Friday’s World Superbike Qualifying Results: 1. Troy CORSER, Suzuki, 1:49.161 2. Chris VERMEULEN, Honda, 1:49.280 3. Lorenzo LANZI, Ducati, 1:50.007 4. Steve MARTIN, Foggy Petronas, 1:50.028 5. Pierfrancesco CHILI, Honda, 1:50.029 6. Yukio KAGAYAMA, Suzuki, 1:50.126 7. Andrew PITT, Yamaha, 1:50.142 8. James TOSELAND, Ducati, 1:50.487 9. Karl MUGGERIDGE, Honda, 1:50.537 10. Regis LACONI, Ducati, 1:50.560 11. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Honda, 1:50.692 12. Giovanni BUSSEI, Kawasaki, 1:50.969 13. Chris WALKER, Kawasaki, 1:51.067 14. Marco BORCIANI, Ducati, 1:51.097 15. Gianluca VIZZIELLO, Yamaha, 1:51.285 16. Norick ABE, Yamaha, 1:51.286 17. Noriyuki HAGA, Yamaha, 1:51.387 18. Sebastien GIMBERT, Yamaha, 1:51.529 19. Mauro SANCHINI, Kawasaki, 1:51.718 20. Garry MCCOY, Foggy Petronas, 1:51.837 21. Ben BOSTROM, Honda, 1:51.975 22. Ivan CLEMENTI, Ducati, 1:52.150 23. Luca PINI, Honda, 1:52.305 24. Andrea MAZZALI, MV Agusta, 1:52.750 25. Alessio VELINI, Ducati, 1:52.833 26. Alex GRAMIGNI, Yamaha, 1:53.262 32. Fonsi NIETO, Kawasaki, 1:55.129 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: VERMEULEN TAKES RECENT FORM TO IMOLA Chris Vermeulen finished today’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s eleventh round World Superbike championship event at Imola, Italy in second place behind series leader Troy Corser. Vermeulen continued his recent methodical qualifying routine and opted to run for the hour-long session without a qualifying tyre. His Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Karl Muggeridge, ended the session in ninth place but remains confident of further improvement tomorrow in preparation for Sunday’s two 21-lap races at the historic Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in northern Italy. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “That was a pretty good start to the weekend and we just spent this afternoon constantly improving the bike after the wet free practice session this morning. We still have some things to try with different tyre options tomorrow, when we’ll also maybe try a qualifier with Chris. Karl still has some set-up issues to resolve but, like at all the circuits this year, he’s still adapting to the Honda CBR1000RR. We’ll compare data and the different set-ups of the riders this evening and see what improvements we can make to continue in the direction we’ve found today.” Chris Vermeulen second fastest, 1m49.280s “I’m still playing around with getting a lot more feeling from the front. Just in the last four races, I’ve found that it’s really important. We only tried two rears and two fronts in that session but that feeling is definitely coming. I didn’t feel that comfortable out there but the lap times were pretty quick the quickest I’ve ever been here. I think that shows just how much we’ve improved the bike recently and that there’s a lot of potential still there. I’m also still familiarising myself with the circuit after the wet session this morning so definitely more to come tomorrow.” Karl Muggeridge ninth fastest, 1m50.537s “I haven’t got any real specific problems here, just learning my way round on the Superbike; and the fact that this morning’s free practice was wet didn’t help any. But we found a much better front tyre right at the end of this afternoon’s session so we’ll start on that tomorrow morning. We’ll look at everything tonight and make some more changes but the important thing is to do some more laps. Everything’s OK and it’s going in the right direction so I’m pretty happy with the progress we’ve made today.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: FRONT ROW FOR LANZI AND NANNELLI ON THE FIRST DAY AT IMOLA Fantastic first practice day at Imola for Scuderia SC Caracchi riders. Both Lorenzo Lanzi in Superbike and Gianluca Nannelli in Supersport recorded a front row position in the provisional starting grid. Lorenzo Lanzi confirms in this way his splendid moment emphasized with the win on EuroSpeedway Lausitz race. “I am very satisfied for this first day.” – said at the end of practices Lorenzo Lanzi. “The team has done a fantastic job and the bike looks to be perfect. We focused our work on the new tyres developed by Pirelli and I believe that we found the right solution for the race. Today I’ve never used soft tyres and with the selected tyres I rode several laps with a fast pace, and so I’m confident to be able to challenge a good race on this track that’s my home-track. I thanks once more Ducati Corse for this great chance; from my hometown, San Piero in Bagno, will join Imola a lot of friends and I hope to make them a present of a splendid race.” Focused day looking for the best set up in Supersport for Gianluca Nannelli, still a bit blocked by the after-effects of Assen crashes. “I feel quite well, but I have still some shoulder pain, but after a medical treatment by Clinica Mobile people the pain decreased.” related at the end of the day Gianluca. “The bike performs very well and has a good top speed. Also if Charpentier recorded a very good lap time I believe that we’ll be able to reduce, or maybe cancel, our gap. Today we most focused for race tyres selection and not looking for a fast lap. There are stil two practice session to improve the bike setting and Imola track has any secret for “the wizard” Farnè.