FIM Supersport World Championship Losail International Circuit, Qatar February 23, 2007 Final Qualifying Results: 1. Kevin CURTAIN (Yam YZF-R6), 2:02.081 2. Sebastian CHARPENTIER (Hon CBR600RR), 2:02.183 3. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Hon CBR600RR), 2:02.376 4. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR600RR), 2:02.752 5. Fabien FORET (Kaw ZX-6R), 2:03.266 6. Pere RIBA (Kaw ZX-6R), 2:03.342 7. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6), 2:03.396 8. Gianluca NANNELLI (Duc 749R), 2:03.477 9. Yoann TIBERIO (Hon CBR600RR), 2:03.806 10. Massimo ROCCOLI (Yam YZF-R6), 2:03.921 16. Chris PERIS (Yam YZF-R6), 2:04.691 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: HANNspree Ten Kate Honda riders secure front row starts The first race of the 2007 World Supersport Championship in Qatar will see HANNspree Ten Kate Honda riders Sébastien Charpentier and Kenan Sofuoglu start from the front row. Today’s final qualifying saw the pair fight hard for the top spots in an exciting session that took place in the dry desert heat. Sébastien Charpentier put in an impressive display and even managed to smash the Qatar Supersport lap record, which he set himself during the 2006 series. His best lap for 2007 now stands at 2’02.183 – nearly one full second faster than his previous record. The Frenchman held on to the best lap until the final 30 seconds of the 45-minute session when Kevin Curtain stole it with a time of 2’02.081. Kenan Sofuoglu fought just as hard for his front row position, changing places with the top four riders throughout the session to finally finish in fourth place. The 22-year-old set his best lap times of the week so far with a final recording of 2’02.752. He hopes to continue this form in tomorrow’s race now that the new CBR600RR has been adjusted to his preferences and is ready to go. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager “To be honest, this a good result for the first event with a new bike. We didn’t test here so this is the first time the new CBR600RR has been on this track. Second and fourth is good because it is important that we start tomorrow’s race from the front row. Pole position would have been an extra bonus, but we just had it grabbed away from Sébastien in the closing stages. It’s not too much of a problem though – we are making step-by-step improvements to the bike and the riders are becoming more and more familiar with the CBR600RR. I’m still confident that we can race to win tomorrow.” Sébastien Charpentier “To be in second place is not what I wanted but it is OK. I am really happy with the set-up of the bike and the team has worked really hard to make sure the bike is good enough to get the best lap times. I have a plan for tomorrow, I know the other riders and I am ready for the race. I think I have a good chance to finish in front tomorrow.” Kenan Sofuoglu “I can’t say I am really happy but the good thing is that we are in the first row, which is the important thing. I’m also happy to have got my lap time down and if I can keep this up for the race it will be good. Today’s times were much better than in yesterday’s sessions and tomorrow is a new day so I hope we improve further for the race. The bike is now set up and ready to go, we have no more changes to make so in the warm up I can concentrate on my riding and getting ready to race. Hopefully I can get a win for the team.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha’s Curtain storms to Qatari pole Kevin Curtain made his intentions for the 2007 Supersport World Championship clear by blasting his Yamaha YZF-R6 to pole position for tomorrow’s opening race at the Losail circuit in Qatar. The Australian had endured a tough day in yesterday’s practice, destroying his preferred machine when he was an innocent victim of a pile-up during the first practice session, but the Yamaha World Supersport team rider gave a virtuoso performance in today’s second session, improving his time by almost two seconds. Curtain instantly improved his Thursday time and topped the timesheets for most of the session, although it was his perfectly timed run right at the end of the session that finally grabbed the pole and gave his rivals no time to respond. The Yamaha man’s 2:02.081 lap was a whole second quicker than last year’s pole position and gives the 2006 championship runner up the third world championship pole of his career. Curtain’s team-mate Broc Parkes battled set-up problems throughout the qualifying sessions and will start tomorrow’s 18 lap, 97km, race from the second row after improving his time and one place from yesterday’s opening session. Parkes stopped the clock at 2:03.396 on the second of his three qualifying runs and although he went out to try and move up the grid at the end of the session, he was unable to improve his time. Italian youngster Massimo Roccoli improved his opening day time by over a second to make round out the top ten and make it three YZF-R6s in the first three rows. Joining Curtain on the front row for what is expected to be a closely fought race will be Sebastien Charpentier, Katsuaki Fujiwara and Kenan Sofuoglu (all Honda). Last season’s race saw Curtain finish second to eventual champion Charpentier on the still-developing R6’s race debut. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha World Supersport team) “Today’s been a great start for us and, to be honest, a little unexpected after what happened yesterday. I was a big victim of the oil on the track yesterday and I have to thank my mechanics for building me a brand new bike overnight, because the other one was destroyed. Thanks to them we were able to get on and concentrate on the work we wanted to concentrate on yesterday. The bike is working very good here and we’ve been able to do a lot of work on the chassis and suspension over the winter, so hopefully we can take advantage of that here this weekend.” Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport team) “It’s been a frustrating few days so far because when we came testing here I was able to do 2:02 laps all day long but so far this we’ve had a lot of problems with chattering and we can’t quite put our finger on why that is. We’ve virtually turned the bike upside down but we’ve not been able to make much progress. We know that the bike’s quick because Kevin’s right on it, which is great for the team but frustrating for me. I know we’ll try a few things for tomorrow and hopefully that will help us solve the chatter problem and put in a good race.”