Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By Glenn Le Santo
Chili fastest in opening qualifying in Oschersleben
Frankie Chili continued his strong showing in the 2003 World Superbike championship by going fastest in the first qualifying session for this weekend’s World Superbike meeting, at Oschersleben in Germany.
The provisional front row is one of opposites again with just about the oldest Superbike rider, Chili, lining up alongside one of the youngest, James Toseland. The young British rider took his HM Plant Ducati into provisional second spot.
Toseland’s teammate Chris Walker is provisional third, now almost fully recovered from his Sugo injuries, Walker is much more at home on his machine and looking for a better result to improve his standings in the championship.
Regis Laconi turned the fourth-fastest time to complete another all-Ducati provisional front row. Gregorio Lavilla was fifth-fastest, while Championship leader Neil Hodgson struggled with set up and came in a lowly seventh-fastest.
Friday World Superbike Qualifying Results:
1. Pierfrancesco Chili, Ducati 998RS, 1:27.503
2. James Toseland, Ducati 998F02, 1:27.814
3. Chris Walker, Ducati 998F02, 1:27.984
4. Regis Laconi, Ducati 998RS, 1:28.004
5. Gregorio Lavilla, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:28.030
6. Ruben Xaus, Ducati 999F03, 1:28.099
7. Neil Hodgson, Ducati 999F03, 1:28.213
8. Steve Martin, Ducati 998RS, 1:28.235
9. Vittorio Ianuzzo, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:28.699
10. Juan Borja, Ducati 998RS, 1:28.928
11. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati 998RS, 1:28.994
12. Marco Borciani, Ducati 998RS, 1:29.179
13. Mauro Sanchini, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:29.386
14. Ivan Clementi, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:29.500
15. Giovanni Bussei, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:29.760
16. Troy Corser, Foggy Petronas FP1, 1:29.778
17. Nello Russo, Ducati 998RS, 1:29.881
18. Serafino Foti, Ducati 998RS, 1:30.580
19. Walter Tortoroglio, Honda RC51, 1:31.428
20. Jiri Mrkyvka, Ducati 998RS, 1:31.837
21. Sergio Fuertes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:31.950
22. Steinar Sundby Dag, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:32.388
23. James Haydon, Foggy Petronas FP1, 1:33.726
More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:
XAUS AND HODGSON (DUCATI FILA) CLAIM PROVISIONAL SIXTH AND SEVENTH IN GERMANY
Ruben Xaus and Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila) claimed provisional sixth and seventh times respectively in the opening qualifying session for Sunday’s Round 5 of the World Superbike Championship at Oschersleben, Germany.
Ruben was the quicker today as both Ducati Fila riders had to get to grips with scorching temperatures. “Qualifying was quite good, it’s a difficult track and you need to find a good set-up to get results here,” declared Ruben. “With my qualifying tyre I found some other guys in the middle of the track and then my second tyre wasn’t as good as the first, so probably I could have been quicker. I also used a race tyre and my lap time was good, the feeling is not so bad, we just need to work with the front a bit more because here it’s a hard track for the front”.
Neil changed his set-up in the afternoon but this didn’t produce the expected results and the championship leader will revert to his previous settings for tomorrow morning’s second and final qualifying session.
“With race times we’re there and no one is faster” commented Neil. “The only problem was that from the morning to the afternoon we went in the wrong direction, trying something that didn’t really work. You’ve only got an hour and in the end we found that the morning set-up was better. The times were more or less the same, it was just that I had to push much harder in the afternoon. We didn’t use ‘qualifiers’ and my time was on a race tyre so I’m pretty satisfied. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the morning set-up and fine-tune that”.
More, from a press release issued by HM Plant Ducati:
Provisional front row for Walker and Toseland
The HM Plant Ducati team got off to a positive start today with both riders qualifying on the provisional front row of the grid.
James Toseland finished the session second fastest behind Frankie Chili. The pair swapped places on the timesheet several times and James finished just a third-of-a-second down on the veteran Italian rider.
“We’re almost there with our race set-up,” said the 22-year-old from Sheffield. “There’s a small amount of chatter we still need to iron out but we’re getting closer with every lap. I’m happy with second considering I made a few small mistakes when I was using my qualifying tyre towards the end of the session.”
Toseland’s team-mate, Chris Walker is still not back to full fitness after crashing twice in Sugo last month.
“I did 28 laps in that session,” said Walker afterwards. “And I have to admit I can really feel it! I can’t wait until I am 100% fit again because the HM Plant Ducati is starting to really feel like my bike. But my riding is improving and I’m really enjoying the weekend so far.”
