CHARPENTIER FASTEST AT SILVERSTONE Despite the switch to the shorter International circuit, Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Sébastien Charpentier set the fastest provisional qualifying time in today’s opening qualifying session for the fifth round World Supersport championship encounter at Silverstone GB. High temperatures did not prevent a rain shower interrupting the 45-minute session but Charpentier’s team-mate, Katsuaki Fujiwara, maintained the team’s domination of this year’s championship by setting the second fastest time at the 3.56km Northamptonshire circuit. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “I’m pleased that both riders were able to maintain their concentration during that short break for the rain. In spite of other riders being faster at the time, there was no panic in the garage and Sébastien and Katsuaki went about their business with normal efficiency. We started today with some settings from the last round at Monza but we had to guess a little at the gearing for the new circuit here at Silverstone, especially through the kinks at the back of the track.” Sébastien Charpentier fastest, 1m29.558s “The weather didn’t seem to know what it was doing here this afternoon. It has been very warm all day and then it decided to rain on our qualifying session. Luckily the track temperature was very high so the water quickly evaporated and we were able to set the fastest time again. We still have some work to do on the chassis tomorrow but we have decided which tyres to run with on Sunday after we spent most of the time on them today. My quick lap was really good fun there was no traffic and I was enjoying sliding the rear everywhere!” Katsuaki Fujiwara second fastest, 1m29.911s “I had a little bit of chatter problems this afternoon. It was nothing serious but was happening in some places as I opened the gas. We’ll have a look at that and try to solve the problem. Otherwise everything was pretty much OK. We’re improving the bike all the time and the new circuit didn’t cause too many problems. Half of it is the same as before so I am quite comfortable. We’ll work to improve certain areas tomorrow but everything is pretty good so far.” World Supersport, Silverstone provisional qualifying times: 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m29.558s, 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:29.911, 3 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) 1:29.947, 4 Cal Crutchlow GBR (Honda) 1:30.326, 5 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha) 1:30.476, 6 Craig Jones GBR (Honda) 1:30.517, 7 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 1:30.603, 8 Alessandro Corradi ITA (Ducati) 1:30.734, 9 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati) 1:30.760, 10 Fabien Foret FRA (Honda) 1:30.882.