects to find further improvement tomorrow, as the team changes the gearbox settings on his YZF-R1. Team-mate Haga, a double winner here last year and winner last time out at Brno, ended the day 12th, comfortable in the knowledge that he will have two qualifying tyres at his disposal tomorrow. Nitro Nori, the fans’ favourite at Brands, recorded a best time of 1:28.541 and is confident of improving tomorrow. Fellow Japanese Norick Abe had an encouraging time on his first visit to Brands. The Yamaha Motor France rider ended the day in 18th place, ruing the lack of dry running in the morning session but encouraged by his performance on the tricky to learn circuit. Like his colleagues in the Yamaha Motor Italia team, Abe is confident that improved settings and added circuit knowledge can help improve his time and propel him into the top-16 superpole session, a position already occupied by his team-mate, Sebastien Gimbert, who ended today in 14th position. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “It’s my first time here for three years and the circuit has changed a little bit, but I enjoy it here and I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone today. We’ve consistently been up the front and I’m happy with the way the bike’s feeling. It’s our first time here with the R1, so we had to guess a bit at the settings. We’ve got it pretty good but the gearbox (ratios) isn’t perfect so that’s something that we’ll change for tomorrow.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “Always race settings is most important and as normal we worked on finding a good race set-up and, basically, it is ok. Of course, we will still make lots of changes for tomorrow and I am sure that we can improve some more in the morning.” Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “This is my first time at Brands Hatch and I am quite happy with how it went today. This is a very special circuit with many difficult corners to learn. Normally when I go to a new course I am in position 20-something on the first day, so 18th is not so bad – especially as this morning’s session was wet and I could not try many things. Of course we will make changes to the bike overnight, especially to the gearbox settings, and I think that we can make big improvements tomorrow.” Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) “I’m feeling a lot fitter now than I did at Brno. My leg is now healed and I hope for a good result this weekend. I rode here with the R1 last year, so I know the circuit. Tomorrow we will make a few small changes and I hope that we can qualify for the superpole.” Claudio Consonni (Racing Manager – Yamaha Motor Italia) “The team is quite confident about this weekend. Both Andrew and Noriyuki have made consistent times and were able to do good lap times without using the qualifying tyre. Both riders have a good feeling from the bike and we will make some more changes tonight which we hope will improve the package even more.” Round: 8 – Europe Circuit: Brands Hatch Circuit Length: 4221 Lap Record: 1′ 26.755 (Shane Byrne, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1′ 26.248 (Shane Byrne, 2003) Date: 5 August 2005 Temp: 20ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 1 T. Corser Suzuki AUS 1′ 27.137 2 R. Laconi Ducati FRA 1′ 27.652 3 C. Walker Kawasaki GBR 1′ 27.656 4 K. Muggeridge Honda AUS 1′ 27.742 5 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1′ 27.767 6 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 1′ 28.023 7 C. Vermeulen Honda AUS 1′ 28.056 8 J. Toseland Ducati GBR 1′ 28.072 9 P. Chili Honda ITA 1′ 28.205 10 M. Neukirchner Honda GER 1′ 28.271 11 S. Martin Petronas AUS 1′ 28.318 12 N. Haga Yamaha JPN 1′ 28.541 13 M. Borciani Ducati ITA 1′ 28.746 14 S. Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1′ 28.750 15 B. Bostrom Honda USA 1′ 28.926 16 P. Riba Kawasaki ESP 1′ 28.932 17 G. Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1′ 28.960 18 N. Abe Yamaha JPN 1′ 29.044 19 D. Hobbs Yamaha GBR 1′ 29.093 25 L. Alfonsi Yamaha ITA 1′ 29.880 26 J. Cardoso Yamaha ESP 1′ 30.656 WSS: Australians chase set-up at Brands Hatch 5/8/2005 Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes, Yamaha Motor Germany’s Australian duo, set the fifth and ninth fastest times in today’s first practice for Sunday’s round eight of the Supersport World Championship at Brands Hatch. Despite heavy showers throughout the day the track remained dry, albeit with several damp patches off line, for the duration of the 45 minute session. With the morning practice session run in wet conditions, the supersport riders found themselves without any meaning set-up data for the afternoon qualifying session, meaning both men spent as much time trying to find a good machine set-up as they did setting fast lap times. Championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was the fastest rider with a 1:29.174 lap time, but behind him things were close with just eight tenths of a second separating second placed Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) from Parkes in ninth. Curtain spent most of the session looking for a good race set-up on his YZF-R6, posting a best time of 1:30.424 – good enough for fifth place and second row on