FIM Superbike World Championship Eurospeedway Lausitz, Germany September 8 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Troy BAYLISS (Duc 999F06), 1:38.331 2. Troy CORSER (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:38.550 3. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:38.869 4. Andrew PITT (Yam YZF-R1), 1:38.871 5. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:38.948 6. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 999F06), 1:39.048 7. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1), 1:39.101 8. James TOSELAND (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:39.347 9. Alex BARROS (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:39.572 10. Chris WALKER (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:39.591 11. Michel FABRIZIO (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:39.609 12. Fonsi NIETO (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:39.709 13. Steve MARTIN (Foggy Petronas FP1), 1:39.771 14. Ruben XAUS (Duc 999F05), 1:40.041 15. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:40.149 16. Marco BORCIANI (Duc 999F05), 1:40.330 17. Ivan CLEMENTI (Duc 999RS), 1:40.416 18. Norick ABE (Yam YZF-R1), 1:40.732 19. Craig JONES (Foggy Petronas FP1), 1:40.964 20. Pierfrancesco CHILI (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:40.973 21. Stefan NEBEL (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:41.178 22. Didier VAN KEYMEULEN (Yam YZF-R1), 1:41.181 23. Vittorio IANNUZZO (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:41.235 24. Max NEUKIRCHNER (Duc 999RS), 1:41.334 24. Kurtis ROBERTS (Duc 999RS), 1:41.577 26. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yam YZF-R1), 1:41.786 27. Roberto ROLFO (Duc 999F05), 1:41.890 28. Josh BROOKES (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:42.702 29. Jiri DRAZDAK (Yam YZF-R1), 1:43.459 More, from a press release issued by Ducati Xerox: BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) SCORCHES TO PROVISIONAL POLE AT LAUSITZRING Lausitz (Germany), Friday 8th September: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) smashed all existing lap records at the Lausitzring circuit as he scorched to a provisional pole position for Sunday’s tenth round of the World Superbike championship in Germany. The Australian’s time of 1m38.331s was over one second quicker than the 2002 lap record, well inside Lorenzo Lanzi’s Superpole time from last year and two-tenths quicker than fellow countryman Troy Corser (Suzuki). Team-mate Lanzi also got his weekend off to a good start, setting sixth quickest time but lapping within two-tenths of a second of Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) in third place. “It was a good start to the weekend” declared Troy. “Luckily we got some reasonable weather but it was a little bit cooler than when we tested here in July and the track is in reasonably good condition. The tyre I did the long-run here in the test doesn’t seem to be working well now so we used a harder one and still did some pretty good lap times. Already we’ve got a pretty good solution for the race and just hope to get some good weather again. I did 17 laps on the one tyre and some really good laps towards the end of the run. Then I put a new tyre on before the end of the session and went a little bit faster than what I’d done before. So far it’s looking good but we’ll take it day by day”. “I am quite pleased with today but seeing as I dominated the weekend last year I thought I could come here and be right there with the leaders this time as well” commented Lorenzo. “However we are in sixth place, which is not bad, two-tenths of a second off third place. We did a lot of work today and tried a number of solutions on the bike. There’s still space for improvement tomorrow and that’s important. We were able to get a good idea of which tyres to use for the race, both front and back, but tomorrow and Sunday maybe it’ll be hotter so the strategies will change. Let’s see if we can stay up at the front and not mess up the Superpole this time”. TIMES: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m38.331s; 2. Corser (Suzuki) 1m38.550s; 3. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m38.869s; 4. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m38.871s; 5. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m38.948s; 6. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m39.048s; 7. Haga (Yamaha) 1m39.101s; 8. Toseland (Honda) 1m39.347s; 9. Barros (Honda) 1m39.572s; 10. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m39.591s; etc. More, from a press release issued by FG Sport: BAYLISS AND CORSER THE CLASS OF THE FIRST DAY BAYLISS FASTEST WITH NEW TRACK BEST Running on Pirelli race tyres, on a cool dry circuit, Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) came close to replicated the race tyre times he set in a three day mid-season Lausitzring test session, and in doing so scored the fastest lap of the opening day at Lausitz, 1’38.331. It beat the previous best lap of 1’39.019, set during last year’s race weekend. Bayliss, who could wrap up the title this weekend, found no shortage of challengers in a field of 29 runners, and closest to him was Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra), only 0.219 seconds down. PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW COMPLETED BY YANAGAWA AND PITT Corser’s team-mate Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) underlined his recent speed with third quickest time on day one, with Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) a minuscule 0.002 seconds behind. The spread of machines in the top echelons was swollen by the Winston Ten Kate Honda of Karl Muggeridge, fifth fastest. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox), a race winner at EuroSpeedway Lausitz last season, was in fine form in sixth place, ahead of Pitt’s team-mate, Noriyuki Haga. The second row of the provisional grid was completed by the second placed rider in the current series, James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) who experienced gearbox problems early in the day. BARROS NINTH AS HE PUSHES HARD DURING THE TITLE RUN IN Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda) slotted into ninth place on the opening day ‘grid’ just ahead of recent race victor, Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse), who was the best of the green men on day one. Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda) went 11th fastest, with Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) 12th. MARTIN IMPRESSES AS EVER AS JONES STARTS IN FINE FORM Steve Martin (Foggy Petronas FP-1) was in strong starting form at Lausitz, running the 900cc Petronas machine to 13th from 29 riders, with his team-mate Craig Jones making great strides in his rookie season, scoring 19th best time today. The top 13, from Bayliss to Martin, were all within 1.5 seconds. Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati) ran out 14th, one place ahead of Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse). Last man in the provisional Superpole 16 was Marco Borciani (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati). Yamaha Motor France riders Norick Abe and Shinichi Nakatomi scored 18th and 26th fastest places respectively. PRIVATEERS AIMING FOR SUPEPROLE ON DAY TWO If Saturday proves as dry and warm as expected, then many of the privateers in the current ‘exclusion zone’ outside the Superpole qualifying places will have another opportunity to join the pre-race elite. Pierfrancesco Chili (DFX Treme Honda) is currently 20th, with top wildcard rider Stefan Nebel (Kawasaki Docshop racing) 21st, ahead of another wild card, Didier Vankeymeulen. Max Neukirchner is 24th on his first real run out on home soil on the Alstare Engineering Suzuki. One place back in 25th was Kurtis Roberts SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) ripped up the tarmac around EuroSpeedway Lausitz with a new track best of 1’41.167 in first qualifying at Lausitz. The championship leader was untouchable, with the next nearest rider proving to be Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda), some 0.695 seconds down. Johan Stigefelt (Stiggy Motorsports Honda) went third fastest, with Curtain’s closest challenger Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) fourth. Robbin Harms (Stiggy Motorsports Honda) slotted in fifth, ahead of Yoann Tiberio (Megabike Honda). Carrying on his good turn of speed at Assen to another race weekend, Kai Borre Andersen (Hoegee Suzuki) was seventh. No fewer than 36 riders attempted to qualify for the Supersport race on day one, with top Ducati rider being Gianluca Nannelli (Team Manila Grace SC Caracchi). His team-mate, Stuart Easton, was 28th. SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP Claudio Corti (Yamaha Team Italia) staked a strong early claim to the Lausitz weekend with a first session lap time some 0.824 better than Ayrton Badovini (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta). Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni Racing) was third and holds a significant time advantage over championship leader Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki Racing), who was fully 1.230 seconds down on Corti’s best, with one session remaining. SUPERSTOCK 600 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP Ducati Xerox rider Niccolo Canepa enjoyed a highly fruitful first day in qualifying, with his 1’46.724 clearly better than the next qualifier, championship leader Xavier Simeon (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra). Andrea Antonelli (Junior Team Italia Honda) went third quickest, setting up a thrilling battle for the next qualifying session. More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: MUGGERIDGE AND TOSELAND ON PROVISIONAL SECOND ROW But for late session traffic on the Lausitz circuit Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) may have ended day one of qualifying on the provisional front row, and not the second, but fifth overall on the first official time sheets demonstrated the pace at which Muggeridge has adapted to the tight and twisty Lausitz circuit. James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) experienced some technical obstacles in the early stages, but still qualified eighth fastest on his number two machine. Championship leader Troy Bayliss headed the timesheets, with 2005 champion Troy Corser behind. One more qualifying session, and then Superpole, takes place on Saturday, with the dry but cool Friday conditions expected to improve overnight. Ronald Ten Kate Team Manager “Fairly