FIM Supersport World Championship Valencia, Spain April 4, 2009 Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Cal Crutchlow (Yam YZF-R6), 1:35.865 2. Joan Lascorz (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:36.033 3. Anthony West (Hon CBR600RR), 1:36.664 4. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:36.754 5. Michele Pirro (Yam YZF-R6), 1:36.812 6. Mark Aitchison (Hon CBR600RR), 1:36.910 7. Matthieu Lagrive (Hon CBR600RR), 1:36.918 8. Fabien Foret (Yam YZF-R6), 1:37.013 9. Andrew Pitt (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.063 10. Robbin Harms (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.188 11. Kenan Sofuoglu (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.220 12. Barry Veneman (Suz GSX-R600), 1:37.290 13. Eugene Laverty (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.403 14. Massimo Roccoli (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.457 15. Gianluca Nannelli (Tri Daytona 675), 1:37.667 16. Gianluca Vizziello (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.702 17. Garry McCoy (Tri Daytona 675), 1:37.744 18. Doni Tata Pradita (Yam YZF-R6), 1:37.866 19. Miguel Praia (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.984 20. Russell Holland (Hon CBR600RR), 1:38.244 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Laverty: ‘I’ll have to be aggressive’ PARKALGAR HONDA World Supersport ace Eugene Laverty suffered an early crash in qualifying for the third round of the Championship in Spain but got back out on his spare CBR600RR to take 13th on the grid behind pole-sitter Cal Crutchlow on a Yamaha. Unhurt in the crash, Irishman Eugene lost 15-minutes of the 45-minute session and was baulked by slower riders during his final laps. Portuguese Parkalgar Honda racer Miguel Praia is recovering from flu and was late coming into the pits for a tyre change so had to settle for 19th. The race starts at 1325CET on Sunday 5th April and can be watched live on www.worldsbk.com [http://www.worldsbk.com/]. Eugene “We took the chassis direction change from yesterday a step too far and that combined with the rising temperature led to me losing the front on the double right-hander. We had taken too much weight off the front. We took a step back on my spare bike and it was great; I was held up on my fast lap losing half a second behind traffic, otherwise we would have been on the second row. It was one of those sessions and I’d be much more frustrated if we honestly didn’t have the pace, but we do and I’ll have to be aggressive and come through the field to the front.” Miguel “I am feeling a little better today but certainly not 100 per cent because of my cold. I hope for tomorrow I will have full energy for the race. I made longer runs on track and bike improvements today. I was concentrating on finding another rider to tow me round and lift my pace and towards the end I came across Foret. I thought following him was more beneficial than coming in to the pits and stayed out two laps longer than I should. When I came in the team didn’t have time to change my front and if we had then I might have gone better. I am not concerned with my qualifying position; I think I have the pace for the top 10 in the race. This is not my favourite track but I will be fighting for the points.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager “Eugene crashed on his first run with his number one bike. He then had to use his number two bike for the remainder of the session and even then on his last run was on for fifth place when he got caught behind slower traffic. We are disappointed with 13th on the grid but his pace is better than that. It will be difficult to win from here but the top five and the podium remain very possible. The good news is his Parkalgar Honda race bike is not badly damaged and will be fixed in time for the race. Miguel lost a bit in his last qualifying attempt because we didn’t have time to fit a new front tyre. The top 10 will be a challenge but realistically he can score points.” More, from a press release issued by Team YZF Yamaha: Doni Tata Pradita only 2 seconds from pole position Young Indonesian rider Doni Tata Pradita did a good qualifying session in Valencia (Spain) for the third round of the Supersport World Championship. He is in 18th position, only 2 seconds from the poleman Cal Crutchlow on a Yamaha. Doni tried very hard during the session and he was for a long time in 15th place. Then he had a little crash, but could restart and finished 18th. If Yamaha is the leader with Crutchlow, there was also a good result for Kawasaki with Joan Lascorz 2nd and Katsuaki Fujiwara 4th. The situation was more complicated for the Hondas of Andrew Pitt (9th with 3 crashes), Kenan Sofuoglu (11th) and Eugene Laverty, the winner in Qatar (13th). Doni Tata Pradita: “During