FIM Supersport World Championship Nurburgring, Germany September 5, 2009 Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Cal CRUTCHLOW (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.866 2. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Honda CBR600RR), 1:59.201 3. Eugene LAVERTY (Honda CBR600RR), 1:59.373 4. Garry MCCOY (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:59.716 5. Michele PIRRO (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:59.765 6. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:59.779 7. Joan LASCORZ (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 2:00.103 8. Gianluca NANNELLI (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:00.176 9. Massimo ROCCOLI (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.290 10. Andrew PITT (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.455 11. Fabien FORET (Yamaha YZF-R6), 2:00.513 12. Michael LAVERTY (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.558 13. Robbin HARMS (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.595 14. Mark AITCHISON (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.600 15. Anthony WEST (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.769 16. Miguel PRAIA (Honda CBR600RR), 2:00.981 17. Danilo DELL’OMO (Honda CBR600RR), 2:01.095 18. Matej SMRZ (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:01.142 19. Sam LOWES (Honda CBR600RR), 2:01.355 20. Kevin WAHR (Triumph Daytona 675), 2:01.528 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Laverty has race challenging pace PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty took third on the front row of the grid to give himself a chance of victory in tomorrow’s 11th round of the World Supersport Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany; while team mate Miguel Praia will start from 16th on the fourth row. Laverty showed an impressive and consistent turn of speed in the dry conditions to secure third and put pressure on title rival Cal Crutchlow on a Yamaha, who eventually took pole position at the 5.137km track. The race takes place at 1325CET on Sunday, September 6th and can be watched on Eurosport. Eugene: “Everything with my Parkalgar Honda is working well. I have a strong race pace and hopefully in morning warm-up we can find a little bit more. I am concentrating on my own performance and if I can run in the 1m59s or even ’58s then we will see what happens. I learnt at Brno that pushing too hard doesn’t work for me and this weekend everything is better and I haven’t crashed. If I can get in front of Cal at the start then I’ll try to stay there and play it by ear.” Miguel: “My lap times are much faster this year than last year. I am on the same second of qualifying as previous race winner Lascorz in seventh, so it is all very close. I am able to do my lap times many times but some other riders are only able to do one quick lap, so if I get a good start tomorrow then I am sure I will be near the top 10.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “The race for the title is on and it is getting interesting. Eugene is comfortable and able to run his lap times consistently and I am sure the team will find some more improvements for him before the race. He is putting the pressure on Cal who knows he will have a fight on his hands tomorrow. In my opinion either Eugene or Cal will win, Kenan Sofuoglu is thereabouts but looks right on the ragged edge. Miguel is 1.6secs faster this year than last and is happy with his Parkalgar Honda. We are all confident he can get close to the top 10 in the race as he is a better racer than qualifier.” Qualifying 1 Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’57.866 2 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’59.201 3 Laverty E. (IRL) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1’59.373 4 McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 1’59.716 5 Pirro M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’59.765 6 Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’59.779 7 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’00.103 8 Nannelli G. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 2’00.176 9 Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 2’00.290 10 Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 2’00.455 16 Praia M. (POR) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 2’00.981. More, from a press release issued by Team YZF Yamaha: Painful return for Doni Tata Pradita With great courage, Doni is doing the best he can but his injured shoulder is too much of a burden to allow him to go fast with the top riders. He realized the 27th time in the qualifying practice session and the situation is difficult for the young Yamaha Indonesian rider: his shoulder is painful because it has not fully recovered, Doni has not ridden in the last two months, and he must avoid any crash. This is not very comfortable, but Doni keeps on trying hard. