Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn LeSanto

Supersport grid stays the same after wet qualifying

The second World Supersport qualifying session at Silverstone was ruined by rain, leaving the grid almost exactly as it had finished on Friday. That left Fabien Foret on pole next to the young Australian Chris Vermeulen.

Karl Muggeridge remains in third on his Honda next to Katsuaki Fujiwara on a Suzuki. Iain MacPherson starts from his best grid position so far this year having qualified in fifth, while Christian Cogan starts from sixth, both on Hondas.

“Obviously I am very pleased to be on pole,” said Foret, “but I would have preferred to have had dry laps and a chance to work more on my set up. For the race I am hoping for either full wet, or full dry, because it is very hard to choose the right tire when the conditions are like this. Some parts are very dry, and yet when you get to the last split the track is extremely wet, it’s difficult!”

Shortly after the start of qualifying the rain came down really hard. Although the track dried a little, mainly due to the strong winds, the surface still had large areas of very wet tarmac. The forecast for Sunday is for an improvement in the weather, but the chance of a wet race remains.

Final World Supersport Qualifying Times:

1. Fabien Foret, Honda, 1:52.259
2. Chris Vermeulen, Honda, 1:52.462
3. Karl Muggeridge, Honda, 1:52.926
4. Katsuaki Fujiwara, Suzuki, 1:53.091
5. Iain MacPherson, Honda, 1:53.135
6. Christophe Cogan, Honda, 1:53.467
7. Paolo Casoli, Yamaha, 1:53.504
8. Christian Kellner, Yamaha, 1:53.556
9. Stephane Chambon, Suzuki, 1:53.667
10. Werner Daemen, Honda, 1:53.798
11. Jorg Teuchert, Yamaha, 1:53.861
12. Kevin Curtain, Yamaha, 1:54.212
13. Matthieu Lagrive, Yamaha, 1:54.229
14. Alessio Corradi, Yamaha, 1:54.274
15. James Ellison, Kawasaki, 1:54.446
16. Andrew Pitt, Kawasaki, 1:54.564
17. James Whitham, Yamaha, 1:54.641
18. Diego Giugovaz, Yamaha, 1:54.714
19. Stefano Ciuciani, Yamaha, 1:54.808
20. Antonio Carlacci, Yamaha, 1:55.037