FIM Supersport World Championship Phillip Island, Australia February 24, 2012 Qualifying Session One Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Broc PARKES, Australia (Honda CBR600RR), 1:34.532 2. Jules CLUZEL, France (Honda CBR600RR), 1:34.558 3. Sam LOWES, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 1:34.564 4. Fabien FORET, France (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:34.791 5. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:34.807 6. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:35.013 7. Balazs NEMETH, Hungary (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.296 8. Lucas PESEK, Czech Republic (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.526 9. Ronan QUARMBY, South Africa (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.644 10. Mathew SCHOLTZ, South Africa (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.669 11. Ondrej JEZEK, Czech Republic (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.709 12. Sheridan MORAIS, South Africa (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:35.852 13. Imre TOTH, Hungary (Honda CBR600RR), 1:35.945 14. Massimo ROCCOLI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:35.979 15. Martin JESSOPP, Great Britain (Honda CBR600RR), 1:36.044 16. Josh DAY, USA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:36.191 17. Roberto TAMBURINI, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:36.328 18. Vladimir LEONOV, Russia (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:36.355 19. Fabio MENGHI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:36.413 20. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Honda CBR600RR), 1:36.458 More, from a press release issued by Infront Motor Sports: World Supersport Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) is the man most on form in World Supersport, the Aussie powering his Honda CBR600RR to the quickest time in 1 minute 34.532 seconds on the first day of qualifying. Parkes was just 26 thousandths of a second ahead of Frenchman Jules Cluzel on a PTR Honda machine, a new arrival on this year’s Supersport grid and one of the stars of recent winter testing. Third place went to Sam Lowes from the Bogdanka side of the PTR operation, with two former champions, Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) and Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki DeltaFin Lorenzini), next up. Alex Baldolini was the top Italian in sixth place, a good effort on the Power Team by Suriano Triumph, but team-mate Vittorio Iannuzzo crashed and dropped down the order. East European riders are also making major progress in these early stages, with Hungarian Balazs Nemeth (Racing Team Toth) ahead of Czech Lukas Pesek (PRORACE Honda) in seventh and eighth respectively. Times: 1. Parkes B. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’34.532; 2. Cluzel J. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 1’34.558; 3. Lowes S. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 1’34.564; 4. Foret F. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’34.791; 5. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’34.807; 6. Baldolini A. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 1’35.013; 7. Nemeth B. (HUN) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.296; 8. Pesek L. (CZE) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.526; etc. Supersport records at Phillip Island Fastest Lap: Fabien Foret (Honda) 1’34.941 (168.485 km/h) – 2011 Best Lap: Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) 1’33.847 (170.512 km/h) – 2010 More, from a press release issued by Power Team by Suriano: Power Team by Suriano works on top. Antonio “Ninetto” Suriano and his team mean business and are willing to place themselves among the protagonists in this first Supersport World Championship round in Phillip Island. Sixth time for Alex Baldolini, that considering his first experience in this category did a great job without any particular issues. No luck for Vittorio Iannuzzo that due to a few slips couldn’t repeat his last previous sixth time. He’s going to make it up tomorrow trying to reach a better starting position. Alex Baldolini Triumph Daytona 675 #25 – “Luckily I immediately found out the right setting and a good feeling with the bike so that I could improve my own time during practice. I’m sure I still have room for improvements and I’ll do my best tomorrow to reach an even better place on the grid.” Vittorio Iannuzzo Triumph Daytona 675 #31 – “Basically, today I couldn’t ride. I noticed some troubles at bend 9 where I slipped a few times because of front tyre grip lack. I’m working to improve the feeling and to go back among the top for tomorrow”. More, from a press release issued by Performance Technical Racing: PTR HONDA French ace Jules Cluzel scorched to second place on the provisional grid for Sunday’s opening round of the World Supersport Championship at Phillip Island in Australia. His PTR Honda team-mate Ronan Quarmby is ninth with Riders PTR Honda’s Martin Jessopp improving fast and taking 15th. There are further practice and qualifying sessions tomorrow ahead of the race on Sunday at 1330 local time. Jules: “I am happy because I made second place. I hope tomorrow to improve my lap times but it will be difficult as the temperature in the afternoon can be more than 30 degrees more than the morning. But we are in a good position already and everything is good with my PTR team. We have some things to try tomorrow morning, I will push a little more and try to go faster.” Ronan: “My lap times are consistent and we are competitive over a race distance. I still want to go faster and will be working with the team to improve tomorrow and go for the first two rows.” Martin: “I am still going in the right direction and took another big chunk of time off. It is still not where I want to be and I want to improve a few more places tomorrow. I am looking at the data of the other PTR guys who are 600 riders and there is a big difference; I am grabbing too much brake and do not have enough corner speed. Every session I am getting closer and learning.” Simon Buckmaster, PTR Honda Team Manager: “It’s been a great day for Jules, he’s only thousandths off pole; he is an intelligent rider and working well with the team. Ronan is riding very well and improving so we expect he should challenge for the first two rows tomorrow. Martin has taken 1.5secs off his lap times and is still adapting his riding style from Superbike to Supersport. For the PTR Honda team it has been its best qualifying ever with four racers in the top 10 and five in the top 15 – that’s a good first day and a great start to the season.” More, from a press release issued by Bogdanka PTR Honda: BOGDANKA PTR HONDA’S Sam Lowes finished both of Friday’s World Supersport sessions at Phillip Island in a close third position, ending the day just 32 thousands of a second from provisional pole position and aiming to go even faster tomorrow. His South African teammate, Mathew Scholtz on the other Bogdanka PTR Honda, continued his adaptation to the new series in impressive fashion, rounding out the top ten just over a second from Sam at the end of the opening day. Bogdanka Honda PTR’s Pawel Szkopek finished the opening day in 20th position. The Polish rider is confident of going significantly faster tomorrow during the second practice and qualifying ahead of the Sunday’s race. Sam Lowes: “It was a really good day and things are looking good ahead of Sunday’s race. The weather is hot and consistent and should stay that way for the rest of the weekend, which is good too. We’ve been working a lot on race pace and ended the day less than one tenth from pole so it’s all coming together really well. The aim for tomorrow is to continue working on the setup in the morning and then try to put the bike on pole position in qualifying; but as long as we are on the front row, I’ll be relatively happy.” Mathew Scholtz:”Today went really, really well for me and I did better than I thought so I’m happy. The track feels the same as during the test but I’ve changed my lines to avoid some of the bumps and that seemed to help me a lot and allowed me to go a bit faster. I was focusing on getting the feeling back in the free practice and trying some new things with the setup before the team made a big change for the afternoon which definitely seemed to help. We have a few small things we’d still like to try tomorrow morning and I hope to go a bit faster in the second qualifying. Sunday will be my first World Supersport race and I hope to bring home some points.” Pawel Szkopek: “So far it looks like it’s all good and I’m eager to improve. I went a lot quicker in the test on Tuesday and I’m confident we can still improve from that, so I’m expecting a lot of progress tomorrow and a good grid position for Sunday’s race.” Simon Buckmaster, Bogdanka PTR Honda Team Manager: “Sam’s already gone a tenth faster than last year and has the race pace, he is in good shape for tomorrow and the race. At the moment Mathew still has to learn how to get more out of the tyre when it is new but his race pace is also good; it looks like he can challenge for the front two rows tomorrow.”