FIM Supersport World Championship Monza, Italy May 9, 2009 Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Cal CRUTCHLOW (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:49.706 2. Joan LASCORZ (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:49.739 3. Fabien FORET (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:49.803 4. Eugene LAVERTY (Honda CBR600RR), 1:50.006 5. Mark AITCHISON (Honda CBR600RR), 1:50.407 6. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Honda CBR600RR), 1:50.636 7. Andrew PITT (Honda CBR600RR), 1:50.733 8. Gianluca NANNELLI (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:50.798 9. Garry MCCOY (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:50.828 10. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:50.861 11. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Honda CBR600RR), 1:50.907 12. Michele PIRRO (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:51.281 13. Franco BATTAINI (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:51.429 14. Massimo ROCCOLI (Honda CBR600RR), 1:51.517 15. Miguel PRAIA (Honda CBR600RR), 1:51.682 16. Danilo DELL’OMO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:51.766 17. Barry VENEMAN (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:51.905 18. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:51.985 19. Alessandro POLITA (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:52.105 20. Anthony WEST (Honda CBR600RR), 1:52.249 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Front row start for fast-learning Laverty PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty will start from fourth on the front row of the grid in tomorrow’s fifth round of the World Supersport Championship at Monza in Italy after slashing two seconds off his lap times from yesterday on his maiden visit to the track. Portuguese star Miguel Praia put his Parkalgar Honda in 15th and the fourth row after taking nearly a second off his lap times from yesterday. Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow will start from pole position. The race starts at 1325CET on Sunday 10th May and can be viewed live on Eurosport. Eugene: “Getting on the front row was the plan and we did it. Taking two-seconds off my lap times is a bit of a jump and a decent margin to gain from yesterday. On my fast lap I got a good slipstream down the back straight but whatever advantage I gained there was paid back in the Parabolica when I was held up. If I hadn’t been held up I would have been challenging for pole, it was worth a good 2-3/10ths of a second. I am comfortable with my Parkalgar Honda after the changes we made overnight. I think it is going to be one of ‘those races’ and there will be a bunch of riders going for the win. I hope that the front group is only about four strong and I am in it.” Miguel: “My best lap time came at the end of the session and is half-a-second quicker than my best lap of 2008, so I am happy. My Parkalgar Honda is very quick and I aim to use that to my advantage in the race where top speed is an important factor on a circuit with so many straights. I am comfortable and always race better than I qualify so I hope to be competing for the top 10 in the race.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “Well done to Eugene as the first Honda in qualifying and the only one on the front row, it shows how well he is riding and what a great job the team is doing with his Parkalgar Honda. Cal Crutchlow is not as dominant here despite the benefit of previous testing. Eugene is right with him having learnt the circuit this weekend and he will be fighting for the win tomorrow. It’s another positive performance from Miguel and while the top 10 will be tough if he keeps calm then a points scoring finish is on the cards.” More, from a press release issued by Team YZF Yamaha: Difficult qualification for Doni Tata Pradita Good first free practice session for Doni Tata Pradita on Saturday morning: with a time of 1’53.542 he is almost 1 second quicker than on the previous day (1’54.392). The qualifying session is not easy for Doni and he finishes in 23rd position. He is discovering the track of Monza, a very special circuit completely different of all the other tracks of the world, and it is hard to get used to it. The leader of the World Championship Cal Crutchlow on a Yamaha was the fastest, 0.03 seconds in front of Joan Lascorz and 0.1 in front of his team mate Fabien Foret. The session was stopped with a red flag with 20 minutes to go when Barry Veneman, Kenan Sofuoglu and Mark Aitchison crashed in the same curve separately. Sofuoglu would crash again later on. With his time of 1’49.706, Cal Crutchlow beat the circuit record that was held by Broc Parkes (Yamaha) in 1’49.868. The Hondas qualified from 4th to 7th, with Laverty leading Aitchison, Sofuoglu and Pitt. Doni Tata Pradita: “I am not really happy because I lost the feeling about the track. I pushed too hard to try to go faster. In the end it was better, but in the beginning I was too slow. In the second chicane for instance, I used the first gear in the beginning, and then when I used the second gear it came better. We changed the gearing for the last 5 minutes, but by then time was running too short. I have to improve also my use of the front brake. Tomorrow, I have to do better.” Martial Garcia (team-manager): “It’s hard to be learning. On this difficult track, the brakings and the chicanes are typical of Monza. The braking points are especially important. Doni