FIM Supersport World Championship Phillip Island, Australia February 25 Final Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Broc Parkes, Australia”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:34.445 2. Sam Lowes, Great Britain”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:34.461 3. Jules Cluzel, France”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:34.558 4. Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey”ƒ(Kawasaki ZX-6R),”ƒ1:34.577 5. Fabien Foret, France”ƒ(Kawasaki ZX-6R),”ƒ1:34.791 6. Sheridan Morais, South Africa”ƒ(Kawasaki ZX-6R),”ƒ1:34.998 7. Alex Baldolini, Italy”ƒ(Triumph Daytona 675),”ƒ1:35.013 8. Balazs Nemeth, Hungary”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.296 9. Roberto Tamburini,”ƒItaly (Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.342 10. Pawel Szkopek,”ƒPoland (Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.448 11. Massimo Roccoli, Italy”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:35.507 12. Lucas Pesek, Czech Republic”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.526 13. Ronan Quarmby, South Africa”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.644 14. Vittorio Iannuzzo, Italy”ƒ(Triumph Daytona 675),”ƒ1:35.646 15. Mathew Scholtz, South Africa”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.669 16. Ondrej Jezek, Czech Republic (Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.709 17. Jed Metcher, Australia”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:35.734 18. Fabio Menghi, Italy”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:35.884 19. Josh Day, USA”ƒ(Kawasaki ZX-6R),”ƒ1:35.899 20. Imre Toth,”ƒHungary (Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:35.945 21. Vladimir Leonov, Russia”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:35.952 22. Martin Jessopp, Great Britain”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:36.044 23. Luca Marconi, Italy”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:36.206 24. Andrea Antonelli, Italy”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:36.471 25. Dino Lombardi, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:36.736 26. Romain Lanusse, France”ƒ(Kawasaki ZX-6R),”ƒ1:36.758 27. Yves Polzer, Austria”ƒ(Yamaha YZF-R6),”ƒ1:37.358 28. Thomas Caiani, Switzerland”ƒ(Honda CBR600RR),”ƒ1:39.021 More, from a press release issued by Performance Technical Racing: PTR HONDA’S World Supersport newcomer Jules Cluzel will start tomorrow’s opening round of the Championship at Phillip Island in Australia from an impressive third place on the front row of the grid. Jules: “I hurt my finger on my right hand in a fast crash in the morning. This afternoon after this big crash, I was not scared but needed to restore my confidence and I am happy again. I tried to improve my lap time but on my first fast lap I was caught in traffic – I needed to pass one guy on the outside and this ruined the lap. Then we changed the tyre and I did the same lap time as yesterday – and I had to pass a guy on this lap. I am just one tenth from fastest and I think we have good pace for the race, I am liking the PTR Honda bike a lot.” Ronan: “I did not improve my lap time from yesterday which is disappointing. We have some ideas to try for morning warm-up and I hope to be fighting inside the top 10 in the race.” Martin: “That was not the day I was looking for as I was struggling with a few things and not able to go faster than yesterday. I do not have enough speed at the apex and made a change that went too soft on the front – there was not enough weight on the rear and the tyre was spinning. In the extreme heat today I suffered even more. We will go harder on the front tonight and come back and go better in warm-up. I have never been a great qualifier; my strength is always that I do my fastest lap in the race. I have done myself no favours with my grid position but hopefully I will get dragged along and carry on with learning how to adapt to a Supersport bike in the race.” Simon Buckmaster, PTR Honda Team Manager: “A great job again by Jules. After a crash this morning it is hats off to the PTR team for completely rebuilding the bike between sessions, -a very professional job – and Jules was grateful. Jules will be in contention for the podium I am sure. The track temperature was really high today and Ronan was running wide and we have spoken with Ohlins to make improvements for tomorrow. Martin is still adapting, I am sure in the race he will rise to the challenge and be in contention for the points.” More, from a press release issued by Bogdanka PTR Honda: BOGDANKA PTR HONDA’S Sam Lowes finished the final qualifying session at Phillip Island in a close second, just 16 thousands of a second from pole position, and is ready to fight for his maiden World Supersport win when the 15-lap race starts at 3:15 CET on Sunday. Mathew Scholtz on the other Bogdanka PTR Honda made more progress with his race pace today ahead of his debut World Supersport race and finished a close qualifying session in 15th position, only 1.2secs from pole position. Bogdanka Honda PTR’s Pawel Szkopek made a sensational start to the day by going third fastest in the