Front row start for Laverty Parkalgar Honda’s Eugene Laverty has secured a place on the front row of the grid ahead of round four of the World Supersport Championship at Assen in Holland after setting the fourth quickest time in qualifying. Eugene is keen to pick up his second win of the season and having gelled with the 4.5km Dutch circuit onboard his Parkalgar Honda, is determined to be on the podium. His team-mate Miguel Praia qualified in 16th position and hopes to achieve his goal of a top ten finish. Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow took pole position with a time of 1min 40.313secs. The fourth round of the World Supersport Championship at Assen starts at 1320 CET on Sunday, April 26th and can be watched live on Eurosport. Eugene: “That was a good session. I’m on the front row of the grid which is the most important thing for the race. I want a good start to try and get away. Cal has good pace and few others have too, but I’m feeling good and I know I have a shot at the win. I will be taking the fight to them. I like this circuit; it is fast and flowing which is good for racing and great for spectators. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.” Miguel: “I have to say thanks to my Parkalgar Honda team as I crashed this morning and gave them a lot of work to do to get ready for qualifying. My position on the grid is not ideal but my lap time has improved by 1.1secs from last year and I’m just 0.5secs off eighth position which is where I would like to be. I always race better than I qualify and I know I have good race pace so I think I can pull in a top ten.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “I’m pleased with how qualifying went. Eugene is on the front row which is where he needs to be and he will be challenging for the win. Miguel is on the fourth row and he will be pushing for that top ten finish. It will be a tough race but I know we have good race pace and that is what counts.” Qualifying Times 1. Crutchlow C (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’40.313 2. Lascorz J (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’40.848 3. Sofuoglu K (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’40.998 4. Laverty E (IRL) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1’41.002 5. Foret F (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’41.130 6. McCoy G (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 1’41.412 7. Pirro M (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’41.436 8. West A (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.496 9. Harms R (DEN) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.566 10. Pitt A (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.653 16. Praia M (POR) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1’42.052 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Kenan Sofuoglu will start tomorrow’s fourth round 2009 World Supersport race from the front row of the grid after setting the third fastest time in today’s final qualifying session at Assen in Holland. The Turkish ace winner of the 2007 world title will line-up alongside pole sitter, Cal Crutchlow with whom he shares the championship lead Joan Lascorz, and fellow Honda rider, Eugene Laverty, for the 22-lap encounter around the famous Dutch circuit. Sofuoglu’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate and reigning World Supersport champion, Andrew Pitt, took tenth place on the grid, leaving that until his very last lap of qualifying. The Australian continues to work on improving the front end handling of his CBR600RR. Kenan Sofuoglu P3, 1’40.998s My main problem has been the combination of corners after the back straight where it’s difficult to turn the bike it’s costing me about half a second, which is almost the difference between me and pole position. But Crutchlow is very strong, so it will be a big fight tomorrow. At least I am on the front row, which gives me the best chance to win again. I am very positive about our chances but, like every Supersport race, there will be a long battle for victory. Andrew Pitt P10, 1’41.653s We’ve definitely made some progress since Valencia, but I’m still finding it difficult to hold a line while turning the bike on the throttle. Before I went out for that final push I was lying in about P17, I think, and I was pretty much right on the limit through the whole lap. We’ve been trying everything to make it easier to do the time, but it’s not there yet, and we’ve had a couple of electronic glitches, too. But we’ll have a couple of things to try in the morning and they will hopefully point us in the right direction. Ronald ten Kate team manager It’s the tale of two sides of the garage at the moment. The changes we’ve made to the new CBR600RR seem to be working for Kenan and his crew has found the right direction for him to go in. It’s good to see him on the front row to give himself the best chance of winning. With Andrew, we’re still struggling to find a decent set-up and still have a lot of work to do. However, he won the race here last year from ninth on the grid, so we know what he can do! 2009 World Supersport championship, round four Assen, Holland Final qualifying, results: 1 Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 1’40.313s 2 Joan Lascorz (ESP) Kawasaki 1’40.848s 3 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’40.998s 4 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda 1’41.002s 10 Andrew Pitt (AUS) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’41.653s More, from a press release issued by Team YZF Yamaha Progress for Doni Tata Pradita After a difficult Friday, the Yamaha Indonesia rider was quicker on Saturday. There is still some margin for progression and the warm up session on Sunday morning will be useful. It will not be easy to score points during the race, but Doni keeps the spirit up and he will try to do his best during the