CHARPENTIER SHINES IN MONZA SUN Sébastien Charpentier maintained his recent stunning form by setting the fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying practice session for round four of the World Supersport championship at Monza in Italy. The Frenchman shrugged off the effects of a crash in free practice this morning to set a provision pole time of 1m51.971s around the 5.8km Monza circuit almost a second inside the existing lap record. His Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Katsuaki Fujiwara, set the second fastest time of the scheduled 45-minute session, which was stopped for 20 minutes after oil had been deposited on the entry to the Parabolica curve at the historic circuit near Milan. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “Well, we have another one-two after the first qualifying session but I can tell you that everyone is working very hard to keep these two riders at the top of the time sheets. One of the problems is that the traffic at Monza is almost as bad as the traffic going into Milan each morning, with lots of riders waiting for a tow. We have been concentrating on getting the CBR600RR into race trim and playing with different tyre combinations. We’re very pleased with the new exhaust system from Arrow which was developed especially for Monza. We can get more top speed without sacrificing drive out of the chicanes here.” Sébastien Charpentier fastest, 1m51.971s “For me, the only problem here is so many riders trying to follow me to catch the slipstream. The crash this morning was not too bad just one of those things losing the front, but I think we know why it happened. It was a strange session this afternoon because of the oil stoppage but the Parabolica was not too bad when we were finally allowed back out on the circuit. The bike is almost perfect but tomorrow is another important day when we will make some more fine tuning to the set-up, a race simulation and a final decision on tyres.” Katsuaki Fujiwara second fastest, 1m52.985s “There is plenty more to come, for sure. We tried a lot of different things this afternoon, mainly trying to get the CBR more stable under the heavy braking that we have to do at Monza. Like Sébastien, I am getting used to being on a Ten Kate CBR which means everybody wants to follow you! I came in to change a tyre near the end of the session but I didn’t have enough time left so I just made a practice start. I know from Qatar that I still need to practice those!” World Supersport, Monza provisional qualifying times: 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m51.971s, 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:52.985, 3 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) 1:53.092, 4 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 1:53.606, 5 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati) 1:53.607, 6 Simone Sanna ITA (Honda) 1:54.026, 7 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha) 1:54.218, 8 Alessandro Corradi ITA (Ducati) 1:54.269, 9 Alessandro Antonello ITA (Kawasaki) 1:54.767, 10 Sébastien Le Grelle FRA (Honda) 1:55.250. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes made a positive start to their weekend in Monza today, setting the third and seventh fastest times respectively for Sunday’s race. With weather forecasts predicting a chance of rain tomorrow, both the Australian riders were keen to post a good time around the fast Italian circuit during today’s warm and sunny session. Curtain overcome a crash during the morning practice session to set a best time of 1:53.092 places him on the provisional front row of the grid, with Parkes’ 1:54.218 putting him directly behind his team-mate on the starting grid. An oil spillage on the entry to the Parabolica corner caused a 20 minute delay to the session and effectively ruled out any chances of improvement for the Yamaha riders, as the cement dust laid to soak up the oil forced riders to enter the fast corner with extra caution. Honda riders Sèbastien Charpentier set the fastest time in today’s 45-minute session, his 1:51.971 lap time being just over a second ahead of team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara and Curtain. Another Honda rider, Michel Fabrizio completes the front row of the grid. Tomorrow’s final qualifying session will determine the final grid for Sunday’s 16-lap race. Kevin Curtain “I didn’t really know how we would go around Monza but, yeah, I’m happy with how it went today. We’ve gone through so many settings on the suspension and I think that we’ve already found something that will work well in the race, although there are still some improvements to find at the front. It was good to get a good time in early today as we know it might rain tomorrow – although I really hope that it stays dry. The oil going into Parabolica was a problem though. You didn’t want to go over that fresh dust and oil so you ended up running wider than you wanted into the corner, which ruined your speed going onto the straight.” Broc Parkes “I’m a bit disappointed not to be on the front row today as the red flags came out just as I was about to put in a fast lap on a new tyre – and all the oil meant that it wasn’t possible to go faster after the restart. But Kev managed to stick a good lap in early on and I’m pretty confident that I can join him on the front row tomorrow. The bike is feeling good and I know that I can go faster, so I hope that it stays dry tomorrow.” Terrell Thien (Team Manager) We have a new technician joining us in Monza directly from WP, because they want to make further developments to their suspension. The riders are already really happy with the new suspension parts and are very happy with the feeling from the bike. We hope the weather stays good tomorrow as we are confident that we can get both Broc and Kevin on the front row.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: The first day of qualifying at Monza was a problematic one for Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Javier Fores. An engine problem in one bike and brake problems on other prevented him from pushing as hard as he would have liked and he ended up 11th. Javi Fores – 11th, 1.55.425: I am disappointed and also a little unhappy today because I expected to be much further up the grid. One of my bikes had an engine problem and then the number two bike had some brake problems. Also, we couldn’t get a good set-up for the rear suspension and all these things together made the day quite hard for me. I know I could’ve been much faster but it was impossible for me to push any harder without crashing and I didn’t want that today. “Tomorrow we will have a fresh engine in one bike and the brake problem will be fixed as it is simply a fluid problem. We will try some different rear suspension ideas tomorrow and I expect to be much faster. I need to be further up the grid if I am to have any chance of a good result, so that’s what I’ll be chasing hard.”