FIM World Superbike Championship Brands Hatch, England August 4 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Troy BAYLISS (Duc F06), 1:26.272 2. Troy CORSER (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:26.494 3. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1), 1:26.563 4. Andrew PITT (Yam YZF-R1), 1:26.702 5. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:26.741 6. Chris WALKER (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:26.844 7. Ruben XAUS (Duc 999F05), 1:26.955 8. Tommy HILL (Yam YZF-R1), 1:26.987 9. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:27.165 10. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 999F06), 1:27.285 11. James TOSELAND (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.308 12. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:27.372 13. Michel FABRIZIO (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.468 14. Fonsi NIETO (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:27.510 15. Sebastien GIMBERT (Yam YZF-R1), 1:27.690 16. Alex BARROS (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.836 17. Norick ABE (Yam YZF-R1), 1:27.940 18. Ivan CLEMENTI (Duc 999RS), 1:28.025 19. Josh BROOKES (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:28.084 20. Vitorrio IANNUZZO (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:28.191 21. Craig JONES (Foggy Petronas FP1), 1:28.229 22. Steve MARTIN (Foggy Petronas FP1), 1:28.232 23. Pierfrancesco CHILI (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:28.390 24. Roberto ROLFO (Duc 999F05), 1:28.651 25. Marco BORCIANI (Duc 999F05), 1:28.676 26. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yam YZF-R1), 1:29.033 27. Kurtis ROBERTS (Duc 999RS), 1:30.979 More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Foggy PETRONAS Racing pair in close contention at Brands Craig Jones and his Foggy PETRONAS Racing team-mate Steve Martin were separated by just three thousandths of a second after the first day of qualifying for the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship at Brands Hatch. Although both were hindered by niggling problems they remain confident of making the top 16 for Superpole tomorrow morning. Troy Bayliss once again set the fastest time with a lap of 1:26.681. Steve once again improved on his best lap on race tyres from last year but his time of 1:28.232 left him in 22nd place, with Craig one place higher, although only four tenths off the top 16. Craig said: “I am fairly pleased because I managed to improve my time despite the problems. And once those problems are solved and out of my head I am sure I can take some more time off and challenge for Superpole, even without the improvements that we are going to make overnight. I had to re-learn Brands Hatch today for riding a superbike. You constantly have to fight the bike and I have discovered bumps that I never knew existed. The problems were minor, such as with the rear wheel speed sensor, but this caused difficulties with gear changes. I knew I could get into the mid-27s but wasn’t able to because the problems occurred when I was out on new tyres.” Steve said: “I am going quicker on race tyres than last year but the competition has also moved on. I am good through the first split but the rest of the circuit is where the extra power and torque comes into play. My major problem was that I had a gear shifter problem towards the end of the afternoon session when I had just put in a new tyre and was expecting to go faster. So now I am behind the eight-ball as I have wasted one of my better new tyres for tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: MUGGERIDGE FIFTH AFTER FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) ended his first day of practice at Brands Hatch in fifth position in the official qualifying ranking, despite a late fall. The Aussie rider, twice a winner in Supersport at Brands Hatch, has one more session on Saturday, plus Superpole qualifying, to consolidate and improve his grid position, as he goes for an eventual front row starting place. James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) ran out 11th, after experiencing issues under braking at the undulating Brands Hatch circuit. This unusual problem held back his schedule on day one, leaving him further down the ranking than his recent excellent qualifying performances would have suggested. Championship leader Troy Bayliss was fastest on day one, with Troy Corser second. Ronald Ten Kate Team Manager “In the morning things started out quite good for us, and the bikes seemed to be working OK, so we made only small adjustments in the afternoon. Then we had some strange problems with braking on James’ machine, which slowed us down in the session, as he had to swap between bikes. That did not help a lot. We also lost some time with the softer tyres on, but since we have never had these problems anywhere else, they will be resolved for tomorrow.” James Toseland Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider “We had a few problems out with our control and that wasted some of our time in that session. We couldn’t try the things we wanted to try because of it. We are getting a good direction with the set-up of the bike but the