this qualifying session, I pushed it to the limit. In the last minutes, I pushed even harder and I crashed. Then I restarted and kept on going to have a good time. The last lap was 1’37.9, which was not so good. Overall I am happy. I was 15th before I crashed. The back of my Yamaha is not perfect yet. Without that crash, I would be in the top 15. I have a good feeling. The setting of the bike is good.” Martial Garcia (team-manager): “There is obviously a good progress. Despite a little crash, Doni did very well in this only qualifying practice session (because of the new rules). He is 18th, only 2 seconds from the pole position, which is much faster than in Qatar. This progress has been made because of the motorcycle and the big improvement comes from the rider who has a very strong motivation here in Spain.” More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Hannspree Ten Kate Honda riders, Andrew Pitt and Kenan Sofuoglu face a tough challenge by starting from the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s third round 2009 World Supersport championship race at Valencia in Spain. As Britain’s Cal Crutchlow set the pace by qualifying in pole position, Pitt and Sofuoglu have been getting to grips with the latest incarnation of Honda’s CBR600RR. With reduced practice time due to new FIM regulations, the team has been working at getting the front end of the machine to replicate its multiple world championship winning predecessor. In a lively qualifying session this afternoon, reigning champion and current points leader Pitt crashed twice and was also run off the track by a slower rider. Sofuoglu, winner of the opening race in Australia, had a quieter time but is nonetheless determined to fight for a podium finish in tomorrow’s 23-lapper at the 4.0005km Ricardo Tormo circuit. Andrew Pitt P9, 1’37.063s It’s been a tough day, for sure. It wasn’t helped by getting run off the track early on, but the other two crashes felt like a bit of under-steer. We’ve been making some changes to try and get the new bike’s front suspension working like the old model, but we haven’t quite got there yet. The power feels good though, and I have every faith in the crew coming up with something for us to try in warm-up tomorrow. Kenan Sofuoglu P11, 1’37.220s I’m disappointed, because the third row is not where I expected to be. Yes, of course, with everything new, it was never going to be easy especially with reduced track time so we haven’t really had enough time to set things up as we would like. However, I know my team will work hard right through to tomorrow’s race to find a solution. Then I will fight as hard as I can because anything is possible and if I can get near the front at the start then I will have a chance to get on the podium. Ronald ten Kate team manager Not such a good day for the Supersport team, no. We were able to dial out most of the problems we encountered with the new bike yesterday, but we have some different issues to resolve now. We will look hard at all the data this evening and try to find the right direction, but I think it might be a long night. More, from a press release issued by Stiggy Racing: West claims front row start Stiggy Racing Honda’s Anthony West might have been left out of contention in the previous race in Qatar but proved he regained his confidence and race pace in qualifying today and firmly parked his bike in 3rd place on the starting grid.� West took more then a second off the fastest time he set in yesterday’s first practice and finished top of the Honda’s in 1’36.664s, just behind pole sitter Cal Crutchlow and Joan Lascorz in second. The new Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR proves to be far more competitive and will give him the right cards for a battle at the front of the tight Supersport field. With some of his contenders placed securely behind him on the starting grid he rounded off today’s qualifying confidently ahead of tomorrow’s race.� Vizziello quietly continued the development of his bike in the morning session but struggled through the Qualifying Practice. Although he managed to improve his fastest time, but had difficulties cornering his bike and dropped down the time sheets to an unsatisfying 16th place.� Anthony West, P3, 1’36.664s; “My last qualifying session went terrible and then the race went bad as well, it’s hard work moving forward to the front from the 3rd row. Am very happy with my qualifying but I’m probably more happy with the fact that the guys I want to beat are quite far behind me. It’s going to make it easier and I think I will be able to relax a bit in the race and just try and keep in front of those guys. Then I don’t have to rip up my tyres like I did in Phillip Island. With the new bike we got a bit of horsepower so we shouldn’t get blown away by everybody but be able to stay with them and fight till the end of the race.” Gianluca Vizziello, P15, 1’37.667s; “The session didn’t go as well as I would have liked to. I’ve had some difficulties with the set up and couldn’t corner the bike as well I wanted to. We are too far behind on the grid now and it will be hard to work my way forward. We have managed to find a better pace and improve our lap times, but so has the rest of the field. I think if we can find the right setup tomorrow in the warm up we can fight for improvement in tomorrow’s race.” Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager; “Anthony has put in a great performance today, he showed a very good race pace and I’m eager to see what he can do in the race tomorrow. He has proven to be one of the fastest guys so I’m confident he will be up there at the front. Gianluca is also improving but he is not there yet. He’s still not pleased with the setup of his bike so we will have to work on that. All the mechanics have done an excellent job on preparing the new engines in the last couple of days. We had some issued with the engines but made a big step forward this weekend. I want to thank the team for this as I know it hasn’t been easy to prepare the engines and the new bikes for this race. I’m hoping we will be rewarded with a good result tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Crutchlow takes superb pole in flawless Valencia qualifying Cal Crutchlow powered his YZF-R6 to an impressive second pole position start in a row in the Valencia sunshine today. The British rider was rarely out of the top two for the session putting in consistently quick laps to take pole 0.16 seconds ahead of local Spanish rider Lascorz (Kawasaki). Crutchlow’s team-mate Fabien Foret struggled to find the ideal race pace but improved over the qualifying session to take a place on the 2nd row of the grid in 8th position for tomorrow’s World Supersport race. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team, (1st, 1’35.865) “we had a good session today, I think we’re still showing what we can do. We’ve always said the bike is good over a couple of laps so hopefully we’ll be able to maintain that over race distance. I’m looking forward to the race, I think we’ve got a good pace to be able to stay up there and there’s no reason why we can’t be running at the front and we’ll see what happens. I think Lascorz is probably the main threat, it’s his home circuit and he’s fast here but I’m not going to count out West, Pitt or Laverty either!” Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team, (8th, 1’37.013) “We stuck on one tyre for the session and in hindsight and it looks like another one may have been better for more front feeling and confidence for me. It’s ok though, I’m on the second row for tomorrow and I feel confident I can find the race pace to stay with the front .” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager “it was a good qualifying session and I’m as happy as I was yesterday. It’s good to be on pole and to have two of those laps being flying laps from Cal. We found some things to improve at the end of the session for Cal and Fabien but Fabien struggled a bit to get the pace and the speed. He’s on the 2nd row though and that’s where he started from in Qatar and Cal is on pole like Qatar so let’s see what happens tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Team ParkinGo Triumph BE1 Racing: Gianluca Nannelli and Garry McCoy qualified from row 4 and 5 respectively in the third round of the WSS. Both riders had trouble in finding the right cycle part setup during practice and had to change almost everything compared to the previous two sessions. By the end of qualifying, Gianluca Nannelli had gear selector issues, while Garry McCoy couldn’t get a clean lap because of other riders on his way who prevented him from setting a faster time. GIANLUCA NANNELLI | Triumph Daytona 675 | 15th in 1’37.667: “We found the right setup and I’ll be using it for tomorrow’s race. Unfortunately, my bike’s gear selector broke down while I was setting faster times in the last two laps. I had to leave the bike on the track and return to the pits. I know I could’ve done better if this hadn’t happened, but I was unlucky once again. However, I’ll do my best and try to have a good race despite my starting position on the grid”. GARRY McCOY | Triumph Daytona 675 | 17th in 1’37.744: “We practised a lot during the three sessions we were allowed. We couldn’t find the right setup, we changed things in the end though. We’ll have to analyse the data we have gathered in order to improve and reduce the gap from the top riders. This is a track where it’s very hard to overtake as there are only three places where you can do it. Scoring a great result won’t be easy but I’ll try my best nonetheless”.