Regis Laconi finished the session fourth fastest to make it an all-Ducati provisional front row. Neil Hodgson, who is leading the championship by 85 points, struggled with set-up problems of his own and finished down at seventh fastest.
More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:
Tough German debut for Foggy PETRONAS Racing
Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s first visit to Germany’s Oschersleben circuit for round five of the World Superbike championship proved a testing baptism.
Both Troy Corser and James Haydon struggled to make an impact on the leading times, although both managed improvements during the sweltering afternoon qualifying session.
Troy’s morning practice session was marred by a crash at Triple, the fastest corner of the track. While his FP1 was damaged and unable to use for afternoon qualifying, Troy escaped with bruising to his left thigh.
He said: “I hit a false neutral so didn’t have any engine breaking and had to run wide into the gravel. The rest of the day was really frustrating. I feel I know my way around this circuit and my set-up was not the reason I was
losing time. We need to find more acceleration and improve the mapping, as at the moment I feel I’m almost pushing too hard, but without going any faster.”
The Australian finished the qualifying session in 16th place with a time of 1:29.778, 0.381 seconds up on his morning best but +2.275 down on provisional pole-setter, Frankie Chili.
James was in action at the tight and twisty circuit, 150km west of Berlin, for the first time and improved on his morning time by 1.5seconds during the afternoon’s hour-long session. He said: “I still feel I need more testing time in order to find a set-up that suits me. I do not feel confident and those times are the result of that. But I will be working hard with the team overnight to find a way forward for tomorrow.”
Chief engineer Steve Thompson said: “We will try some aerodynamic modifications overnight to try and improve the cooling system, as well as camshaft modifications to improve performance.”More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist:
FRUSTRATION FOR TROY
It was another day of frustration at Oschersleben today – during the first day of qualifying for the fifth round of the Superbike World Championship. Engine problems blighted progress today and a crash in the morning didn’t help either as Troy struggled to sixteenth position at the end of the first timed session. With a time of 1:29.778 – two seconds slower then pole-setter Pierfrancesco Chili (Ducati) – Troy knows that there will have to be a big improvement tomorrow. Chili’s lap today is nearly a second slower then last year’s pole time, but a lot better then series leader Neil Hodgson (Ducati) who could only manage the seventh quickest time of the day.
TROY – 16th, 1:29.778
What can I say about today, except that it was completely frustrating for me. I had a crash in the morning when the bike got stuck in between third and fourth gear and I ran wide in a fast left-hander. I knew I was going into the gravel and tried to slow the bike down before hand, but I ended up falling on the track before going into the gravel. I gave my left thigh a huge bruise, but this time I think the bike came off worse! So for the most of the day I only had the use of one bike and so making changes became a slower process. I just didn’t feel as if the engine was as strong as it should’ve been today and I was trying hard to make up for it on the brakes and probably riding too hard in the wrong places. The split times show, I’m losing over a second in the second split and that is hard to make up. I hope the team can sort something out for tomorrow, or it’s going to be another frustrating day.
More, from a press release issued by Scuderia Caracchi NCR Nortel Networks:
Good debut in Germany for Laconi in the first qualifying
Regis Laconi is fourth fastest in the debut qualifying day at Oschersleben. Today has been a hard day for the team, looking for a good set up of the Ducati 998RS Caracchi NCR Nortel Network, and at the end of the first qualifying session the result has been good, also if there’s still something to improve, as confessed at the end of the practices Regis Laconi:
“I’m quite satisfied of today’s job. In the first morning session the bike was absolutely out of setting, but the guys have done a good job and in the afternoon the setting was quite good, allowing me to ride for twenty laps with race tyres and very consistent laptimes. We have to improve the handling during braking, but I’m confident that tomorrow all will be OK. The engine tuned by Marco Mozzone performs very well allowing us to record the highest top speed in the qualifying session, moreover Dunlop gave us here in Germany new tyres that in those conditions did perform very well either in traction as in grip, and I’m very satisfied of that.”
David Garcia will be not able to start. The Spanish rider has done, following the advice of Clinica Mobile staff, some testing lap during the morning free practices, but his hands are still too weak and too much pains driving a Superbike, so David, very disappointed, must renounce to go on.
“I’m really disappointed.” – confessed Garcia – “I was confident to be able to ride, but I’ve still too much pain and I haven’t power enough. Today I spoke for long time with the Clinica Mobile doctors to agree an intense recovering program to allow me to be able to ride in Silverstone next June 15th and just I’ll be back home I’ll start to follow it. I have so much will to ride!”
Updated Post: Chili Takes Provisional World Superbike Pole At Oschersleben
Updated Post: Chili Takes Provisional World Superbike Pole At Oschersleben
© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
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