problem was really holding us back. I can assure you that we won’t have the same problem tomorrow.” Karl Muggeridge Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider “A good first day, all-in-all. The bike is getting better; we just need to improve it a bit on the corner entry, to stop the bike vibrating a little. There are a few more bumps on the track than last year. Maybe this has been our best start to the weekend of the whole season.” More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group: BAYLISS MAKES AN EARLY STAND AT BRANDS – TROY VERSUS TROY WITH HAGA JUST BEHIND After the first day of regulation qualifying at Brands Hatch Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) scored the overnight pole placing, with a 1’26.272 lap; almost under the existing best lap at the classic English circuit after only one day of practice. His quick early marker was almost matched by his old friend and rival Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) who was only 0.222 seconds down after one hour of free practice, and one hour of qualifying. The leading duo were closely followed by Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) who took his Yamaha to within 0.291 seconds of Bayliss’ Ducati. The provisional front row was completed by Misano race winner, Andrew Pitt, Haga’s team-mate. MUGGERIDGE ON FORM WITH WALKER THE TOP KAWASAKI RIDER Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) scored fifth best time, making him the best Honda rider on display on day one. The Aussie, back to full fitness, headed the fastest local rider on day one – SBK regular in the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse squad – Chris Walker. Proof that a strong performance at Brands is as much about track knowledge and rider skill as machinery, Ruben Xaus (Berik Sterilgarda Ducati) went seventh fastest, on a privateer Ducati. WILDCARD HILL EIGHTH ON A FOUR After scooping Superpole at Silverstone, wild card rider Tommy Hill showed his prowess at the full Brands Hatch circuit, finishing day one in eighth place in the rankings. After his most successful SBK race weekend in his two-year SBK career, double Brno race winner Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) slotted home ninth, with the top ten rounded out by Bayliss’ team-mate, Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox). TOSELAND 11th AFTER EXPERIENCING EARLY PROBLEMS James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) was disappointed to finish his first day at Brands Hatch just outside the top ten positions, after suffering braking problems with his machine. His old Ducati team-mate, Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) was 12th, despite a highside crash in the unofficial morning session, while double Brno podium sensation Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda) scoring the last place in the top 13. WEATHER AN IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR SATURDAY MORNING Despite some threatening clouds surrounding the Brands Hatch circuit all day, Friday stayed dry throughout, but should conditions deteriorate for the final regulation qualifying session on Saturday morning, the current top 16 will be the ones who go forward to Saturday afternoon’s Superpole contest, which is the final determiner of the first four rows of the grid. Rounding out the top 16 on day one are Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse), Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) and Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda). Barros, unlike most of his peer group, was sampling Brands Hatch for the first time. New rider Kurtis Roberts (Pedercini Ducati) set an early qualifying time on his SBK weekend, and his first at Brands Hatch, some 4.7 seconds behind Bayliss. He had missed the first untimed session for administrative reasons. SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) went fastest of all in Supersport on day one, only 0.040 seconds ahead of second quickest rider Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany). Sofuoglu’s team-mate Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) showed he is well on the road to recovery from recent injury by posting third best time, ahead of local wild card rider, Cal Crutchlow (Northpoint Ekerold Honda). WSS regular Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) finished fifth, with another Northpoint Ekerold Honda wild card rider, Leon Camier, sixth. SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP Australian rider Brendan Roberts made another positive career step by finishing the first qualifying session in first place on his HP Racing Suzuki at Brands Hatch. Ayrton Badovini (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta) finished second, a mere 0.074 seconds down, with another MV rider, Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni Racing) third. Championship leader Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki Italia) was only seventh, with one more session remaining. Jon Boy Lee (Nvidia Yamaha) was the fastest of the wild card riders on show, ninth. More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: FIRST PRACTICE DAY AT BRANDS HATCH First practice day at