Friday Afternoon World Superbike Qualifying Results: 1. Yukio KAGAYAMA, Suzuki, 1:40.512 2. Karl MUGGERIDGE, Honda, 1:40.854 3. Andrew PITT, Yamaha, 1:41.169 4. Lorenzo LANZI, Ducati, 1:41.184 5. Troy CORSER, Suzuki, 1:41.224 6. Steve MARTIN, Foggy Petronas, 1:41.251 7. David CHECA, Yamaha, 1:41.437 8. Chris VERMEULEN, Honda, 1:41.473 9. Chris WALKER, Kawasaki, 1:41.520 10. Giovanni BUSSEI, Kawasaki, 1:41.597 11. Ben BOSTROM, Honda, 1:41.615 12. Noriyuki HAGA, Yamaha, 1:41.681 13. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Honda, 1:41.695 14. Sebastien GIMBERT, Yamaha, 1:41.760 15. Norick ABE, Yamaha, 1:41.812 16. Fonsi NIETO, Kawasaki, 1:41.929 17. James TOSELAND, Ducati, 1:42.033 18. Pierfrancesco CHILI, Honda, 1:42.124 19. Regis LACONI, Ducati, 1:42.249 20. Ivan CLEMENTI, Ducati, 1:42.414 21. Julien DA COSTA, Yamaha, 1:42.615 22. Mauro SANCHINI, Kawasaki, 1:43.196 23. Gianluca VIZZIELLO, Yamaha, 1:43.212 24. Vincent PHILIPPE, Suzuki, 1:43.358 25. Marco BORCIANI, Ducati, 1:43.644 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: MUGGERIDGE SECOND FASTEST IN FRANCE Winston Ten Kate Honda rider, Karl Muggeridge, set the second fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for the final World Superbike championship round at Magny-Cours, France on Sunday. The Australian was just three tenths of a second behind provisional pole sitter Yukio Kagayama. Muggeridge’s Winston team-mate, Chris Vermeulen, winner of four of the last five races, set the eighth fastest time; again, the 23-year-old opted not to use one of his available qualifying tyres from Pirelli, concentrating instead on perfecting his race set-up. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “Although both riders seem to be pretty close, we still have quite some problems to rectify. Tomorrow we’ll concentrate on fine tuning the settings further to find the right set-up for Sunday’s last two races of the season. Karl used a qualifier towards the end of the session but still found some problems, so we still have some work to do tonight. Chris used his normal strategy of no qualifier so his time is actually pretty good, although he is only in eighth place.” Karl Muggeridge second fastest, 1m40.854s “I’m really struggling with grip here today, especially in the corners around the top of the circuit. We tried a lot of things this afternoon to find some grip up, down, everything. We improved it slightly in that session but, unfortunately, that meant the bike not working properly around the rest of the lap. But our data guys have something they think will work in the rear so we’ll give that a go tomorrow morning. I want to stay where I am on the grid for Sunday’s race because it’s been a long time since I tasted some champagne. I’m feeling thirsty, for sure.” Chris Vermeulen eighth fastest, 1m41.473s “No real problems apart from the fact that it’s a lot colder than when we tested here in June and the grip level offered by the track surface has fallen off dramatically. But I did my fastest lap towards the end of that session on race tyres that were both around 20 laps old and the bike felt OK. There’s really only a choice of one front and one rear here nothing else is close. I’m happy enough to stay in about eighth place for Superpole tomorrow and then use a qualifier.” More, from a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: Last Round of World’s Superbike Championship at Magny Cours / France. For the two riders of the Klaffi Honda Team, Max Neukirchner and Frankie Chili, the first day was not as perfect as they expected before. In Qualifying I Max finished 13th, Frankie 18th. Max Neukirchner: “žSometimes less is really more! It is not so easy to get familiar with the track. Today my mistake was that I tried to take some sectors too fast. Therefore I lost the ideal line and I lost a lot of time. We have to analyse the whole day. Tomorrow things must be much better!” Frankie Chili: “žThe first day was quite okay for me. I finished 18th but we only have to work a little bit on the suspension. Then I think I may be much faster tomorrow! “Magny Cours is a good race track! Though I ride the first time here in France I like it very much. This morning I tested the different tyres and I think with a hard tyre you have the maximum grip. Tomorrow I still have to work on the ideal line. Especially the New Chicane just before the finishing line is difficult but not a real problem. Some laps more and we will see.” Tatu Lauslehto / Supersport “Magny Cours is a good race track! Though I ride the first time here in France I like it very much. This morning I tested the different tyres and I think with a hard tyre you have the maximum grip. Tomorrow I still have to work on the ideal line. Especially the New Chicane just before the finishing line is difficult but not a real problem. Some laps more and we will see.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: FRONT ROW FOR LANZI AFTER THE FIRST PRACTICE DAY ON MAGNY COURS. GOOD RESULT FOR NANNELLI Good results after the first practice day on Magny Cours, final round of 2005 WSBK Championship, for the riders of Scuderia SC Caracchi. Lorenzo Lanzi recorded, with the fourth fastest, a position on the provisional front row, after set the fastest until a tenth of minutes to the end of the session. Quite good also the practices of Gianluca Nannelli in Supersport, where the Imola’s winner recorded the sixth fastest. “I believe we’ve done a very good work in this first day.” – said after the practices Lorenzo Lanzi. “Tosay, al quite always on Friday’s sessions, we didn’t use soft tyres and we worked a lot on the newrace tyres developed by Pirelli. I believe we’ve found a good selection for the race and with the selected tyres I made several laps with a very good race pace. Despite that I’ve been able in a lap time very close to the best