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: WSB : Pitt leads Yamahas in Imola Round: 11 – Imola Circuit: Imola Date: 30 September 2005 Temp: 23ºC Weather: Sunny Andrew Pitt led the Yamaha runners in first qualifying for Sunday’s Superbike World Championship round at Imola, ending the day with the seventh fastest time. The Australian ran strongly throughout the one hour session, only missing out on higher position after running onto the grass during his flying lap on a qualifying tyre. It proved a difficult day for all the riders at Imola, with overnight rain making the circuit treacherous and ensuring the teams were unable to take full advantage of vital set-up time. No-one suffered more from the wet conditions than Pitt’s team-mate Noriyuki Haga, who was unable to fully evaluate the new specification swinging arm on his YZF-R1 during the morning session. The Japanese star ended the day in 17th place, just outside the cut-off for the grid deciding superpole session, but not too dejected, having opted not to use his soft qualifying tyre and electing to work on finding a good set-up for Sunday’s races. Haga and his team will make changes to the machine overnight in order to find a setting that can allow him to qualify for the superpole session from tomorrow morning’s final one hour practice. Yamaha Motor France rider Norick Abe ended the day 16th fastest but happy with his opening day performance. The Japanese, who has raced here many times during his 500cc Grand Prix career, was running consistently within the top ten on race tyres but was unable to find an improvement on the soft qualifying tyre. Team-mate Sebastien Gimbert was also unable to take advantage of the soft rubber, being unable to start his flying lap before the end of the session. Championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) was the fastest rider today, just ahead of title rival Chris Vermeulen (Honda) with Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) and Steve Martin (Petronas) completing the provisional front row. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “I’m quite happy today. We’re generally running in the top five on race tyres although I made a mistake and ran onto the grass on the qualifier, which cost me some time. We lost some time because of the wet weather this morning and we’ve got some things to try tomorrow which should improve the bike even further.” Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “On race tyres I am quite happy and able to run in the top 10 although it was strange that I could not go faster on the qualifier. I like Imola and have been on the podium here in Grands Prix, so I am hopeful we can have a good race this weekend.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “We lost about 30 minutes with the wet weather this morning and we are finding it difficult to get a good setting. We tried some new swingarms today but it changes the feeling for the bike and we just couldn’t get it right. It is not so bad though. The times are very close and as I worked on the race setting I did not use a qualifying tyre today. Tomorrow we will make many changes so I hope that it is dry and we have a chance to properly test them and improve to the superpole.” Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) “We made a mistake and put the qualifier on too late, so that lost me the opportunity to make an improvement. This is my first visit to Imola and I like the track and am generally happy with today and confident of some improvements tomorrow.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yammaha Motor Italia) “Andrew has found his race tyre already and the setting he has is good, but not perfect so tomorrow we will try some things to make the bike more easy to ride. With Nori I think we took a risk by trying some new parts in qualifying practice which did not work. We tried the parts in Monza and the feeling was not so bad but here we could not find such good settings. Tomorrow we will take a safer option and return to the traditional swingarm. We will also change the gearbox settings and I think that will allow him to return to the front again.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: BOTH DUCATI XEROX TEAM RIDERS ON THE PACE IN EXCITING FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION AT IMOLA Imola (Italy), Friday 30 September: Both Ducati Xerox Team riders James Toseland and Régis Laconi were right on the pace in an exciting Friday first qualifying session at Imola. Title contenders Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Chris Vermeulen (Honda) were the only riders to dip under 1m50s and they were followed by Lausitz winner Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati SC Caracchi) who is running a third factory Ducati 999F05 bike with additional Xerox logos. Toseland, on good form throughout the session, was on course for a top 3 time when he lost the front of his Ducati 999F05 on the entry into the Variante Bassa five minutes before the end and crashed. A visit to the Clinica Mobile revealed a slightly swollen right hand but no broken bones. “The session was going really well, we tried something new with the front fork that seemed to work” explained Toseland. “I put the qualifier in and was confident of getting in the top 3 positions. I did a good lap then went into the last chicane. I was pushing hard, I felt it go, go, go, then caught it but it just kept on going. There were ten yards to the line and the bike nearly set third fastest time on its own! I was sliding along the floor and Chili was right behind so I tried to get up but didn’t realise I was still rolling along at 50 mph! I just tripped up, bumped my head, slapped my hand on the floor and bent my fingers back. I still have to work on the acceleration into the second Rivazza left but generally the bike feels good all around the