From a press release issued by FGSport Group:

Yamaha Austria on Provisional Pole

Austrian Team Fastest At Home Round

Local heroes Yamaha Austria have taken provisional pole position for tomorrow’s A1-Ring Six Hour World Endurance Race. The fastest time of today’s first qualifying session was 1:34.118, set by Horst Saiger. His team mates also qualified well, with Karl Truchsess fastest in his group and Erwin Wilding second fastest in his.

The first five places on the provisional grid are covered by a second, with all five teams having dipped into the one minute thirty four second bracket. These times are expected to fall further tomorrow as riders learn the circuit and teams find suspension and gearing setups to suit the conditions. This is the first time that championship has visited the circuit in recent years and only Yamaha Austria have significant experience here. Track conditions were slippery for this morning’s free practice sessions, but have improved during the course of the day.

The teams holding second, third and fourth places all experienced problems this afternoon. Second placed Suzuki Zongshen No.1 once again struggled to find a brake set-up that worked well, Piergiorgio Bontempi on the Suzuki Zongshen No.2 bike hit a slowing rider on his second fast lap, and Jason Pridmore on the Suzuki GB Phase One snapped a drive chain at the start of his session, only completing three laps.

The final qualifying session begins at 8:30am tomorrow morning, with the first half of the race scheduled to begin at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon, and the second half beginning at 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon.

2003, July 18 Quotes

Horst Saiger – Yamaha Austria: “Everyone is very close – Police, Zongshen, Phase One… We will have to see what happens tomorrow.”

Mandy Kainz – Yamaha Austria Team Manager: “Tomorrow our team’s supporters will
arrive; we have given 1000 special tickets to our fan club and they will make us go even faster.”

Stephane Mertens – Zongshen No.1: “I know we can go faster tomorrow, so I am happy. I made a lot of mistakes on my fastest lap so I was surprised to see the time. We have brake pads that work now and the set-up is improving.”

Piergiorgio Bontempi – Zongshen No.2: “On my second lap with the qualifying tyre I caught up with Yamaha Austria when they slowed down, and we touched so I went off line. Tomorrow, with a good lap on a good tyre, will be faster.”

Jason Pridmore – Suzuki GB Phase One: “I only did three laps this session – we don’t normally use the second qualifying session, but tomorrow we will because we can go faster.”

Mike Edwards – DRE Ducati: “This isn’t the best track for the Ducati; there are three straights where the Suzukis can pass us, and then the corners are too slow for us to have any advantage. But I ride at this pace all weekend so it looks good for the race.”

Provisional Top Ten

1st Yamaha Austria (AUT) – Saiger –Wilding -Truchsess 1:34.118

2nd Suzuki Zongshen 1 (CHN) – Mertens – Nowland 1:34.153

3rd Suzuki Zongshen 2 (CHN) – Bontempi – Jerman – Bonhuil 1:34.266

4th Suzuki GB (GBR) – Pridmore – Ellison 1:34.759

5th Suzuki Police Nationale (FRA) – Gabbani – Blora 1:34.939

6th DRE Ducati (ITA) – Edwards – Garcia – Marchetti 1:35.222

7th Phase One Junior (GBR) – Notman – Fincher – Jessop 1:35.312

8th Suzuki Trackdaze (GBR) – Cudlin – Plataci – Pilborough 1:35.388

9th Yamaha GMT94 (FRA) – Foti – Scarnato – Guyot 1:35.473

10th Suzuki Jet Team (SUI) – Monot – Jaggi – Waldmeier 1:36.140