2007 FIM Superbike World Championship Vallelunga, Italy September 28, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Troy CORSER (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.537 2. Troy BAYLISS (Ducati 999F07), 1:37.578 3. Noriyuki HAGA (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.951 4. Max BIAGGI (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:37.962 5. James TOSELAND (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:38.111 6. Roberto ROLFO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:38.279 7. Michel FABRIZIO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:38.310 8. Regis LACONI (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:38.486 9. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:38.573 10. Ruben XAUS (Ducati 999F06), 1:38.659 11. Lorenzo LANZI (Ducati 999F07), 1:38.892 12. Fonsi NIETO (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:39.010 13. Vittorio IANNUZZO (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:39.017 14. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:39.190 15. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:39.327 16. Norino BRIGNOLA (Ducati 999F05), 1:39.341 17. Marco BORCIANI (Ducati 999F06), 1:39.418 18. Jakub SMRZ (Ducati 999F05), 1:39.475 19. Max NEUKIRCHNER (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:39.885 20. Yoann TIBERIO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:39.959 21. Steve MARTIN (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:40.241 22. Luca MORELLI (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:40.609 23. Dean ELLISON (Ducati 999RS), 1:42.069 More, from a press release issued by Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra: 2007 Superbike World Championship Round 12, Vallelunga, Italy, 28th September Circuit: 4.110 kms. Conditions: Mostly dry 19-21C. TOP FOUR FOR MAX. Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Max Biaggi ended the first day of qualifying at Vallelunga with the fourth fastest time, even though he was not really pushing hard. As usual, Max spent most of the day working on a good bike set-up so that he can get comfortable on the bike. His team mate Yukio Kagayama is still feeling the effects of his crash in the last round at the Eurospeedway Lausitz where he broke a bone in his right hand. Despite the pain and discomfort, he managed to post the fourteenth quickest time of the day. Aussie Troy Corser (Yamaha) set the fastest time in today’s qualifying, with a lap of 1:37.537, just ahead of his fellow countryman Troy Bayliss (Ducat), with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) third. Max – 4th, 1:37.962 Today I spent most of the time working on finding a good set-up. When I get that and am comfortable, I can begin to push really hard. I had a little problem with vibration in the turns, but it only affected one bike, not the other. We’ll have to work on that and solve the problem. This afternoon, when I was on a ‘hot lap’ towards the end of the session, the rear was spinning a bit. But it was too late to come in and put another tyre in, so I just carried on. Like all tracks, a good grid place is important, so I’ll be making sure of that tomorrow in final qualifying and Superpole. Yukio – 14th, 1:39.190 Last Sunday, I didn’t think I’d be able to ride the bike this weekend, because my wrist was badly swollen and it felt very sore. But now the swelling has gone down and today it felt better than I thought it would. My arm is not as strong as before the crash, so it may be a problem towards the end of the races. My other problem here are the small corners. I do not like small corners and especially the hairpin here! This track is quite physical and I shall have to see how my hand holds up tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: HANNspree Ten Kate Honda makes good progress The first day of qualifying for round 12 of the 2007 World Superbike Championship took place in unpredictable weather at the Autodromo di Vallelunga in Italy today. HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s James Toseland ended the day as the fifth fastest rider while team-mate Roberto Rolfo was not far behind in sixth. Although the morning’s heavy rain subsided in time for the free practice, the track surface remained damp and this hindered results. Despite this, both HANNspree Ten Kate Honda riders set fastest laps and remained in the top six for the majority of the session. The official qualifying followed a similar pattern, with Toseland and Rolfo putting in fastest laps each before finally settling into fifth and sixth positions respectively. The team has made good progress towards finding the correct set-up for the CBR1000RR machines on the 4.110km Vallelunga circuit. Both riders are confident that they can improve on their lap times in tomorrow’s final qualifying. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “It’s been quite a good start to the weekend, although there is still quite a lot of work to do on different areas of the machine. James is suffering a lot in the infield area of the circuit but with all the data gathered from today and the test here we should be able to make some improvements for tomorrow. I am quite happy to see Roby riding so well round here so hopefully we can also improve things for him – let’s see what tomorrow brings.” James Toseland: “I am really pleased that the rain held off this afternoon because if it had rained we’d be in a really difficult position for tomorrow. As it is, we have a few small problems but it’s nothing we can’t solve. We’ve definitely moved in the right direction today and we can improve tomorrow.” Roberto Rolfo: “Today was good for me. We have made a lot of improvements to the bike compared to the test here. We found a good set-up almost immediately. At the end of the first qualifying I am happy – although we still have some work to do on things such as rear grip. Anyway, I am confident and I am looking forward to the race.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: WORLD DEBUT AT VALLELUNGA FIRST PRACTICE DAY World Superbike debut at Vallelunga circuit, near Rome, for the penultimate round of the 2008 series, a week before the final round in France. This circuit ha a special meaning for Gianluca Nannelli, that on this track scoret the 2003 Supersport Italian Championship award. Gianluca prepared as never this race in front of the Italian fans, but today he had no lucky and some technical troubles did limit his chances, as well the team had already seen the problem. “In just ten days we’ll finish the 2007 season, starting here in Italy to finish in France next week end.” said Nannelli after the qualifying session, a bit disappointed for the today’s misfortune “I know wel the track, as well I’ve never raced on the new sector, and I feel very confident for a good race. Unfortunately a stupid trouble during all the qualifying session and it’s not possible a quick solution. Now the guys are preparing the bike for tomorrow, but it would be better to get a good result today because the weather is unpredictable and if tomorrow would rain it could be a disaster. I feel quite well, the long physiotherapy work gave me the correct knee’s mobility, but I have still some pain; today I had a crash too, but any consequence. Now we could just hope for tomorrow’s good weather, to allow me grabbing a grid position that would aloow me to stay with the leader’s group from the start, I don’t want to make just the presence.” Also Jakub Smrz in Superbike had not a lucky day: after a crash during the morning session when he was running his best laptime, during the afternoon he had a similar destiny. During a fast lap, when the split time say that he could finish in the top ten position he broke the gear lever and the Czech rider must rejoin the pit. “I don’t know wel Vallelunga, but I like this circuit.” commented Jakub at the end of the day. “This morning I crashed, but any damage. Then during the afternoon’s qualifying, just when I was trying a fast lap (at the second split I was in ninth position) the gear lever broke. Probably it had been damaged in some invisible way during the morning’s crash and we have not seen it during the check. However I’m confident to reach tomorrow a Superpole qualifying, we only need that the rain stay far from Vallelunga.” More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) SECOND QUICKEST AS TWO TROYS SET THE PACE IN VALLELUNGA FIRST QUALIFYING Vallelunga (Italy), Friday 28 September : Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) posted the second quickest time at Vallelunga today as he and his fellow Australian Troy Corser (Yamaha) set the pace in the opening qualifying session. Corser was slightly quicker than Bayliss in both the morning’s free practice session and the afternoon qualifier, but there wasn’t much between them at the end. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Suzuki) made up the provisional front row of the grid. “It was a pretty good session” declared Troy. “Even though we tested here only a week or so ago, we did most time on the new bike and it was slow going. Today we tried one thing on the bike and it seemed to work quite well. I did have one little crash just over the back in the slow right-hander. I think it was more me just pushing hard on maximum angle and I lost the front. I went a little bit more up the inside than I normally go and there’s a bit of a bump, so I’m going to stay away from there! We tried a softer race tyre at the end, that didn’t work at all, then a harder tyre in, the same as the one we used during the session and I did my best time after ten laps. Even though we have to work a bit on the front setting tomorrow, overall I’m quite happy with the way things are going.” “We tried a lot of different things today and at the end I put on the wider tyre but I didn’t like it and I was unable to improve” commented Lorenzo. “I did my best time with a 190 tyre that had done eight laps, so I feel sure that if I put on the same tyre but a new one I could