was more than I second faster than during the preliminary testing. He is 3.3 seconds away from the pole position. It is his first time here and it is difficult to achieve a good result.” More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Kenan Sofuoglu and his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Andrew Pitt, will both start from the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s fifth round World Supersport race at Monza in Italy. As Cal Crutchlow took pole position, Sofuoglu was preparing a front row challenge towards the end of this afternoon’s only qualifying session when the Turkish rider lost control of his CBR600RR approaching Monza’s final Parabolica turn. Sofuoglu slid down the track, sustaining friction burns to his right arm and leg, but his sixth fastest time stood until the end of the session. Pitt continued to develop the very latest version of Honda’s dominant CBR, posting the seventh fastest time as he and his crew fine-tuned the bike’s set-up for Monza’s particularly high-speed characteristics. Kenan Sofuoglu P6, 1’50.636 I had a very big crash and I am a bit sore down the right side. I am not really sure what happened but we will have a good look at the data this evening to try to find the problem. I was quite comfortable before this moment, and I have gone with a fresh tyre to attack the front row. The important thing is that I stayed on the second row, which will give me a chance to get away with the leading group tomorrow. After that, at Monza, anything can happen. Andrew Pitt P7, 1’50.733 Well, my ideal time is about a second faster than my qualifying lap, so that tells most of the story. I ran into some traffic and made a couple of mistakes and that’s basically cost me a front row start. But we’re definitely getting there with the bike and the second row is better than the third. We’ve got a couple of things to sort before tomorrow that will make the bike better and the race is where it all counts. Ronald ten Kate team manager We’re continuing to make progress, slowly but surely. Kenan had quite a big crash on his out lap at the end of the session so unfortunately he had no chance to improve his time on his new tyre. Andrew has got a good feeling with the bike again and, with some small adjustments, we’re ready for tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Crutchlow and Foret claim the front row Cal Crutchlow made it an incredible fourth consecutive pole position start in a row today. The Yamaha World Supersport rider and the R6 continue to be a devastating combination on any circuit. Crutchlow was on the pace from the word go and never ventured far from the top spot for the duration of the session. In taking pole position he also broke the lap record of 1’49.868 set here last year by Broc Parkes on the Yamaha R6. Team-mate Fabien Foret was also on top form, having won here at Monza last year, the French rider set out today to show he means business and wants the podium again on race day. A fast, consistent qualifying session ensured Foret starts on the front row with his team-mate tomorrow, in 3rd position. Foret also came in under last year’s lap record set by his previous team-mate Parkes. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team, (1st, 1’49.706) “It was a good enough session, I wasn’t really happy with the time at the end because I could have gone a lot quicker. We had a few problems with the bike throughout the session. We did our fastest time on the 14th lap of the tyre and then went slower on a brand new tyre so it was a bit weird how that worked. Race pace is good though, I’m looking forward to the race, I think we can hopefully win it tomorrow and gain a bigger lead in the championship.” Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Superbike Team, (3rd, 1’49.803) “We have a few things we’re trying to improve a little bit but I’m actually pretty happy with the package now and tyre wise it’s also not too bad so it’s looking good. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’ve started in fifth a few times now with hardly any time between me and the front row so this time I wanted to make sure I could finish in the front. For me though what is important is to finish on the podium tomorrow.” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager “it was a good qualifying heat. Fabien had a good session, he was happy and fast which was great. Cal is pole again which is fantastic, he still had some difficulties to solve but nothing major. They are both capable of doing a good race tomorrow and it’s brilliant to have them both on the front row, the first time this year.” More, from a press release issued by Stiggy Racing Honda: West and Vizziello times tumble in Monza The sun once again created the perfect conditions for the second day of qualifying in the Monza Parklands, but failed to bring the much desired light into the garages of the Stiggy Racing Honda Supersport team, as they faced another tough day of qualifying. Both Anthony West and Gianluca Vizziello had to dig deep throughout yesterday’s first Free Practice session as they struggled to accelerate out of the fast Monza corners and reach satisfactory lap times. The team worked hard overnight to solve the acceleration issues with their Honda CBR600RR machines in a bid to close the gap with the competition, but the lack of corner exit speed remained the biggest disadvantage throughout the sessions today. In early Saturday Practice, West set out to return to good