circuit”. Règis Laconi returned to the track for the first time since damaging the tendons in his right arm one month ago at Assen but appeared to show few ill-effects as he eased his way back into the action, ending up tenth quickest. “I feel pretty good and I’m just pleased to be back on the track after a month’s inactivity” commented Laconi. “With my arm I’m not riding the way I usually do, I try to compensate with the rest of my body, but all things considered things are not that bad. We worked calmly today, I wanted to try a different tyre but so far we haven’t seen much of a positive result. I only did 14 laps because we changed a lot of things. I’m losing a bit of time in the final part of the circuit so we have some work to do to improve in that sector. But I’m pretty happy overall”. TIMES: 1. Corser (Suzuki) 1m49.161s; 2. Vermeulen (Honda) 1m49.280s; 3. Lanzi (Ducati SC) 1m50.007s; 4. Martin (Petronas) 1m50.028s; 5. Chili (Honda) 1m50.029s; 6. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m50.126s; 7. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m50.142s; 8. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1m50.487s; 9. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m50.537s; 10. Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 1m50.560s. More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: Troy masters mixed conditions and takes provisional pole The overnight rain saw many areas of the 4.933 Imola kilometre circuit covered in damp patches, but that didn’t worry Troy at all. He went out and attacked the track and found himself nearly six seconds ahead of his nearest challenger at one stage – such was his dominance. Later in the afternoon, the timed session saw almost perfect conditions and the lap times fell and were closer together. But Troy was more then equal to the task and he posted the fastest lap of the day – 1:49.16. Second quickest is his nearest rival in the championship – Chris Vermeulen (Honda). Local hero Lorenzo Lanzi (who has been given a full factory Ducati for this event and the next) was third fastest, with Steve Martin (Petronas) fourth quickest. TROY – 1st, 1:49.161 It felt a bit strange this morning when I went out and then was six seconds ahead of everybody else! I knew it wouldn’t last, but it was a bit weird at the time! In the afternoon timed session, the track didn’t feel as grippy, but this was probably because the temperature was much hotter then it had been in the morning. It also felt a bit dirty for some reason, but I was still quicker then anybody else, so it didn’t matter too much. We tried different gearings today and also some different tyres but, because of the change in temperature, we have not decided which ones to use in the races. The recent test helped us all and the set-up here at Imola is not far off what we were running at those tests, so we’re almost there. The only problem I had today was a little bit of ‘bumping’ at Acque Minerali, but apart from that the set-up was pretty good. I know we’re coming to the end of a long season and Ducati will be very strong here (as it is their home track), but I feel relaxed and ready to race. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser is on provisional pole for Sunday’s World Superbike 11th round after the first day of qualifying at Imola in Italy. The track was damp when the 34 riders went out this morning and, at one stage, Corser was nearly six seconds ahead of his nearest rival. The track then began to dry out and soon the lap times fell; the pace hotted up; but Corser kept his GSX-R1000 Suzuki in front. The World Championship leader finished just over a tenth of a second ahead of Chris Vermeulen (Honda). Third quickest today was local hero Lorenzo Lanzi, who has been given a full factory Ducati for this and the next race, with Steve Martin (Petronas) fourth. It was Corser’s team mate, Yukio Kagayama’s first time at the circuit, but he took to the 4.933 kilometre track like a duck to water and ended sixth quickest. Troy Corser – 1st, 1:49.161: “In our recent test I found a really good feeling with my bike again and we’ve carried that over to here. I think the same set-up works pretty well here, so we were in the ballpark straight away. We tried some different gearings today and also spent quite a bit of time playing around with different tyres to try and find the best ones for the race. But this afternoon, the temperature was quite a bit hotter and the track felt less grippy so we’re are not sure which tyres to go for at the moment. However, I feel pretty relaxed and ready for the races.” Yukio Kagayama – 6th, 1:50.126: “My first impression of this track was that it seemed very difficult and very long, but immediately I had a good feeling with it because it is the kind of track I like. It goes up and down a lot and there’s many hard-braking areas – and I like these things! I am getting to know the track better each time I go for a lap, but I know I am losing a lot of time in the final split and the Rivazza corner: This is the area I must make up, if I want to challenge for a podium – and that is what I want.” Friday Superbike Qualifying: 1 Troy Corser (Aus-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:49161, 2 Vermeulen (Aus-Honda) 1:49.280, 3 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:50.007, 4 Martin (Aus-Petronas) 1:50.028, 5 Chili (I-Honda) 1:50.029, 6 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:50.126, 7 Pitt (Aus-Yamaha) 1:50.142, 8 Toseland (GB-Ducati) 1:50.487, 9 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:50.537, 10 Laconi (F-Ducati).