FIM Supersport World Championship Losail International Circuit, Qatar February 22, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Hon CBR600RR), 2:03.258 2. Gianluca NANNELLI (Duc 749R), 2:03.477 3. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR600RR), 2:03.608 4. Sebastian CHARPENTIER (Hon CBR600RR), 2:03.744 5. Fabien FORET (Kaw ZX-6R), 2:03.862 6. Kevin CURTAIN (Yam YZF-R6), 2:03.941 7. Pere RIBA (Kaw ZX-6R), 2:03.949 8. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6), 2:03.991 9. Robbin HARMS (Hon CBR600RR), 2:04.308 10. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600), 2:04.484 19. Chris PERIS (Yam YZF-R6), 2:06.010 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: New CBR600RR performs well for HANNspree Ten Kate Honda HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s World Supersport riders are well on the way to securing a front row start for this Saturday’s race following the first qualifying practice at a sun-drenched Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Despite slippery track conditions due to an oil spill in morning practice, Kenan Sofuoglu and Sebastien Charpentier battled it out in the top four for the majority of the session. The final times were incredibly close but ended with Sofuoglu setting the third best time and team-mate Charpentier just behind him in fourth. After setting the best lap time in the morning practice session, Sofuoglu completed 13 laps of the 5.4km track during qualifying to secure a final time of 2:03.477 – only 0.360 seconds behind fastest rider Katsuaki Fujiwara. The Turkish rider will be experimenting with the gearing on the new Honda CBR600RR to improve his position in tomorrow’s final qualifying session. Defending World Champion Charpentier finished the day on a final best lap of 2:03.744.The Frenchman currently holds the Supersport lap record at the Losail circuit, which he set during the 2006 Qatar round and he has no plans to surrender it. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “I’m quite happy with the start of the season. We have had to do a lot of work to the bikes to find a set-up that suits the track butboth riders are happy. We will try some softer tyres tomorrow as we only had hard ones today, so I’m confident that that we can make an improvement on the times. All in all I’m really pleased – there were a lot of CBR600RRs up at the front so we know that Honda did a good job for us developing the bike over the winter. We will have to go faster tomorrow if the conditions are the same to establish a front row start.” Sébastien Charpentier “I am feeling OK about today. It is not so bad because we were still in the top four despite the track conditions. There were a lot of crashes in the practice laps. I just made a mistake on the last corner when the bike slipped because there was still some oil residue on the track. We did not test at this circuit over the winter, therefore we have to be happy with today’s performance.” Kenan Sogouglu: “We did not do a test here so we have had to find the right set-up for the bike in the practice sessions. Tomorrow we will try a different gearing and hopefully it will work better. I think if we find a good set-up then we have a strong chance of staying on the first row.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: R6 men show Middle Eastern promise The Yamaha World Supersport team made a promising start to Saturday’s opening round of the 2007 Supersport World Championship at a hot and sunny Losail circuit in Qatar today, ending first qualifying with both riders on the provisional second row. Last year’s championship runner-up Kevin Curtain was the fastest of the YZF-R6 runners, setting a best lap of 2:03.941 around the long and fast desert circuit. Team-mate Broc Parkes was just five hundreds of a second behind his fellow Australian to take eighth place in a tight session that saw the top eight all in the 2:03 bracket. Encouragingly both of the Yamaha Motor Europe entered machines were able to run consistently at race pace, putting in consistent 2:04 lap times during their runs. The season certainly got off to a spectacular start when Curtain’s R6 was destroyed in a pile-up just minutes into the morning practice session. The accident claimed four Yamaha riders with Yamaha GMT94’s David Checa and Sebastien Gimbert, as well as Italian privateer Gianluca Vizziello, all going down on oil deposited by another rider’s machine. Thankfully all riders escaped without injury and were able to return to the circuit when the session was restarted, allowing the protagonists to work on finding a good set-up for Saturday’s 18 lap race. Yamaha Motor Italy Lorenzini by Leoni rider Massimo Roccoli ended the day 11th on his YZF-R6, with supersport newcomer Gimbert and team-mate Checa ending the day 17th and 21st places respectively. Fastest man on show was Japanese rider Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda) who recorded a 2:03.258 lap in the last minute of the session. Italian Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) and Honda team-mates Kenan Sofuoglu and Sebastien Charpentier complete the provisional front row. Kevin Curtain “Not a bad day but the crash this morning was a real downer. Someone blew up right on the racing line and four of us went down, with Broc and a few others doing real well to stay up. The bike was totally destroyed in the crash and that set me back as the spare bike wasn’t set up quite the same. That’s a shame but we know we are competitive and can make some improvements for tomorrow.” Broc Parkes “It’s been a decent enough start today. I almost crashed on the oil in the morning session and the two big delays were a little strange. The times are all very close and we’re on the pace. I think that we are already in decent shape but hopefully we can get further up the grid tomorrow.”