FIM Supersport World Championship Valencia, Spain April 22 Final Qualifying Results: 1. Sebastien CHARPENTIER (Hon CBR600RR) 1:36.913 2. Kevin CURTAIN (Yam YZF-R6) 1:37.698 3. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Hon CBR600RR) 1:37.750 4. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:37.942 5. Javier FORES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:38.385 6. Robbin HARMS (Hon CBR600RR) 1:38.403 7. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600) 1:38.448 8. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR600RR) 1:38.489 9. Yoann TIBERIO (Hon CBR600RR) 1:38.643 10. Javier TORRES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:38.716 11. Kai Borre ANDERSEN (Suz GSX-R600) 1:38.772 12. Massimo ROCCOLI (Yam YZF-R6) 1:38.836 13. Johan STIGEFELT (Hon CBR600RR) 1:38.971 14. Christian ZAISER (Duc 749R) 1:38.980 15. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Yam YZF-R6) 1:39.137 16. William DE ANGELIS (Hon CBR600RR) 1:39.216 17. Tatu LAUSLEHTO (Hon CBR600RR) 1:39.382 18. Kenny NOYES (Yam YZF-R6) 1:39.412 19. Sebastien LE GRELLE (Hon CBR600RR) 1:39.430 20. Josh BROOKES (Duc 749R) 1:39.477 30. Chris PERIS (Yam YZF-R6) 1:40.254 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: CHARPENTIER TAKES THIRD CONSECUTIVE POLE Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) did not need to improve on his first day track record lap time of 1’36.913 to take his third pole of the 2006 season, putting himself in the perfect starting spot for Sunday’s 23-lap Supersport race. It was the 30th consecutive front row start for a Honda machine in World Supersport. Charpentier concentrated his efforts on finding an optimum race set-up, after he found that the track offered marginally less grip than during the first day of qualifying. Charpentier’s team-mate, Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) could not make the required improvements in his best qualifying time from a crash-affected day one to secure a much desired front row start alongside Charpentier. His eighth best time overall places him on the second row, in front of thirty other riders. Ronald Ten Kate – Team manager “We are happy to take the pole again, the third one of the season for Sebastien. He had already done the job yesterday, so today was a little change of strategy for us. We thought about the race most of the time and just confirmed some race set-ups and endurance runs on the tyres, so we were not pushing so much for a quick single lap. Sebastien is happy with the pace he can do on his race set-up. It will be fun racing but it will be close, as usual here at Valencia. The race is very long, 23-laps, so we’ll see tomorrow. Hopefully it will be dry so that the racing can be at its best. Things didn’t go as planned for Kenan today, the qualifying session was pretty bad but we are still on the second row, and we know how hard a racer he is anyway. But we are definitely going to have a look again at the changes we made to the settings. So tomorrow morning will be important for him to find the speed he has in him. We know he has this because of the times he set in the previous tests are considerably faster than he is setting now. So we’ll see tomorrow.” Sebastien Charpentier Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (1st position 1’36.913) “Some other riders got a little bit close but for the race I am OK, because it is not difficult for me to make many laps in the consistent 1.37s. Nothing to changes for tomorrow because the bike is good. The track was a little bit difficult for me this afternoon. I lost a little bit of time, corner-after-corner, because I think the track grip is not so strong as it. Either way, we are in good shape for the race tomorrow.” Kenan Sofuoglu Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (8th position 1’38.489) “I did not feel so strong after my big crash of yesterday, but I have to be strong in the race. I would have liked to get onto the front row but it didn’t work out here. My ambition was first row but second row isn’t so bad. I want to take good points from here and I will try my best.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes sped their YZF-R6s to the front row of tomorrow’s world supersport race in Valencia. Curtain took advantage of the unexpectedly sunny conditions at the Spanish circuit to improve his time from Friday by almost one second to bag second place on the grid, behind world champion and current points leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda). The Yamaha Motor Germany squad worked hard overnight to change the set-up of the rapidly improving R6, giving Curtain confidence going into tomorrow’s 23-lap race. The Australian has already taken second place finishes in each of the first two rounds and would dearly love to add to his three career wins in the class in tomorrow’s race. Team-mate and fellow Australian Broc Parkes will start from fourth position, even though he was unable to better his Friday time in today’s 45 minute final session. Like Curtain, he worked on finding a good race set-up and is happy with the way his machine is performing. Joining Charpentier, Curtain and Parkes on the front row is Japanese rider Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda). Two other R6 riders made it to the top 10 in qualifying. Javi Fores and Jordi Torres, two privately entered Spanish riders, ended the day in fifth and 10th places respectively. More, from a press release issued by Tom Tunstall Racing: Solid Progress for Tunstall in Valencia Qualifying Tom Tunstall continued his good form in the hotly contested World Supersport championship in Valencia today to qualify in 24th place for Sundays race. Throughout the two practice and qualifying sessions around the 4.005KM Valencia circuit in Spain, Tom, riding the Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR slashed his lap time to improve his starting position and ended the day with a sixth row grid spot. After testing at the Valencia circuit four weeks earlier, Tom and Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport team were unable to replicate their best lap times due to the ever changing grip levels of the Spanish track. Despite the tricky conditions Tom and the team worked hard to find a solution and in the final qualifying session made some significant changes to the bike which enabled them to utilise the grip of a new specification Pirelli rear tyre. “It’s been a bit of a frustrating weekend but in final qualifying we made some real progress and I feel happy with what we’ve achieved even though the grid position isn’t what I wanted.” he said “With the advice from the Ten Kate Honda team we changed the balance of the bike quite a lot and that helped us get some grip back. At the end of the session I did my best times despite being on a tyre that had done ten laps, which is promising for tomorrows race.” explained Tom “I’m still a little bit frustrated though, as when we tested here a few weeks ago I was 12th fastest and I was really hoping to continue that momentum into this weekend. Looking at the times I’m about a second off the guys in 15th place and it’s obviously my aim to get in the top 15 and score some points. Valencia is a tough track to pass at and I think the difficulty will be getting up the front to start with, so I’m hoping for a good start and if I can do consistent lap times in the race we’ll have a good chance to score more points.” he continued. Having scored championship points in the opening round of the World Championship in Qatar, Tom is focussed on another strong performance in Sundays’ 23 lap race of the 4.005KM Spanish circuit, which will be televised live on British Eurosport.