Brands Hatch, near to London, with the return at 749R Ducati’s wheel by Gianluca Nannelli side to Stuart Easton and Luka Nedog. In Superbike Roberto Rolfo focused his work for the bike setting on a track totally new for him, without the goal of the fast lap time, and the final result let quite satisfied the SC Caracchi 999F05 Ducati’s rider. “Today has been a quite strange day, but at the end also positive.” said at the end of the day Roberto Rolfo. “We probably understood what we need, forst for the front. My feeling is increased and i like this track, that I tested today for the first time. It’s a very particular track, demanding but in the same time very amusing. The set up is very important, as well the experience; now I’m going to know better the lines. At this point we must focus our work on a good package set up, because the bike is still moving a lot, more in the front. I still lose time in the first track sector, while on the contrary the bike has actually improved in the fastest sector where I feel more confident. The engine too is pushes hardly, we have to set the bike for the final qualifiyng of tomorrow morning to join the Superpole admission, I’m confident about it.” Gianluca Nannelli practised today with care, to find once more the confidence with the twin Supersport after such a long time far from the 749R, that he used just for a few laps in April’s test session in Misano. “During the morning session I pay more attention to find once more the old feeling with the twin.” commented at the end of first qualifying session Gianluca Nannelli “During afternoon session we had some problem with the steering damper, that’s very important on this circuit, and we have still some problem with the front in the middle of the corners, but we have still a large improving space. With the team, that’s the same group of friends that I leave at the end of 2005 season, I feel very well, everybody work in a very professional way. Tomorrow we’ll work on the package set up, I’m sure we have still the margin to improve; about the engine is still on the top, it’s not casual that we still are the fastest in the speed trap control!” Luka Nedog had some difficult on the demanding British circuit, but during the afternoon he improved clearly his lap time. “I’m very impressed by Brands Hatch circuit.” confessed at the end of the first practice day Luka Nedog “It’s a very demanding track, both to the rider as to the bike and on this up and down course the experience is basic. During the afternoon session I improved by a couple of seconds my morning’s lap time, but that’s not enough to be satisfied. More the bike this afternoon didn’t push too much, so for tomorrow we’ll try a new engine and I’ll try to improve my performance and earn some grid position, hoping that the weather, always very changeable here in England, will not make us a bad joke.” Stuart Easton is a fine performer of Brands Hatch, but for the British Championship uses different tyres, so he focused this first practice day to study the Pirelli’s behaviour on this track that hasn’t any secret for him. “I didn’t push too much today.” said Easton at the end of qualifying “It was more important to study he tyres behaviour here in Brands on a twin. I know that on a four they work well, but on my 749R SC Ducati I had any reference to. I’m quite satisfied, today our goal wasn’t a fast lap time. At the end of tomorrow’s qualifying I’m confident to get a better grid position. Our bike is one as top speed, with the third fastest on the long Hawthorn Hill climbing, and that’s very important.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: BAYLISS TAKES FIRST BLOOD FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM IN BATTLE OF BRANDS Brands Hatch (UK), Friday 4 August: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) notched up the quickest time in the opening qualifying session for round 8 of the World Superbike Championship, powering his Ducati 999F06 around the 3.703 mile Brands Hatch circuit in 1m26.272s. His team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was provisional tenth quickest, but with just one second separating the top 10 in the opening session, the Italian is in a good position to make progress tomorrow. “It’s nice to come back to Brands Hatch, nice to be here with cooler weather than the last few races and we had a good day” declared Troy. “I did quite a lot of sub-1m27s laps and I’m feeling pretty comfortable. Brands is a strange track, you have to make a few changes to the bike because no matter what you ride here, the bikes bottom out with all the braking that’s done in dips and uphill, but honestly it’s got some good character to it and I love riding around here. We’ve got a couple of little ideas for tomorrow to improve, nothing special, and we’ll work a bit more with the tyres but I don’t think we’re going to go a lot quicker than that on the race tyre.” “Here things are going much better for me, I’ve got off to quite a good start even though I still have to improve because for me it’s the most difficult track on the calendar” commented Lorenzo. “If I can start from the front two rows of the grid then I’ll be happy. It’s only the second year on a Superbike here for me, and last year I had just got back on track again after breaking my collarbone, so I haven’t done many laps around here. This year I’m already one second quicker but for the moment it’s not enough. We’ll try and improve tomorrow and get further up the grid. Considering that I did this time on my own, on a track where someone ahead of you can help you a lot, I’m satisfied with my performance but there is room to improve.