second practice session before taking his best ever World Supersport grid position and qualifying in tenth in the afternoon. Today’s World Supersport qualifying session was delayed after a fatal accident in the Australian Superstock 600 support race involving a young local rider Oscar McIntyre. The whole team wishes to send its deepest condolences to Oscar’s family, friends and team. Sam Lowes: “I’m very happy with today’s qualifying and looking forward to the race. I hit traffic on a quick lap, which stopped me from taking pole position, but I’m looking forward to my first race for Bogdanka PTR Honda and I hope to fight for victory. I want to make a solid start to the 2012 season and I’m ready for a strong title challenge. I’d like to thank all my team and fans. Roll on race one! I don’t know too much about today’s accident but it’s very sad and I’d wish to send my condolences to Oscar’s family.” Mathew Scholtz: “We made good progress this morning, found a few things and improved my race pace which I’m really happy about. In the qualifying we had a bit of a problem and a front tyre puncture so I wasn’t able to go faster in the end. It will be my first World Supersport race tomorrow so I’m going into it with an open mind and I don’t have really big expectations. I just hope I can bring home some points. My deepest condolences go out to the family and friends or Oskar. It’s a very sad thing and something nobody likes to see in racing.” Pawel Szkopek: “Today went exactly as we had hoped. We went a full second quicker than yesterday and more than half a second faster than in the test on Tuesday, so I’m feeling confident ahead of the race, especially after going third fastest this morning. Special thanks go to my team for their excellent work this weekend. I’m confident we can fight for a top ten finish. I’m very sad about today’s accident and wish to send my deepest condolences to Oscar’s family. I want to do well and dedicate my result to him.” Simon Buckmaster, Bogdanka PTR Honda Team Manager: “Sam is in good shape for the race and is very positive, so we are looking forward to seeing what he can achieve. Mathew has improved his consistency and is in a good position to score points in this first outing on a World Supersport bike.” More, from a press release issued by Power by Suriano Team: Alex Baldolini and Vittorio Iannuzzo are respectively going to kick off the first Supersport World Championship round from a seventh and a fourteenth position. A result that came during a tough day when a young rider, during practice in the australian national championship, lost his life. Because of that, practices were postponed. In addiction, extremely high temperature (over 36°C) made it hard for most of the tyres. Now is just matter of thinking about tomorrow, with the race shortened only to 15 laps. The aim is to leave Australia scoring points for the ranking. Alex Baldolini Triumph Daytona 675 #25 – “Today we couldn’t work as we wanted. It’s been a dark day where we struggled with quite a few issues. I’m still positive about the race and I’ll give it all to strike a good outcome. I’m looking forward for the warm up, when we’ll check the setting within sight of the race.” Vittorio Iannuzzo Triumph Daytona 675 #31 – “Today I’ve been one of the few riders to improve his own timing despite the working conditions were pretty tough. We had some setting matters with the hard tyre and only with the soft ones we managed to provide a reasonable setting. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna try a something different and then I’ll choose the right setting to race with.” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: Honda World Supersport riders 1st, 2nd, 3rd on the grid Ten Kate Racing Products Honda rider, Broc Parkes, will start tomorrow’s first round World Supersport championship race from pole position after setting the fastest time in this afternoon’s second qualifying session at Phillip Island in Australia. The 31-year-old Australian rider has returned to the Ten Kate Honda team this season for the first time since 2004 when he finished as runner-up in the World Supersport series. His Honda CBR600RR machine will line up on the grid alongside two other Hondas ridden by Sam Lowes and Jules Cluzel, with Turkish rider and 2010 world champion, Kenan Sofuoglu, rounding out the front row. Tomorrow’s race has been shortened from the scheduled 21 laps to 15 after exceedingly high track temperatures at Phillip Island, which reach 60 degrees centigrade this afternoon, caused concerns about rear tyre degradation. Broc Parkes: It was very hot out there this afternoon and we did a race distance run at the start of the session just to test the tyre. We put 15 laps on it and saved two new rears for the end of the session to try and put in a good time. I was a little bit worried that we couldn’t go any faster with the heat this afternoon and we only went a tenth faster than yesterday, but overall it was enough to get pole. I feel really happy and the bike seems to be working real good. Our biggest concern is the rear tyre for the race – we need to choose a tyre that we hope can go the distance, so we’ll have