2005 World Supersport championship, round two Phillip Island, Australia Sunday, 3 April 2005 CHARPENTIER TAKES AUSTRALIAN WIN, FUJIWARA JUST MISSES PODIUM Sébastien Charpentier took victory in today’s World Supersport championship second round race at Phillip Island in Australia, crossing the line 3.5 seconds ahead of local rider, Kevin Curtain. His Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Katsuaki Fujiwara, finished in fourth place, just fifteen hundredths of a second behind Honda-mounted third placed man, Fabien Foret. It was Charpentier’s second win in world championship supersport racing his first coming seven years ago at Nurburgring in Germany and gives the Frenchman the championship lead after his second place at the opening round in Qatar. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “It was a fantastic race to watch and I’m so happy for Sébastien after being so close to winning here last year. He has been consistently fast since we first started testing and thoroughly deserves this victory. Kats was so close to getting on the podium, which would have been the perfect way to follow-up his win in Qatar. This is the ninth consecutive win for the team and, overall, I’m really pleased to be heading back to racing in Europe with first and second place in the championship.” Sébastien Charpentier first “It’s been a long time since my last win but I am very happy, especially after the mystery with the front that we had in Qatar. I love Phillip Island and its fast corners, and I was very confident coming here after the successful test we had at Valencia. I had a great race with Kevin Curtain but the wind was very difficult for all of us because it would change strength from lap to lap. The team has been great and we made a really good tyre choice today with a hard front and a medium rear it was the perfect combination.” Katsuaki Fujiwara fourth “It is very disappointing to miss third place by the width of a tyre but I am happy for Sébastien and the rest of the team. The wind was so strong today and it made the bike very difficult to control. I had an amazing battle for third with Fabien Foret and Michel Fabrizio on other Hondas and I tried as hard as I could the whole way through. I’m still learning with the CBR but the team is helping me all the time.” World Supersport, Phillip Island results (21 laps, 93.345kms): 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 34m28.920s, 2 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) +3.595s, 3 Fabien Foret FRA (Honda) +9.641s, 4 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) +9.664, 5 Jurgen vd Goorbergh NED (Ducati) +29.602, 6 Johan Stigefelt SWE (Honda) +34.168, 7 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha) +42.695, 8 Stephane Chambon FRA (Honda) +46.360, 9 Tauto Lauslehto FIN (Honda) +48.976, 10 Christophe Cogan FRA (Suzuki) +56.859. Championship points after two of 12 rounds: Charpentier 45, Fujiwara 38, Curtain 33, Foret 27, Parkes 19, Chambon 17, Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 16, Javier Fores ESP (Suzuki) 13, Lauslehto 13, vd Goorbergh 11. Next round: Valencia, Spain 24 April