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) dominated very strongly the field in the only qualifying practice session on the Nürburgring circuit with a time of 1’57.8. The old record belonged to Broc Parkes (already on a Yamaha) last year in 2’00.01. It is very unusual that a record is broken by more than 2 seconds. This is a great achievement for Crutchlow and Yamaha. The British rider has a good chance to win the race tomorrow and this could allow him to increase his championship points advantage over Eugene Laverty, 3rd of the qualifying. Doni Tata Pradita: “It was not so good. I pushed harder to make a good lap time, but it was not great because my shoulder hurts a lot. Normally I can handle the pain, but this time it’s really hard. I do not have enough power in my arm. The doctors told me that I could race, but normally this injury needs 3 month to heal, but it has been only 2 month since my accident. I have to be careful. This is a good training for me. For the race tomorrow, I hope it will be better. I shall try my best.” Martial Garcia (team-manager): “Doni is still recovering from his injury and this takes a long time. He is trying very hard with a lot of courage and he deserves respect. He is doing the best he can despite the pain. He has not ridden a motorcycle for two months and he does obviously the best he can.” More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Kenan Sofuoglu will start from the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s 11th-round World Supersport championship race at the Nurburgring in Germany after setting the second fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session. The Turk lapped the famous 5.15km circuit in a time of 1’59.201 as Britain’s Cal Crutchlow took pole position for tomorrow’s 19-lap race. Sofuoglu’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Andrew Pitt, will start from the third row after setting the tenth fastest time, but the Australian’s renewed confidence in his Honda CBR600RR continues to grow. Kenan Sofuoglu P2, 1’59.201s It wasn’t too bad today and we are definitely improving the bike each time we go out. I went a second faster than this morning, which shows the progress we are making, and second place on the grid is a good place to start. Of course, Crutchlow was very fast today but P1 in the race is the one that counts. I think I will be racing with him and Laverty tomorrow. The team has worked so hard and I am able to hold a line when I open the gas, which is a big improvement. We will look to make another step forward in warm-up tomorrow. Andrew Pitt P10, 2’00.455s It doesn’t look such a great result from the outside, but my confidence is growing all the time and I think we probably have a top five package at the moment. I did a couple of laps with Kenan this afternoon and I’m having to keep the throttle closed just a little bit longer than him, which I think is down to the balance of my bike. But we’re definitely making progress and we’re closer than we’ve been for a while. It’s tough in the first three turns and then at the end of the lap, but we’re seeing problems better and fixing them. There’s some work to do but it’s all going in the right direction. Ronald ten Kate team manager We definitely found a way forward this afternoon but unfortunately we were not in a position that allowed Andrew to capitalise but Kenan is going pretty well. Of course, we need to go faster, so we have some more work to do tonight and in the morning in order to challenge for a win tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing: Team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing riders, Garry McCoy and Gianluca Nannelli, both scored great results as they qualified in the first and second row respectively after today’s session. Day two was employed by technicians and riders to find a good setup, which was improved in the afternoon. The last fifteen minutes were crucial as Garry McCoy took row one, which was the Aussie’s first of the season and the second for team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing. Today’s results certainly gave a boost of confidence and hope for a great performance tomorrow. GARRY McCOY | Triumph Daytona 675 | 4th in 1’59.716: “I’m very happy with the result although I could’ve done better, especially in the first part of the fastest lap. Unfortunately, I couldn’t work on setup yesterday and suffered from chattering on the front. We’ll try to fix that in warm up tomorrow morning. However, the crew did a great job and my Daytona 675 set the second fastest speed of the day”. GIANLUCA NANNELLI | Triumph Daytona 675 | 8th in 2’00.176: “I made a big step forward compared to yesterday. I found a good feeling with the bike, I can now maintain the optimal trajectory and accelerate better and I’m confident I can finally score a great result tomorrow”. More, ffrom a press release issued by Stiggy Racing Honda: The second day of qualifying at the Nurburgring in Germany today proved a tough one for Stiggy Racing Honda Supersport riders Anthony West and Gianluca Vizziello. Yesterday’s opening session seemed a promise that the new parts for their Honda CBR600RR machines would bring them a much desired front row place on the grid for tomorrow’s 19-lap race around the 5.137km long German track. In spite of improved and milder weather conditions today, Anthony West suffered a tough day of qualifying at the German track and crashed out on his number one machine in the morning’s 45-minute free practice. He re-joined and chased the