a good think and make that choice tonight. There are three choices and we’ve done 15 to 17 laps on each of them. I’m really enjoying the bike though, it feels really good and seems to be doing everything I want! Sam Lowes: “I’m very happy with today’s qualifying and looking forward to the race. I hit traffic on a quick lap, which stopped me from taking pole position, but I’m looking forward to my first race for Bogdanka PTR Honda and I hope to fight for victory. I want to make a solid start to the 2012 season and I’m ready for a strong title challenge. I’d like to thank all my team and fans. Roll on race one! I don’t know too much about today’s accident but it’s very sad and I’d wish to send my condolences to Oscar’s family.” Jules Cluzel: “I hurt my finger on my right hand in a fast crash in the morning. This afternoon after this big crash, I was not scared but needed to restore my confidence and I am happy again. I tried to improve my lap time but on my first fast lap I was caught in traffic – I needed to pass one guy on the outside and this ruined the lap. Then we changed the tyre and I did the same lap time as yesterday – and I had to pass a guy on this lap. I am just one tenth from fastest and I think we have good pace for the race, I am liking the PTR Honda bike a lot.” More, from a press release issued by Infront Motor Sports: Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) secured the first pole of the season on his Honda CBR600RR with a 1 minute 34.445 second lap, set this afternoon in the final qualifying session. On the combined qualifying sheets a late charge from Bogdanka PTR Honda rider Sam Lowes made sure he would lead Frenchman Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda) making it three CBR riders in the top three places. Kawasaki riders monopolised the next three spots, with Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki DeltaFin Lorenzini), Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) and Sofuglu’s team-mate Sheridan Morais completing the top six grid places. Italian rider Alex Baldolini (Power Team by Suriano Triumph) was seventh and the second row of the grid was completed by Balazs Nemeth (Racing Team Toth). More, from a press release issued by Front Row Start For Sofuoglu In Australia WSS, Phillip Island, Australia, 25 February 2012 Kawasaki DeltaFin Lorenzini rider Kenan Sofuoglu earned a front row start, in fourth place, after the final qualifying session at Phillip Island, setting a best lap time of 1’34.577 in hot conditions. After the tragedy of a fatal accident during a support race the second Supersport qualifying session started later than scheduled but was run in its entirety. Sofuoglu was on his usual swashbuckling form this afternoon, pushing hard to record a time only 0.132 seconds from pole, in what was a very close session for the top four riders. Just behind him Kawasaki Intermoto Step rider Fabien Foret went fifth, with Kawasaki DeltaFin Lorenzini rider Sheridan Morais sixth after putting together all his set-up data together in the final session before warm-up tomorrow morning. Hot conditions are expected to arrive at Phillip Island for raceday once again and track temperatures reached almost 60°C today. Shortly after 19.30 on Saturday evening it was announced that the championship organisers had shortened the race to 15 laps and not the scheduled 21. This was done to make sure the tyres will last in these extreme temperatures, on a circuit with many long left hand corners. Tragedy hit the PI meeting when young local rider Oscar McIntyre suffered fatal injuries in an accident during the Australian 600c Superstock Championship race. Everyone involved in Kawasaki’s racing activities offers their sincere condolences to Oscar’s family and friends. Kenan Sofuoglu: “Everything is good and we improved the set-up a lot, I think. I really tried for a lap time but I am not happy that I could not take pole because I missed a few things in my fastest lap and I found some traffic. So to qualify on the front row of the grid was not so bad. I did a race run this morning to I think we are really ready for the race. I should be strong so hopefully we should fight for the win.” Sheridan Morais: “It was just an improved set-up on the bike that put me up to sixth. Yesterday we just focused on getting everything right for the race while a lot of people were putting on soft tyres all the time, going for lap times. Today I could work on some lap times and in the free practice we showed we could set some fast time, then in qualifying the first soft tyre that I put on I did my best lap time on. When I went out after that on soft tyres there was just so much traffic! People were coming out of the pits and obviously looking for a tow, so while they were doing that they were holing us up. I did not beat my first lap time on a fresh tyre, but I know that I could have, so I think we did a good job of getting the bike right.” Fabien Foret: “I had only one soft tyre and I got caught up behind some other riders so I could not really improve my times. Some guys are fast for one lap or two but I feel we will be stronger in the race, so let’s see for tomorrow.”