happy with the results of today, and Karl is doing great around here, especially on his race set-up. He seems to be consistently fast and improving continuously. That’s good to see. James was having a good time earlier this morning but later on he had a bit of a setback. We still have some issues to resolve on the bike but I am sure the crew will be capable enough to fix it for tomorrow. It is quite important here to be at least on the second row, minimum, but even better on the front row. It’s just so tight and twisty around here so you need to be in the front at the very start. We need to work hard on the settings, as always, but we should be OK for tomorrow.” Karl Muggeridge Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (5th Position Fastest Lap 1’38.948 23 Laps) “We’re just trying to improve the handling characteristics. Our outright speed is OK and our lap-by-lap is pretty good, we’re just trying to get some more life out of the tyres. The climate change tomorrow, when it is supposed to be warmer, should help. If it doesn’t, then we will keep working away. It was frustrating today sometimes, because very time you wait to the end to try and go quicker you find traffic, and some guys just sit in the middle of the track. It was difficult to find a clear section but things are generally going the way we want them to.” James Toseland Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (8th Position Fastest Lap 1’39.347 23 Laps) “We didn’t have a perfect setting at the beginning of the timed session, and then right at the end we tried something now, so no big problems. This morning we had a problem with the gearbox, which is now solved. We are slowly getting the bike to where we wanted it to be and now it’s pretty good.” More, from a press release issued by Team Alstare Suzuki: SECOND AND THIRD FOR TROY AND YUKIO ON DAY ONE Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama finished the first day of qualifying at the Eurospeedway Lausitz well placed in second and third positions. Both will use tomorrow morning’s timed qualifying to improve their GSX-R1000 K6 Suzukis and then go all-out in Superpole in the afternoon. The 4.265 kilometre circuit, with its mixture of fast straights and slow turns, always means that the best combination of set-up and gearing is vital for consistent fast laps. Series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) set the quickest time of the day, with a lap of 1:38.331, right in the closing stages of the session. Completing the provisional front row is Aussie Andrew Pitt (Yamaha). TROY – 2nd, 1:38.550 Well that’s the happiest I’ve been for a long time – on a Friday afternoon. I was the quickest out there today, but then I think that Bayliss stuck in a softer tyre right at the end of the session. The grip was definitely up since this morning and that made quite a difference to our set-up. We tried some different gearings this afternoon and it was better in some places and not so good in others, so now we’ll change the internals and we should be able to improve quite a bit. But, as I said, I’m pretty happy this afternoon. YUKIO – 3rd, 1:38.869 This morning my body felt a little tired but I think that’s because I was fighting a cold or maybe ‘flu. But, in the afternoon, I felt much better and I was more comfortable on the bike because I was able to concentrate harder. The lap times this afternoon are not so bad, but I prefer a higher position! I had a problem with one tyre today, but apart from that nothing serious. Tomorrow we’ll change the rear suspension a little to see if I can get the power down better exiting the turns. More, from a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: BARROS QUALIFIES 9TH AT EUROSPEEDWAY LAUSITZ Brazilian Alex Barros (Team Klaffi Honda) rode to 9th position in the first SBK qualifying session at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany. Barros completed a total of 24 laps on Friday afternoon and reached a personal best of 1:39,572. After heavy rains during night the circuit got dry early in the morning. Still track temperatures were quite low with 27 degrees. Barros currently lies in 6th place in the championship with 175 points. Alex Barros: “At the moment we still have to improve the bike at both, the front and the rear suspension. Still it is not enough. I need a better feeling for the bike, especially, when I push really hard. Tomorrow it should be a little bit warmer than today. That will put us into a new situation.” Klaus Klaffenböck, Team Manager: “Our target in the championship is at least 4th position. Alex knows the track from our two days of private testing here in June. Temperatures, on the track and in the air, today were much lower, than in June. At the moment I am not completely satisfied, as we should be able to be higher up in the ranks, like we were in the sessions at Assen.