the provisional grid. The 39-year-old was happy with his day’s work, confident his squad can make significant improvements ahead of tomorrow’s final session. Parkes, fastest in the morning’s wet practice, also had to contend with set-up problems as a result of no previous dry running. The 23-year-old found the gearing on his YZF-R6 was not set-up correctly, causing his machine to rev out down the straights. Despite this, Parkes ended the session ninth with a best lap time of 1:30.838. Final grid positions will be determined by the best time over today and tomorrow’s sessions. Final qualifying takes place tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Kevin Curtain “With the rain this morning we’re a session behind, so we spent qualifying trying lots of things with the gearing and the set-up. The track was still a little damp around the Dingle Dell area but we still made some progress, although there are still a lot of corners where we’re neither here nor there with the set-up. The guys are looking at all the data now and I’m sure they’ll come up with a bunch of improvements for tomorrow.” Broc Parkes “I was hitting the rev-limiter everywhere and although we really needed to change the gearing we didn’t have enough time, as it would have meant changing both the front and rear sprocket. The gap between me and second is not much and we know that we can improve quite a lot by changing the gearing. So, if it stays dry tomorrow, we should be alright.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: CORSER ON PROVISIONAL BRANDS POLE Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser left it until the last five minutes of today’s World Superbike Championship qualifying at Brands Hatch before posting the fastest lap of the day – more than a half a second quicker than nearest rival Regis Laconi. The morning un-timed session saw rain and a damp track for most of the 60 minutes, but in the afternoon, the track dried out and the lap times started to tumble. The last 10 minutes were frantic, but in the end, Corser mastered the occasion again and took provisional pole position. Laconi was second quickest with Chris Walker (Kawasaki) third and Karl Muggeridge (Honda) fourth. Corser’s Alstare Suzuki team mate Yukio Kagayama ended the day fifth fastest and with a bruise on his backside after he lost control in the last turn and fell heavily. Fortunately he escaped without serious injury, but he will be very sore in the morning. Troy Corser – 1st, 1:27.123: “I’m pretty happy today because we’re nearly there with our set-up and we more-or-less know what tyres we’ll use in the race if the conditions are similar to this afternoon. We ran over 20 laps on the tyres this afternoon and in the end my lap time was only 0.3 slower than at the start. Brands is similar in some ways to Brno because of the changes of elevation, but it’s a track where you don’t want to be racing a load of other riders. If you can get out at the front early on, the rest of the pack will slow each other up. So a good start will be important and that’s what I’ll be aiming for.” Yukio Kagayama – 5th, 1:27.767: “My crash was very scary and now I have a lot of pain in my backside! Maybe I got on the gas a bit early in the last turn because everything happened very quickly. Up until that moment I had been quite happy today – especially in the afternoon. The morning was a bit wet, but the dry track in the afternoon timed qualifying meant that we could make progress. After two races at circuits I’ve never seen before, it is good to be at Brands – a circuit I know well. My target tomorrow is a front-row grid place and then, on Sunday, a podium or two.” Friday Qualifying: 1 Troy Corser (Aus-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:27.123, 2 Laconi (F-Ducati) 1:27.652, 3 Walker (GB-Kawasaki) 1:27.656, 4 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:27.742, 5 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:27.767, 6 Pitt (Aus-Yamaha) 1:278.023, 7 Vermeulen (Aus-Honda) 1:28.056, 8 Toseland (GB-Ducati) 1:28.072, 9 Chili (I-Honda) 1:28.205, 10 Neukirchner (D-Honda) 1:28.271, WORLD SUPERSPORT QUALIFYING: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Javi Fores made his Brands Hatch debut today and finished with a very creditable 12th fastest time. Conditions were mostly wet during both 45-minute sessions, though the track did dry out towards the end of timed qualifying in the afternoon and then the lap times fell dramatically. Runaway series leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was again was the front runner with Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) second, Stephane Chambon (Honda) third and Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda) fourth. Javi Fores – 12th, 1:31.284: “This is my first time at Brands Hatch and it is a very difficult circuit! There are many blind corners and changes of camber, so it is a very hard circuit to learn quickly. I think you need to put in many, many laps round here if you are to go fast – and I’m not there yet. Also, conditions were not so good so that made it a bit more difficult. I hope that tomorrow will be completely dry all day so that I have good conditions to learn the track and go quickly. “