lap ever recorded in the past in Magny Cours, by Neil Hodgson in 2003 season with Michelin tyres. I’m looking for a good race in this final round, also to forget the Imola’s disappointment, when the flood didn’t allow me to run a good race.” A bit let satisfied is on the contrary Gianluca Nannelli in Supersport, despite the good result set today with the sixth fastest in the provisional ranking. “Unlike Imola on this track I never had a good feeling, often due the misfortune.” related after the practices Gianluca. “In the first two splits I’m very fast, very close to the leaders. On the contrary in the last one I’m quite slow, most in the fast changing of direction when the bike is quite hard to ride. Tomorrow we’ll have to work on this problem which doesn’t allow me to have a constant pace. My shoulder is now good, on the contrary I have some pain in the foot, but the Clinica Mobile doctors are always with me.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: WSB : Pitt third in first qualifying Round: 12 – France Circuit: MagnyCours Date: 7 October 2005 Temp: 29ºC Weather: Sunny Andrew Pitt had a positive start to Sunday’s final round of the Superbike World Championship by taking his Yamaha Motor Italia YZF-R1 to third place in today’s opening qualifying session. The Australian spent the majority of the day working on set-up for Sunday’s races, but put on a sticky qualifying tyre to post a best time of 1:41.169, which he hopes will be good enough to put him into tomorrow’s grid-deciding superpole session for the top 16 riders after Saturday morning’s final qualifying session. Team-mate Noriyuki Haga had a typical Friday session, testing many different machine settings rather than going for an ultimate fast lap. The Japanese rider had a rare fall during the morning practice session, the result of pushing too hard on an unfamiliar front tyre, but came back to end the day 12th with a time of 1:41.681 despite still not being happy with the balance of his machine. Magny Cours is a familiar circuit for many Yamaha riders, not least the Yamaha Motor France team. Few riders know their way around the circuit as Sebastien Gimbert, who competed in the Bol d’or 24-hour endurance race just a few weeks ago. He ended the day 14th, one place ahead of team-mate Norick Abe – making his first race visit to the circuit but familiar with the layout from previous testing. David Checa, a member of Gimbert’s Yamaha GMT94 endurance team, is entered as a wild card and ended the day seventh fastest. In one of the closest qualifying sessions of the year the top 20 riders were covered by less than two seconds. Fastest man today was Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), who set the fastest two-wheeled lap ever of the Magny Cours circuit with a 1:40.512. Karl Muggeridge (Honda), was second. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “We made some changes to the bike after the morning session and it made a real improvement. We’re able to do 1:41.9s on the race tyre but I got a good lap in there at the end and I think it should get me in to superpole no matter what happens tomorrow. Hopefully we can make a few little changes to improve it some more for superpole and the race.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “The feeling is still not quite right but we still have a lot of things to try for tomorrow and I think that we will find the solution. We lost quite a bit of time because we spent 15 minutes changing things on the bike and then ended a little early because we knew what we have to change for tomorrow. I am not at all worried to be 12th. The race does not start until superpole, so until then we should use the time to get the feeling with the bike correct. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) “Of all the tracks in the championship this is the one I know best – I cannot think how many laps I have done here in endurance. We are able to run good consistent laps but were unable to go faster at the end of the session and slipped back a bit. I’m looking for an improvement tomorrow.” Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “I’m happy because already I am faster than when I tested here in the summer, although the temperature is different and that means a change in the grip levels. Normally I am faster than my team-mate, but today Sebastien is one place ahead of me. He knows this track very well though, and I am sure we can both improve tomorrow.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yamaha Motor Italia) “Quite a good day today. Andrew is looking strong here, as he was when he rode the supersport bike for us last year. Noriyuki will make some changes this evening although this is the way he always works: spending Friday getting the bike how he likes it and Saturday and Sunday going fast!” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: TOSELAND AND LACONI (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) FIND THE GOING TOUGH IN FIRST QUALIFYING AT MAGNY-COURS Magny-Cours (France), Friday 7 October: Both Ducati Xerox Team riders James Toseland and Régis Laconi uncharacteristically found the going tough in the first qualifying session for the final round of the World Superbike Championship at Magny-Cours. The 2004 world champion was down in seventeenth position following the first qualifying hour while his French team-mate was two places further adrift. Italian Lorenzo Lanzi on the third Ducati 999F05 machine, entered by the Ducati SC Caracchi team, was in good form again today, clinching a provisional front-row grid position behind pacesetter Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), and the surprise Australian duo of Karl Muggeridge (Honda) and Andrew Pitt (Yamaha). Lanzi’s time was set on race tyres. Toseland, who set sixth quickest time in the morning’s free practice session, improved