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: TROY HAPPY WITH SECOND TODAY Troy Corser ended the first qualifying at Brands Hatch today with the second quickest time, nearly three tenths of a second under the existing lap record, happy in the knowledge that there is more to come. All day he was on the pace and only had to make minor adjustments to his GSX-R1000K6 during the two practice sessions. Troy knows that a front row grid place at Brands is crucial and will not want to get caught out in tomorrow afternoon’s Superpole shoot-out, so will be going all-out to make sure of a place on the front row. Fastest today is series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati), who posted a time of 1:26.272 at the 3.703 kilometre circuit. TROY – 2nd, 1:26.494 Today was quite good because I had a good feeling with the bike more or less straightaway. In the morning, we started with our set-up from Brands last year and it was not so bad. Then we tried our set-up from Brno in the last round and the bike felt a lot better and easier to ride. I wasn’t pushing hard today, but the lap times came pretty easily, which makes me feel good about tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we’ll make some minor changes and make sure we have a good set-up to finish in the top four in Superpole. At Brands you have to be on the front row and then make a good start. If you don’t, you get held up and lose touch with the leaders. My only little problem today was nothing to do with today. Yesterday we had a bicycle race round the circuit and i had a bit of accident and went straight over the handlebars, banging my left knee and head in the process. My left knee is a bit swollen, so I’ll make sure that I get some ice on it tonight. It doesn’t affect me on the bike though, it’s just a bit of a pain off it! More, from a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: Today Alex Barros made his debut at Brands Hatch, the famous circuit south of London. His first task today was to check the track. With a 1’29.013 lap time Alex finished 21rst in free practice this morning. After the first laps he became already rather acquainted with the track. In the first qualifying Alex did a 1’27.836 lap time and achieved position 16. Alex Barros’ comment after the first free practice and qualifying was enthusiastic. Alex Barros: “Brands is fantastic. I really enjoyed it today. But I need some more laps. I’m not fast enough yet. And there is still some work to do. We have to improve the set-up of the bike for the course. Tomorrow I hope I even feel better. So I can ride faster than today.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser finished the first day of qualifying for the eighth round of the World Superbike Championship at Brand Hatch with the second quickest time, nearly three-tenths-of-a-second under the existing lap record. Throughout the day, he was right on the pace and made only minor adjustments to his GSX-R1000K6 during the two practice sessions. His team mate Yukio Kagayama spent the day concentrating on finding a good set-up for the race and ended the day with the ninth fastest lap. Both Corser and Kagayama know that a front-row grid place is vital at Brands and will use tomorrow’s qualifying session and Superpole to make sure of finishing in the top four. Fastest today is series leader Troy Bayliss ((Ducati) who posted a time of 1:26.272 at the 3.703 kilometre circuit. Troy Corser – 2nd, 1:26.494: “I felt today was quite good because I had a good feeling with the bike straight away. We started with last year’s Brands setting and then tried our set-up from Brno in the last round and the Brno set-up felt a lot better and the bike felt easier to ride. The lap times came pretty easily and I wasn’t pushing at all, so I know there’s more to come tomorrow. All we’ll do tomorrow is make some minor changes in gearing and get a set-up good enough to finish in the top four in Superpole. At Brands it’s crucial to be on the front row and make a good start otherwise you get held up and it’s easy to lose touch with the leaders. So that’s tomorrow’s objective – the front row, preferably on pole!” Yukio Kagayama – 9th, 1:27.165: “Today my lap time was not good enough but my feeling for the bike’s set-up for the race is good! I had no big problems today and we will not do too much to the bike tomorrow morning except try some different suspension settings. But we will not be making any big changes because we already have a good base. I have to be on the front row of the grid because otherwise it is very difficult to finish in the top three. My plan is to be steady tomorrow, but do enough to be on the front row on Sunday. I have never won a race at Brands Hatch before so this weekend will be a good chance to change that.”