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: ROLFO HAS TIRE GRIP PROBLEMS ON DUCATI, QUALIFIES 27TH At Eurospeedway first practice day for the WSBK German round. Some difficult for Roberto Rolfo in Superbike where, despite the very good top speed recorded by the 999F05 Ducati, any fast lap time has been recorded for the chronic difficult to out the slow corners that Rolfo declares. “Also on this track the package problems that we have from the most part of the season went on.” said Roberto Rolfo at the end of the qualifying session. “Most is the rear outing the slow corners that gives us problems, it looks that the bike has too much grip and I’m not able to slide for helping the corner. The guys worked hardly and we made some setting: thanking that the bike improved a lot in the first sector of the track, but the main problem goes on. The engine is great and pushes very well.” It is still the Supersport and the 749R Ducati to carry on some satisfaction to the team, despite some trouble that slowed Easton. Nannelli ended at tenth position and Nedog has done better as more experienced riders. Just quite satisfied Luka Nedog, his bike is still very fast and the young Slovenian rider is getting an always better confidence on his machine. “Yes, I’m getting an always greater confidence.” confirms Luka Nedog after the qualifying practice. “However we join always circuits unknown for me, so I still have to learn a new track to do my best. I’m however rather satisfied, the bike has a good top speed and I feel always more confident.” A bit disappointed is on the contrary Stuart Easton. The Scot in the warmest moment of the session suffered some gearbox trouble and he has not been able to earn grid positions. “Also the Eurospeedway circuit is one of the new track that I must contest this year.” – said Stuart Easton rejoining the pit. “During the morning free practice session I tried to learn it at my best, then during the afternoon, when we started to push for a good grid position, the gearbox had some trouble and I’ve been forced to rejoin the pit.” Gianluca Nannelli has been the fastest of the Supersport’s riders trio, recording a good tenth fastest in today qualifying. “We must look for a better top speed.” commented Gianluca Nannelli at the end of practices. “The bike runs well, I have a good traction as well a good handling, I just need some chilometer faster in top speed. I have some trouble for the position on the pit wall of my team, very clese to the braking point, so I’m engaged and I cannot read on the board the signals that the team convoys to me, and maybe I could lose the right moment as in the afternoon, when I’ve been late to rejoin the pit for a new tyre.” More, from a press release issued by Team Alstare Engineering: THE LEARNING PROCESS CONTINUES Max Neukirchner carried on his steep learning curve on the first day of qualifying at the Eurospeedway Lausitz this afternoon. Although he only finished 24th quickest, he was happy because he had improved his time by over two seconds from the morning untimed session. Max and the team know a lot of work has to be done in a very short time and race conditions are not particularly conducive to rapid results. Nevertheless, after last week’s tremendous result in Assen, Max is confident that further improvement will be made tomorrow and is looking forward to carrying on learning to set up and ride the Alstare Engineering GSX-R1000 K6 bike. MAX -24th, 1:41.334 There’s always lots to learn when you jump onto a new bike and we’re having to do all our learning during a race weekend, so there’s lots to do and not so much time to do it. Certainly the set-up of the bike felt better in the afternoon and now we’ll make some changes tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll improve some more. More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Encouraging opening day for FPR in Germany Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Craig Jones and Steve Martin produced a solid opening day’s performance at the tenth round of the Superbike World Championship in Germany. Craig made giants strides forward in the afternoon session, bouncing back from a freak early crash to better his morning time by three seconds and finish in 19th place. Steve also improved on his time set at the recent test at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz circuit to finish the day in 11th position, with championship leader Troy Bayliss once again setting the pace. Craig said: “I knew what times I could do on my settings from the test here and I came close to that in the afternoon. I took three seconds off my time from the morning just by circulating, because my confidence was knocked by the crash in the morning. There was a problem with the rear tyre, which looked brand new even after two laps and felt greasy. The rear wheel speed shot into the air when I got onto the gas onto the start-finish straight and I was thrown over the top. I landed on my knee, which I have injured before, so that was sore for the afternoon. But, if that does not get worse overnight, I think I have a good chance of going faster and challenging for Superpole.” Steve said: “It has been a good day and everything has gone smoothly. I was happy to do a 1:39 for the first time here and I am pretty sure that I will be able to go quicker tomorrow morning. We lowered the bike in the afternoon to slow the weight transfer down a bit and that worked well. We only really tried one tyre, which also puts us in a good position for tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga gave a strong showing in Friday’s qualifying for this weekend’s world superbike round at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, ending the day fourth and seventh after the first