improve some more and get down to a low 1m38. But I didn’t want to waste a tyre for tomorrow because I didn’t think I could complete the lap in time. I like the track, finally I’ve come to Vallelunga in perfect physical condition. In the winter I was sick and then I was injured for the test so today for me it’s really the first time I can push hard on this track. There’s still room to improve but I feel confident, also with my race pace, and we’ll see tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Looking Good in First and Third on Day One The first day of qualifying at Vallelunga went well for the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team today, with Corser claiming provisional pole and Haga just behind in third. The day started off wet and quite cool following overnight rain, with temperatures only hitting 19°C compared to the scorching 50°C experienced during testing here in July. The difference in weather conditions meant that the data gathered in the test proved less helpful than hoped during this morning’s free practice. But both Corser and Haga didn’t let this faze them and got on with the job of finding the best set-up for the conditions. By the end of the session Corser was fastest with Haga in fourth. This afternoon’s qualifying session was a dry affair, giving the team the chance to find a dry set-up. Both riders spent the session in the top four until Corser pulled it out of the bag in the last ten minutes to take the provisional pole position. Haga put in a strong performance to finish third, in front of his key focus for the weekend – Toseland. Team Yamaha YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi managed his best first qualifying position ever during today, qualifying in ninth position. The young Japanese rider was only a second off Corser’s time in this afternoon’s timed session and showed his potential. Troy Corser (1st – 1’37.537 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “I’m pretty happy with what we’ve achieved today. We started from where we left off at the test and today we’ve made some engine braking adjustments along with suspension and front fork alterations. The bike felt a bit nervous to start with but after the changes it now feels much better. We’ve made good progress and the set-up for this weekend is really getting there. It’s really good to be in first as tomorrow could be wet again so getting as good time today was important.” Noriyuki Haga (3rd – 1’37.951 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “The bike felt good today; we found some good settings during the two sessions, although we’re not completely there yet. I’ve found a good dry rear tyre as well, so it’d better not rain on Sunday! Third position is good for a Friday and I’m pleased with my lap time. There’s just a bit more work to do tomorrow on the suspension settings.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “Today has been a good day for the team. Both riders have got good qualifying positions and we are getting there with the set-up for each rider. We will check all the data from the test as well as from today and I’m confident that we can make the necessary adjustments to get the best set-up for both Troy and Nori.” Shinichi Nakatomi (9th – 1’38.573 – Team Yamaha YZF) “Today was my best first qualifying session ever! It’s a very good result and a good grid position but I still feel I can improve on the set-up. If we can improve the bike’s feeling during tomorrow then my times will be quicker.” Martial Garcia (Team Manager, Team Yamaha YZF) “Thanks to the FGSport test here in July, the bike set-up is already quite good, which gave Nakatomi the opportunity to really show his potential and get the result that we expected from him. We are confident of maintaining this good work tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: TROY ON TOP! Troy topped the leaderboard on the first day of qualifying at Vallelunga today, with a lap of 1:37.53, and is looking forward to further progress tomorrow. Heavy overnight rain had left the track wet in the early part of the morning, but by the time the first SBK untimed practice began the surface was dry. In the afternoon timed session, Troy took provisional pole just ahead of his fellow countryman Troy Bayliss (Ducati), with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) third and Max Biaggi (Suzuki) fourth. Troy, 1st – 1:37.537 That wasn’t so bad, eh? We started off with the settings from when we tested here before and the bike seemed OK. We have been trying some different rear shocks and fork settings today and generally just trying to get a good set-up for the race. This track is quite physical and there are a lot of changes of directions. Also, there’s hardly any time for a rest. It’s quite a tight track in many places and I’m having to use first gear more times here than anywhere else. Because of the many slow corners, we’re doing a lot of work on getting a good throttle feeling. I think that is going to be really important around here.