race. Cal Crutchlow, leader of the championship with Kean Sofuoglu, was the fastest on his Yamaha, beating by more than half a second the previous lap record of Broc Parkes (Yamaha) of 1’40.895. Spaniard Joan Lascorz did also a very good job, putting his Kawasaki in second position. The first two Hondas of Kenan Sofuoglu and Eugene Laverty are 3rd and 4th, but then we have to go to 8th position to find Anthony West (who crashed) in front of Robbin Harms (who crashed also) and the reigning World Champion Andrew Pitt in 10th. Doni Tata Pradita: “I improved. We tested a few things. It’s really difficult. We still have to find a better setting. It’s coming better. I was faster today”¦ but the other riders too! I hope it will be better tomorrow.” Martial Garcia (team-manager): “We are 3 seconds away from the pole position, which is not as good as usual. Our rider has some problems in the fast curves of the last part of the track. This is where he is losing most of his time. We are working in this direction so he gets the spark and the good racing lines in these curves.” Qualifying results: 1 35 Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’40.313 2 26 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’40.848 3 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’40.998 4 50 Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.002 5 99 Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’41.130 6 24 McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 1’41.412 7 51 Pirro M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’41.436 8 13 West A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.496 9 127 Harms R. (DEN) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.566 10 1 Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.653 11 77 Veneman B. (NED) Suzuki GSX-R600 1’41.743 12 8 Aitchison M. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.794 13 55 Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.858 14 14 Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 1’41.898 15 21 Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’42.007 16 117 Praia M. (POR) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.052 17 7 Vostárek P. (CZE) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.093 18 105 Vizziello G. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.354 19 69 Nannelli G. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 1’42.358 20 28 Vos A. (NED) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.553 21 83 Holland R. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.605 22 9 Dell’Omo D. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.663 23 30 Günther J. (GER) Honda CBR600RR 1’42.792 24 53 Polita A. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R600 1’42.902 25 32 Lai F. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’43.314 26 5 Pradita T. (INA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’43.491 27 96 Smrz M. (CZE) Triumph Daytona 675 1’43.936 28 57 Bos K. (NED) Yamaha YZF R6 1’44.285 29 94 Van Nieuwenhuizen M. (NED) Yamaha YZF R6 1’44.363 30 88 Guerra Y. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R6 1’45.342 31 27 Van Poppel T. (NED) Yamaha YZF R6 1’45.782 More, from a press release issued by Tea, ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing: Team ParkinGo Triumph BE1 Racing reaches objective. Garry McCoy will start tomorrow’s race from row two as he manged to set the sixth fastest time during today’s qualifying session. It is a result that further confirms both the rider’s competiteveness and the bike’s high level of performance. Unfortunately, Gianluca Nannelli was unlucky yet again as he crashed because of a technical problem by the end of qualifying. He will start from row five hoping to pull off a good recovery. GARRY McCOY | Triumph Daytona 675 | 6th in 1’41.412 : “I think we’ve done a good job during these two days. We’ve improved a lot and we’ve only made some small changes as far as the bike’s direction is concerned. On this track it’s pretty hard to overtake and so we hope to be a bit more lucky at the start as in Australia and Qatar I was involved in several melees that prevented me from getting better results. I hope to get a clean start and score a good result”. GIANLUCA NANNELLI | Triumph Daytona 675 | 19th in 1’42.358 : “I could’ve had a better starting position but,just when I was pushing harder, I crashed because of a breakdown. I’ll try do my best tomorrow although I’ll be forced to take some risks at the start”. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Lascorz Second Quickest In Qualifying Again WSS, Assen, Netherlands, 25 April 2009 Joan Lascorz continued his strong run of 2009 form on the Ninja ZX-6R Kawasaki to secure second place on the starting grid at Assen, with a best time of 1’40.848. This was Lascorz’ third time to qualify in second place on the grid in 2009, which is his first year as an official Kawasaki rider. Katsuaki Fujiwara was also in impressive form in an earlier practice session, and was unlucky to not join Lascorz on the front row after his machine suffered a small technical problem. His number two machine had subtly different settings from his number one bike, and thus ‘Kats’ was not quite able to match his best Friday times during Saturday’s lone qualifying session. Lascorz was the fastest rider in the Assen pre-race mix until Cal Crutchlow took a new best lap and pushed on to take pole by over half a second. On race pace Lascorz remains confident that he can be in the running to score the team’s first podium of the year. Fujiwara understands that he has to make a strong start from the fourth row to get into early contention for Sunday’s 21-lap Supersport contest. Joan Lascorz: “Crutchlow was very fast in qualifying but we will see in the race if he is my problem or I am his problem. Our race set-up is quite fast and we found a good base set-up for the bike at Valencia last time out. We used the same base to start here and it is pretty similar to the Valencia settings even now. In some places I lose a little compared to others, the second and third parts of the track. We just have to make some final adjustment to the front before the race and then we are ready.” Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We had a small technical problem and I had to swap to my second bike in the final session. Lucky that this happened now rather than tomorrow morning. The other bike was set-up quite similarly but it did not feel quite the same. You really need confidence to be able to put in a fast lap at this track. My race pace is good and we have been fast in practice, just not in the qualifying session. Tyres? We will have to see how things are for the weather as well tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Stiggy Honda Racing: West optimistic despite second row start Stiggy Racing Honda’s Anthony West started his qualifying practice on high spirits after he posted the third fastest time on the leader board in the practice session today, but made an unsuccessful switch to his second bike after crashing out in the first half of the session. West was eager to perform well on the Dutch track after just missing out on his maiden win for the team in Valencia. His steady improvement throughout the sessions was stalled after he had to go out on his second bike. West showed a good pace earlier in the sessions, but the different set-up of his second bike prevented him from improving on his best time of 1’41.496s, and left West to settle for an unanticipated 8th place on the grid. Despite a second row start, West remains optimistic about his chances in the race. On the other side of the garage, Vizziello was still dealing with issues concerning the front of his bike, and found himself languishing in the middle of the field. The Italian finished the session in a best time of 1’42.354s, which puts him on the 18th place on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Anthony West, P8, 1’41.496s: “I tried a new setting on my bike, which was working out fine until I lost the front. I then had to get on my number two bike which was not set up properly, and it was impossible to set a good lap time. I am confident I could have gone a lot quicker today. My whole weekend has been troubled by small problems with the bike. We have some issues with the vibration of the bike, which made it even harder to ride fast. We put in a new rear tyre, and used an old one in the front. I then pushed a bit too much, and lost the front. I am not pleased with my second row start, but I still have to win this race. It is a long way forward to win a race from here, but if I can have a good start, I will be riding at the front”. Gianluca Vizziello, P18, 1’42.354s: ” I have some problems with my corner entry speed. In the fast corners I can’t open the throttle as quickly as I would like to, and loose too much time. Between two corners I loose up to a second. I think that if we can solve that problem, we will be able to make a big step forward in the race tomorrow”. Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager: Anthony was doing really well on the setting we found for his preferred bike, but unfortunately had a small crash, and had to go out again on his second bike. The different setting of the bike prevented him from improving his time. He will have to start from the second row tomorrow, but he has shown great pace, so I expect him to ride a good race. Vizziello is still has some issued with the front of his bike. He should improve tomorrow when he gets into the swing of the race. Results Supersport QP: 1. C.Crutchlow 1’40.313 2. J.Lascorz 1’40.848 3. K.Sofuoglu 1’40.998 8. A.West 1’41.496 18. G. Vizziello 1’42.354 More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Crutchlow aces third consecutive pole in Assen Yamaha World Supersport rookie Cal Crutchlow put on yet another breathtaking display of consistent pace in qualifying today, setting the fastest time, breaking the best lap record set by Broc Parkes last year and putting himself on pole position for the third consecutive time in the 2009 World Supersport Championship. Crutchlow ended the qualifying session a clear half a second faster than closest rival Lascorz in second position. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st, 1’40.313) “I’m pretty pleased to be honest. I was happy with the time and I was really pleased with how the team worked to be able to get me there but we still have some stuff to work out, once we’ve solved them we can go a lot faster. The race pace is not going to be anywhere near as quick as qualifying so I’m not that worried because if we slow up a little bit the laps should be easier and we’ll be consistent. I think we’re in a good position to win the race tomorrow, I’ll be trying hard so I guess we’ll just have to see what the weather brings us as well.” Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (5th, 1’41.130) “It was a good session for me today, I could still do better but I’m still not 100% to be honest. It’s also stupid to take risks and have even a small crash on my shoulder and potentially miss anything so I tried to be fast and safe. The bike is good, I’m happy with it and starting to enjoy riding it again and getting my confidence back. If we can fix a bit of front end chatter then I’ll be really happy.” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager “1st and 5th position starts, the same as Valencia is great. I hope we get the same end result for Cal and I really hope Fabien can put it on the podium too. There’s some really strong competition in the pack, I think Lascorz will be strong tomorrow and Sofuoglu will definitely be in there. Laverty is also looking good. We have some small issues to work out before tomorrow on the bikes which should help and make us even better for the race.”