in the afternoon but his time of 1m42.033s left him outside the top 16. “It was a tough session. We had a few problems this morning and even though we were sort of going in the right direction, for some reason we haven’t found a good base setting yet” explained Toseland. “That’s strange because the base setting we’ve had for quite a few rounds has been all right and here it’s just not gelling. I’m trying my hardest, doing bad lap times and that’s the worst scenario. I know where the bike needs to improve, but we tried something and it didn’t really work. We just dropped the forks a bit from this morning, nothing major. I went point four of a second quicker but everyone else went so much quicker as well”. Laconi was still feeling the effects of his Assen crash which left him with tendon damage in his right arm. “I just can’t seem to be able to use my arm well enough and that causes a lot of bother because all the heavy braking is for the right-hand curves. I had a feeling it would be like this here even before Imola, which unlike Magny-Cours is an anti-clockwise track, and it proved to be true. For the first part of the lap it’s OK but when there is a change in direction I can’t brake well. Here unfortunately most of the hard curves are right-handers and coming down the hill to the last one, it’s terrible for me. Let’s hope things go better tomorrow”. More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Steve Martin maintained Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s end of season progress by qualifying in sixth position after day one of the final round of the Superbike World Championship at Magny-Cours, France. With 20 minutes of the afternoon session remaining Steve was in third position on race tyres with a time of 1:41.5, the same time set by Troy Corser in achieving pole position here last year on the PETRONAS FP1. Then, with more than the usual quota of qualifying tyres available, he was able to set two times within a thousandth of a second of each other on qualifying rubber, just 0.7 behind the fastest lap of Yukio Kagayama. Steve said: “I am pretty happy that we are on the pace again and that we are pretty close to the fastest time. I did really good times on race tyres, although there is a problem with the rear suspension pumping after the first lap or so. That needs some work with the set-up and I also think we can get more out of the gearing, so there is more in the bag yet.” Team-mate Andi Notman, standing in for the injured Garry McCoy, made steady progress throughout the day having only arrived at the circuit late last night after fog delayed his flights to France. In his first taste of competition on the FP1, the former World Endurance champion improved his best morning lap time by three seconds in the afternoon and reduced the gap to Steve by 1.5 seconds between sessions. Andi said: “It has all been a bit of a whirlwind and we had to work through some things today that we should have been able to do yesterday. But it is really good to be working with a team that is so professional, with so many people requiring your input. That’s helping me focus on every single aspect of riding the bike. The main thing is for me to keep cool and not feel that I have to push harder, because you inevitably go slower when you push too hard. I was happy to improve my time in the afternoon by three seconds and we still have some work to do on the rear suspension.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Yukio Kagayama smashed Neil Hodgson’s 2003 lap record and took provisional pole position for Sunday’s Magny Cours World Superbike Championship round. Kagayama, who tested at the circuit recently, set a time of 1:40.512 seconds to head Karl Muggeridge (Honda), Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati). Kagayama’s team mate Troy Corser suffered with wheelspin throughout timed qualifying and finished fifth in the standings. Yukio Kagayama – 1st, 1:40.512: “I had a little problem with wheelspin today but it didn’t really affect my riding style here. The conditions this afternoon were good – similar to when we tested here – and the set-up of the bike was pretty good also. If the track and weather conditions stay the same, then I will only need a small adjustment to the bike for the race. It’s great to be at a track I have been to before – particularly as this is a track I find enjoyable to ride.” Troy Corser – 5th, 1:41.224: “Every tyre I tried seemed to give us wheelspin problems and it is hard to understand why. This afternoon the conditions were more or less then same as when we tested here so we cannot work out what is going on. I started with the Imola set-up which is virtually the same as my normal set-up, so maybe we will try something slightly different tomorrow morning.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: Wheelspinning Troy! Troy suffered unexpected wheelspin problems at Magny-Cours today in the first timed qualifying and ended the day with the fifth fastest time. His team mate Yukio Kagayama is on provisional pole, having smashed the lap record set by Neil Hodgson in 2003. Second is Karl Muggeridge (Honda), with Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) third and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) fourth. TROY – 5th, 1:41 224 This afternoon was a bit strange because I tried quite a few different tyres and each time I suffered with wheelspin. It didn’t happen when we tested here recently, so we’re not sure what’s going on. We will have to look at the telemetry and see if we can make some adjustments tomorrow morning and cure the problem. Today we used the Imola set-up, which is more or less the same as I always use, but we will make some changes for sure. The conditions this afternoon were more or less the same as when we tested, so it’s a bit of a mystery really.