qualifying. Having attended July’s Pirelli test at the same venue, the squad arrived in Germany with good base settings for their YZF-R1s and spent the day working to further refine the machine performance for Sunday’s two 24 lap races. Pitt’s best time of 1:38.871 was just half a second down on provisional pole sitter Troy Bayliss (Ducati), who was over a second quicker than Ruben Xaus’ four year old lap record. Suzuki team-mates Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama complete the provisional front row. The Australian was largely satisfied with his day’s work. With lower temperatures and higher winds requiring a slightly different machine setting from last July’s test, Pitt and his crew made subtle changes to his machine throughout the sessions. The team will make a few more changes, including revised gearing, tomorrow in a bid to give their man the best possible machine for Sunday’s races. Haga spent the day’s two one hour sessions switching between his two machines, completing more laps than any other rider in the afternoon session. The Japanese rider has often ran with two differing specification machines on a race weekend but, with the team now certain of their best set-up, Haga worked on fine-tuning his ‘spare’ machine to give the same feeling as his number one bike. As always, the Japanese stuck worked on finding a good race tyre and suspension setting but still managed to set a lap time less than eight tenths of a second behind Bayliss. Norick Abe was the leading Yamaha Motor France rider in 18th place, while team-mate and countryman Shinichi Nakatomi ended the day 26th on his competitive debut at the twisting Lausitz circuit. Yamaha Motor France’s Sebastien Gimbert misses the Lausitz race after injuring his back in Assen last weekend, however the R1 ranks are boosted by the inclusion of last year’s FIM Superstock 1000 Cup winner Didier van Keymeulen. The Belgian is entered as a wildcard on board the YZF-R1 he normally campaigns in the German championship and ended first qualifying in 22nd position. Final practice and the grid deciding superpole session takes place tomorrow (Saturday) with the races scheduled for Sunday. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “Not a bad day. The bike feels a little different from when we tested here, which I think could be down to the higher winds today. We’ve got a few things to try out for tomorrow. The bike’s working well so we are just trying to make it a little easier and more consistent to ride. The rear tyre is the critical thing just now. The temperatures are lower today than when we tested and as a result we’re seeing much higher wear today.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “The feeling with the bike is good but the lap time could be better, so maybe I must ride faster! I did a lot of long runs today and also did quite a lot of laps on my number two bike. We came here with a good setting and now both bikes have the same feeling, so I am happy. I have a few things to try tomorrow and I am confident that we can be in good condition before superpole.” Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “We still have a few things to try and make the bike better for tomorrow but overall it’s not too bad. The times are all very close so if we can make a small improvement then we can make it into superpole.” Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) “This is a very tight circuit so I am learning all the time. Normally I can expect to make an improvement for Saturday and I think that the more I learn the faster I can go.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yamaha Motor Italia) “Both riders had a good practice today. The riders are all working on finding a good race setting and they are quite happy with how it went. We will make a few small adjustments to the settings for both riders tomorrow but today we did a good job and hope to continue that tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: TROY WELL PLACED TO ATTACK AND HAPPY For the first Friday afternoon in ages, Troy was happy with how his opening day had gone. He ended the day just behind series leader, and fellow countryman, Troy Bayliss (Ducati), but that only happened in the closing stages of the qualifying session this afternoon. Up until then Troy had been the quickest rider round the 4.265 kilometre circuit. Troy’s team mate Yukio Kagayama finished third quickest, with Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) completing the provisional front row. TROY – 2nd, 1:38.550 I’m happy today – and it’s been a long time since I said that on a Friday afternoon. No real problems at all today and I felt that the bike was working well and I was enjoying riding it. The morning was not as good as the afternoon, when it was hotter and the grip level improved. We made some changes to the gearing and it was good in some parts of the track and not so good in other parts of the track. Now we’ll try some different gearbox internals and see if we can improve further. I was the fastest until the end of the session, but then I think that Bayliss stuck in a softer tyre right at the end and managed to go quicker. This place is a bit of a one-line track, so a front row grid place is vital. But I’ll be going all-out for Superpole – as it’s about time I won another watch!