optimum setting for his second machine, but struggled to set a fast lap in the timed practice and qualified a disappointing 17th place on the grid. Gianluca Vizziello will join his team mate on the fifth row at the grid and will start tomorrow’s eleventh race in the World Supersport Championship from a 19th place. Anthony West, P17 – 2’02.820s: “After my crash I am far off from where I would like to be. I have no idea why it is so hard to find the connection with the front. We seemed to be getting there yesterday, but I was too far off the lap times today and lost confidence in the bike after the crash. There appears to be no major problem but I just can’t go as fast as I should be going.” Gianluca Vizziello, P19 – 2’02.877s: 1C;I have found the right compromise for the machine at the this track. I had some problems with the gearing, but I am far behind from where I would have liked to be and will have to make up for this tomorrow. It will be hard starting from a fifth row at the grid, and I hope I can make the connection with a fast group to improve in the race.” Johan Stigefelt – Team Manager: “It has been a disappointing day for our Supersport team. It seems hard for us to qualify well this season. We are trying the best we can but the results have stayed out so far this weekend. Anthony had a small crash on his number one machine and it took him some time to restore his confidence and find the pace on his second bike. Gianluca is still working towards finding the best set up for his machine. It will be tough to start the race from the fifth row, but I remain confident we can make up for today’s loss.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Lascorz Confirmed For Second Kawasaki Season WSS, Nürburgring, Germany, 5 September 2009 Joan Lascorz rode to seventh place in qualifying at the Nürburgring as his team took the opportunity to confirm that Joan will race in official Kawasaki colours once again next year. Lascorz’s signature for Kawasaki Provec Motocard.com extends a partnership that has already provided strong results, and promises even greater things in the future. Katsuaki Fujiwara took his official Ninja ZX-6R machine to sixth place on the grid and lines up one place ahead of Lascorz on the second row for Sunday’s 19-lap race. Only two laps of the single qualifying session were completed under darkening skies before the flags came out to warn of light rain appearing on some parts of the track, but conditions improved later and the best lap times tumbled. Joan Lascorz: “We had a small technical issue with the bike this afternoon in qualifying and that meant we could not set our best lap times so easily. We will continue to work on the set-up tonight, comparing our data from the first session with this afternoon’s data to find the best combination. We are on the second row but that is not a real problem, row one or two is OK at this track.” Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We are just having to find a way to get a little better balance from the set-up, but we are nearly there. My best qualifying time was about the same time no matter what we did, 1’59.7. But in terms of race pace in real race conditions we should be OK.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: The notorious Nurburgring weather did little to dampen Yamaha World Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow’s spirits in free practice today, he was rarely outside the number one spot and finished the session on top, a second faster than the fastest superbike time from the earlier session. Crutchlow was one of only two riders to drop below the 1.15 mark, ending the session on a 2’13.170. Team-mate Fabien Foret was taking it carefully in the wet, concentrating on his set up the French rider stayed out lapping until he ran out of petrol seconds before the end of the session. Foret was happy to have found a set up that worked well in the wet in advance of tomorrow’s qualifying session. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st, 2’13.170) “Not a bad day to start with, the weather’s been horrible! It’s good to be up there again and keep the pressure on everybody else. Keenan is going to be fast here this weekend because he raced in the German Championship before so he knows the track. I’m looking forward to a good battle, we’ll continue tomorrow, hopefully it’ll be a bit drier and we’ll do our best.” Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (23rd, 2’20.691) “it was good to feel a bit where the critical points are on the track in case we have the same weather tomorrow. Obviously I didn’t push today, I wanted to be safe and ready for tomorrow. Qualifying is another story, that’s where I’ll try to push harder. I hope we have dry conditions for the race as it’ll be better for me, but for today I just wanted to spend some time on the track and get a feel for it again.” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager “Very British weather today! Cal loves it and he’s fast again so no problems there. Fabien always struggles a bit with his riding style in the wet but he went out and stayed out until his fuel was empty. For tomorrow it will probably be a bit wet again but everything is under control here so we’re happy today.”