form, and managed to lower his time by a mere 2 seconds in a fastest lap of 1’51.643s – just 0.6s off the time set by provisional pole-sitter Cal Crutchlow – but found himself on the back foot again in the afternoon’s 45 minute long Qualifying Practice. The gap between West and the competition remained unabridged as he tumbled down the time sheets, and relegated to a 20th position on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Gianluca Vizziello placed himself on the fifth row with his team mate, and will start the race from 18th position. Anthony West, P20, 1’52.249s: ” I dont know what happened, but I am far from happy with the sessions today. I have no idea why I am so slow on this track, and find it hard to think what I could do better. We will see what happens in the race tomorrow. We seemed to be getting there this morning, but then this afternoon I just could not do the lap times and lost confidence in the bike. There appears to be no major problem, but I just can’t go as fast as I should be going”. I should be able to beat at least half of the field, instead of hanging around the 20th place “. Gianluca Vizziello, P18, 1’51.985s: ” We have made many changes to the bike, but non of them worked out well. I changed bikes midway the session, and both bikes were set up completely differently, but it didn’t bring the results we wanted. We do have the rhythm, and I am confident we can make some improvement tomorrow. I have no idea how far we can go, but we can definitely do better then we did here today “. Johan Stigefelt, Teammanager: ” It is our worst weekend so far this season on both sides of the garage. We thought we would be able to do a lot better here, especially at the Supersport side where we have more experience and data than on the Superbike side, but it proved just too difficult. I don’t really understand why we are struggling so much here. We will have to analyse the data and find out what we are doing wrong. We have done everything we can with the bikes to give our riders a good package, but it just wasn’t enough today “. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Lascorz Only 0.033 Seconds From Pole Position At Monza WSS, Monza, Italy, 9 May 2009 Joan Lascorz yet again showed the prowess of both his Ninja ZX-6R Kawasaki and himself with another impressive qualifying session in the WSS class, going second on the pre-race timesheets. In five races so far Lascorz has been second fastest in qualifying four times, and the latest success in finding a competitive set-up on an all-new bike allowed him to compete for pole once again. He also has strong race pace, and is looking forward to showing himself as a potential winner yet again in Sunday’s 16-lap competition. Katsuaki Fujiwara encountered some problems in the lone qualifying session this afternoon and therefore he will commence the races in tenth place, starting from the third row of the grid. Lascorz has opted to use the engine spec with a greater top end output for Sunday’s race, and posted impressive top speed figures on his way to second overall ranking. Lascorz: “A front row start again which is good, and the times at the top are very close. We have already made our tyre choice and we are happy with the speed of the bike in a straight line and our race pace. We had a small problem with our set-up this morning, but we found our way later in the day and set a good spread of lap times, despite the red flag interrupting the session. We have two engine specs this weekend, and we have decided on which one to use tomorrow.” Fujiwara: “There was a small problem early on in the session with the exhaust so I had to come in and change bikes, made a good time but not quite as good as the others. Then when I went out again there was a red flag, which disturbed my rhythm, so I lost a bit of concentration. Now I only have one small problem, in the rear suspension to fix for tomorrow but the team is very confident they know how to fix it.” More, from a press release issued by ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing: Team PakinGo Triumph BE1 Racing reaches objective in front of their own public at Monza as Gianluca Nannelli and Garry McCoy finish eighth and ninth respectively during today’s qualifying. These results boosts the riders’ confidence who seem to get closer and closer to the top. Today’s perfomance was reassuring as Garry McCoy reached a speed of over 287 km/h, the second fastest ever, which confirms the progress made by the team on the British three-cilinder development. GARRY McCOY | Triumph Daytona 675 | 9th : “I have a better feeling with the bike and this makes me even happier than my starting position. The work we’ve started at Assen did bear fruit which gives us great confidence for tomorrow’s race. I’m just a little bit disappointed with my last few minutes of qualifying because, with the new tyre on, I kept being slowed down by other riders in the three laps I was trying to improve my time”. GIANLUCA NANNELLI | Triumph Daytona 675 | 8th : “My feeling with the bike is getting better every time, especially with the front which enables me to be more effective. I really have to thank the crew because their great work allowed me to be just a few tenths of a second slower than the fastest time. I’m confident I can get in the leading pack right away as I start from row two tomorrow and, at the same time, it should be easier to avoid possible melees at the First Variante which might influence the outcome of the race as well”.