FIM Supersport World Championship Assen, Netherlands April 26, 2008 Final Qualifying Results: 1. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6), 1:40.895 2. Jonathan REA (Hon CBR600RR), 1:40.944 3. Craig JONES (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.077 4. Fabien FORET (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.188 5. Joan LASCORZ (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.330 6. Ivan CLEMENTI (Tri Daytona 675), 1:41.388 7. Josh BROOKES (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.446 8. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600), 1:41.518 9. Andrew PITT (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.708 10. Massimo ROCCOLI (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.742 11. Gianluca NANNELLI (Hon CBR600RR), 1:41.768 12. Angel RODRIGUEZ (Yam YZF-R6), 1:41.992 13. David SALOM (Yam YZF-R6), 1:42.097 14. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Hon CBR600RR), 1:42.110 15. Garry MCCOY (Tri Daytona 675), 1:42.120 16. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Hon CBR600RR), 1:42.143 17. Robbin HARMS (Hon CBR600RR), 1:42.237 18. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:42.312 19. Ilario DIONISI (Tri Daytona 675), 1:42.372 20. Chris WALKER (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:42.575 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Jones goes one better PARKALGAR HONDA’S Craig Jones enjoyed a titanic three-way battle for pole position during final qualifying for the fourth round of the World Supersport Championship and will start tomorrow’s race from third place on the front row. The 23-year-old British ace from Peterborough was on top of the time sheets for much of the wet morning session and always in contention during the dry afternoon qualifying, eventually finishing third less than 2/10ths of a second away from pole-sitter Broc Parkes. Parkalgar Honda Portuguese racer Miguel Praia ended up 24th and was unable to improve his lap time from yesterday at the tricky to master historic Dutch circuit. The fourth round of the World Supersport race at the 4.55km Assen track takes place at 1320 CET on Sunday, April 27th. It can be viewed live on www.worldsbk.com. Craig Jones: “It would have been better to be at the top of the time sheets in pole position but I never quite managed to put a perfect lap together so it wasn’t meant to be. However, I am happy to go one better than yesterday’s qualifying position and I am very comfortable on my Parkalgar Honda. I think we have a good race pace. “My plan for tomorrow is to try and make a break early on and get my head down. The trouble with Assen is that it is very long and flat and easy to follow other riders, so if I can’t get away I’ll go with the flow and take the race as it comes. Thank you to my Parkalgar Honda team for my excellent CBR600 it is doing everything I want.” Miguel Praia: “I am very disappointed that I was not able to make an improvement on my lap times from yesterday. My Parkalgar Honda is good and my team is giving me plenty of support, but I could not seem to improve no matter how hard I tried. “I need to think on how I can improve for the race because I should finish much higher than 24th. I want to score more points.” Simon Buckmaster, Team Manager: “That was easily the best qualifying session of the year to date. Watching it unfold in the garage was very exciting, made more-so for the Parkalgar Honda team as Craig was in contention for pole right up until the chequered flag. He has a strong front row starting position. “Craig has winning pace at this track along with three or four other riders. It’s going to be one mega race and that’s great for the fans. Parkalgar Honda and Craig Jones deserve their first win and tomorrow is as good a chance as any. “Miguel was rightly disappointed not to improve his lap times and has slipped back down the starting line-up. He has a lot of talent and is still getting to grips with needing to go banzai for a single lap in qualifying I think he actually tried too hard and that slowed him down. We are sure he will have a better race tomorrow and bring home more points.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia Triumph-SC: FOURTH AND FIFTH ROW FOR THE TEAM TRIUMPH-SC IN THE NETHERLANDS (Assen The Netherlands April 26, 2008) The final qualifying day at Assen has been lighted up for the sun, excluded a short rain shower early in the morning. For the Triumph-SC Team not everybody has been perfect, but it had some satisfaction too, as the best maximum speed recorded by the 675 Daytonas Supersport in the speed trap placed in the circuit’s fastest line. Garry McCoy said at the end: “The qualifying result could be a bit better, but at the end I have to be satisfied. The bike I used in the fastest lap is a bit slower as the spare bike, and we hadn’t time enough to improve it, while that which is faster is not jet well set for the final split. More in the fast laps at the end of session a parked rider, very very slow, moved suddenly from his riding line and gave me a very hard shot on my fairing. It’s a pity do not have a better position on the grid, but with a good start I’m pretty confident we could make a good race.” Ilario Dionisi declared: “This morning we had some clutch troubles and I didn’t run too much, then, when I rejoined the track the racing lines were quickly drying and I destroyed a rain tyre in only one lap. During afternoon’s qualifying session I improved my performance, but a few minutes to go just the same rider that bump into Garry made the same nasty trick on me too and it missed a whisker to fly away. I haven’t any particular critical sectors on this track and our bikes are on the top as maximum speed. It would be important to have a quick start and to find a good set up for the race tomorrow morning.” In Superstock 600, that at Assen will race on Sunday afternoon, starting at 14,25 insteed of at Saturday as the normal timetable, Robbie Stewart got the 21st position on the starting grid: “I improved my lap time, but I’ve lost some position on the grid. The machine is running well, but in the long sequences of corners I do not feel confident, and just in the final split from Hoge Heide to the finish line I lose time. However for the race if I’ll be able to get a good start I could look for a positive final result too.” More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Rea takes second spot in strong day of qualifying The second Supersport qualifying session saw HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea firmly hold on to the provisional pole throughout most of the session, only to lose his leading position in the penultimate round to Broc Parkes. Rea managed to show his outright pace throughout the afternoon session and was the first one to dip under the lap record set by Kenan Sofuoglu last year. Rea finished in 1’40.944 which places him on second place on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Andrew Pitt managed to end the morning’s free practice session in 4th place but struggled to keep up his performance throughout the second qualifying. Pitt ended the session in 1’41.708 which places him on the 11th position on the grid in tomorrow’s Supersport race. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager; “I am pleased with the results Jonathan achieved here today and want to give a big compliment to him and his team. He has been very competitive from the start at this circuit where he has no previous experience. The team has worked hard to help him familiarise with the track and have been rewarded for their effort.” “It looks set to become a great Supersport race tomorrow with the top 10 riders all qualifying with less then a second difference between them.” “Pitt has had a disappointing second day of qualifying and struggles to find the pace. We have tried a lot of new things and made some alterations in the set up but were forced to return to the latest setting we used here before.” “I am confident Pitt will play a role in tomorrow’s battle for the top places.” Jonathan Rea, 1’40.944; “I am quite happy with my results today, but its annoying to be leading the field for most of the session and then being passed at the end.” “We’ve tried a soft tire and a hard tire and managed to make both tires run very well. We are still making our minds up on the choice for tomorrow’s race tire. My team has done a great job making them work for me.” “I’m happy to qualify on the front row, It gives me a clear track into turn one and we can start from there and try and put a good race together. For sure it will be really nice to be on the podium here in Assen for the team’s home race and that’s my goal for tomorrow.” Andrew Pitt, 1’41.708; “Qualifying on the third row of the grid is not ideal for tomorrow’s race and it will be a long run to make my way to the front of the field.” “I’ve gained more confidence with the front of the bike, after we’ve made some changes to the front forks in yesterday’s session it seems to be getting better.” “We have done some long runs this session to test the tires. We put one soft tire in, instead of two or three but ran out of time at the end of the session. We probably needed another 5 or 10 minutes. We’ll have to try and make our way forward in the race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by BE1 Racing: The team Triumph Italia BE1 Racing are very satisfied with the results achieved in the second day at Assen, Holland. At the end of the qualifying Ivan Clementi takes the 6th position, that means he will start from the second row on tomorrow starting grid. The Italian rider powered a great performance and his quickest lap ended at less than 5 tenths from the pole position, as well he showed to have already reached a promising race pace by which aiming at great results tomorrow. On the other hand, his team-mate Mark Aitchison has been placed in the back-lines. Although he did an hard work, he could not capitalize his efforts. Tomorrow he will start from the sixth row, with the points as main goal. IVAN CLEMENTI | Triumph 675 | 6th classified in 1’41.388: “We have done a great job today. We focused on the race during the first part of the session, spending the first 45 minutes to test set-up and tyres. Then we tried to set a quick time and we got it, although it could have been better. Indeed, after the first split, I was recording the pole but at the end of the second part of the track I met Harms on my way and it slowed me down enough to lose the front row. If tomorrow I will start as I wish, avoiding the battle of the first lap, I’m sure to have what it takes to perform a great race”. MARK AITCHISON | Triumph 675 | 22nd classified in 1’42.693: “I feel confident about the race although my starting position is not good. In the last race I started well and I could recover many positions during the first lap. I will try to repeat this strategy tormorrow, since my race pace is very good and I can carry out a great recovery as I did in Valencia when I took the 10th final position”. GIULIANO ROVELLI | Team Manager: “I’m very satisfied with our improvements. Today we have carried out our best result in the qualifying session since the start of the season. I hope it will take us to set our best result in the race too. Ivan is getting the most from the potential of the machine and he is capitalizing the hard work done by the team both on track and at home. I’m also satisfied with the development of Arrow exhaust which allowed us to fine tune the engine delivery”. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Parkes Takes Pole With New Track Best Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) set a new track best at the 4.555km Assen circuit to take his first pole of the year, despite riding with a broken metacarpal bone in his left hand, sustained after a first day practice crash. Parkes set a 1’40.895 in what was a close final qualifying session, with a further 10 riders within one second of his new track best. Parkes’ team-mate Fabien Foret will line up on the front row also, having set fourth best time in the last qualifying session, only 0.293 seconds from Parkes. Foret had reverted to his pre-Assen testing set up to earn his best time of the weekend, with a 1’41.188. Both Yamaha World Supersport team riders have now set pole positions on the all-new Yamaha YZF-R6 machine, with Foret taking his pole prize at the opening round in Qatar. Should raceday rain appear at Assen, all 36 riders in the WSS class will have some idea of the settings to use in wet conditions, as the unofficial practice session proved to be wet this morning. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) was the next best placed R6 rider, pushing his machine into the top ten, even though he was not completely confident in his front end set-up during the dry final qualifying session. Yamaha Spain riders Angel Rodriguez and David Salom were 12th and 13th respectively, with Rodriguez now on the third row of the grid and Salom the fourth. Broc Parkes (1st – 1m 40.895 – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “I was happy to be on top yesterday and today it is a bonus again. The team had the bike absolutely right so I just rode it as well as I could. Tomorrow will be a different story maybe, as I have to do 21 laps with a broken hand, but we will see how it goes. I know I can ride, so tomorrow I will have a painkiller and get through it. Today I’m pumped because this is my first pole this year and normally I am not the greatest qualifier in the world. This is a great feeling.” Fabien Foret (4th – 1m 41.188 – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “A front row start is what I could expect and it will be OK for the race. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will finalise a few things to make the bike a bit better for the race and make the ride more comfortable. My tyre choice has been made and we should be OK. The tyres are sliding a bit in these conditions but so is everyone else, it seems.” Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team) “This is the kind of pre-race result we should expect after testing here recently. The plan is working out well so far, but this championship is hard and it will be a tough job in the race tomorrow. Even with a broken hand Broc improved on his time from yesterday and got pole position. He felt confident and we didn’t really touch the bike, he just went out and rode even better. Fabien is back to almost the same set-up he had before the test, after trying a few new things. It is important that he has a good base for all 21-laps, not, just one fast lap. You don’t need to do low 1’41s all the time in the race it is just a question of finding the right balance. We learned a bit in the rain this morning, so we know where to improve the set-up if raceday is wet.” Massimo Roccoli (10th – 1’41.742 seconds – Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) “The second qualifying was difficult today because the condition of the track was different from yesterday. My concern was with the front set-up because it feels very light and halfway through the corner I don’t feel I can open the throttle hard. The first split is OK but the last part of the track is where we are struggling for time. We will try another set-up in warm-up and maybe make the wheelbase shorter.” Angel Rodriguez: (12th – 1’41.992 seconds – Yamaha Spain) “Today was fine with the wet track surface in the morning, but in the qualifying session I could not improve the time we achieved yesterday, because I tried some tyres and I didn’t feel comfortable with them. We made some improvements in our suspension set up and tomorrow I hope to be in front; normally I start quite well.” David Salom: (13th – 1’42.097 seconds – Yamaha Spain) “I rode faster than yesterday and today I felt more comfortable, even at a higher pace. That gave me confidence and in the last minutes of the session I started to be able to go fast. We know we have a good rhythm for tomorrow, somewhere between mid and high 1’42s. I hope to be fighting with the riders near the front.”