2007 FIM Superbike World Championship Brands Hatch, England August 3, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. James TOSELAND (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:26.400 2. Troy BAYLISS (Ducati 999F07), 1:26.625 3. Troy CORSER (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:26.746 4. Ruben XAUS (Ducati 999F06), 1:26.815 5. Lorenzo LANZI (Ducati 999F07), 1:27.268 6. Noriyuki HAGA (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:27.351 7. Fonsi NIETO (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:27.507 8. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:27.544 9. Roberto ROLFO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:27.763 10. Michel FABRIZIO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:27.823 11. Max NEUKIRCHNER (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:27.928 12. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:28.126 13. Regis LACONI (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:28.154 14. Max BIAGGI (Suzuki GSX-R1000K7), 1:28.215 15. Steve MARTIN (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:28.262 16. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:28.545 17. Marty NUTT (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:28.876 18. Jakub SMRZ (Ducati 999F05), 1:29.150 19. Dean ELLISON (Ducati 999RS), 1:29.289 20. Luca MORELLI (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:30.762 21. Stefano CRUCIANI (Suzuki GSX-R1000K6), 1:31.288 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Toseland on top at Brands Hatch HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s James Toseland started his final home round of the 2007 World Superbike Championship on top form today. The British rider secured the fastest lap of the day during the first qualifying session to secure provisional pole position for Sunday’s race. Team-mate Roberto Rolfo ended the day as the ninth fastest rider. Toseland was consistently fast during the morning practice, beating his own best lap four times in quick succession. The official afternoon qualifying saw nine different riders in the top position on the timesheet, but it was Toseland who dominated the session. The current series leader claimed the fastest lap more times than any other rider to end with a final best time of 1’26.400. Team-mate Roberto Rolfo focused on getting to grips with the undulating Brands Hatch circuit during today’s sessions. The Italian rider is pleased with the progress made to the set-up of his CBR1000RR and will aiming to improve his lap time in the final qualifying tomorrow. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “It’s been a very positive start to the weekend for us. As with all tracks, being consistently fast is the key factor around here and James has shown that he is capable of this. It’s always nice for him to have the support of his home crowd, so a big thank you to them for the extra motivation. We hope he can continue in the same way tomorrow and get a good result for the team and his fans on Sunday. Roby has improved his lap times compared to last year – we hope that tomorrow we’ll see him improve even further to aim for at least the second row.” James Toseland: “Today has been a great start to the weekend and I don’t just mean the weather! I feel quite fresh, despite my trip to Japan last week. The team have worked brilliantly together to find the best setting. I am quickest today in qualifying and I’m really gunning for my first double win at Brands this weekend.” Roberto Rolfo: “I have really enjoyed today because Brands Hatch is a great track to ride. I have improved on last year’s times, although it is not so easy to find the best line to be quick around here. I found a good feeling almost immediately on the bike – it is very powerful and it makes riding at Brands a lot of fun. This afternoon I wanted to try for a fast lap at the end of the session, but I was not so good on the last part of the track and I lost some time. In general, we have done some good work and I just need to find some more confidence for the race.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi: BRANDS HATCH: DIFFICULT DAY FOR NANNELLI A splendid sunshine made as background to the first practice day of World Superbike and Supersport at Brands Hatch. In Supersport Gianluca Nannelli, after a promising free practice session in the morning, had several difficulties during afternoon’s qualifying, recording the 17th fastest, just a whisker better as in the morning. Handling problems did condition the afternoon’s session and also with qualifying tyres the heavy traffic along the track opposed to the possibility to get a top ten position. “This is for me a very special track and I’m sure I could get a very good result.” commented Gianluca Nannelli at the end of the day. “In the morning’s free practice we took so good result as to made also a long run to give some information to Pirelli engineers. I was rather satisfied because my pace was like the best and I was just 0,6 second slower as the leader. For the afternoon the track was changed, with an asphalt temperature higher 10°C more as in the morning, and we had problems to find a good set up. We made some change, but without result, so for tomorrow we’ll start with the morning set up. I tried to be ready for the last minutes of practice, but on the track there was too much people looking for a good trail. Me too I had a misunderstanding with another rider that ruined my right lap, losing the opportunity for a good result. Tomorrow we’ll try new set solutions and I want to improve my performance.” Jakub Smrz on the 999F05 Superbike has been engaged in the difficult set up research on a completely unknown course, and his laptime show that difficulty, non allowing him to do better as 18th fastest. “During all today we focused to study the track and to find a good set up.” said Jakub Smrz at the end of practices. “But with non knowledge of the track isn’t easy to find a good set up, often you enter the wring direction and you must reverse your choice, starting once more from zero. Today we had a lot of problems with the rear grip and also in the corner’s approach I hadn’t a good feeling. Now I’m going to know the track, it’s very good and demanding, so we have a more clear idea about the intervent to do for tomorrow’s final qualifying and I’m confident to be able to do better tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Team Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki: Brands Hatch, day one: Steady start for Team Alstare Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and Max Biaggi made a steady start on the first day of qualifying at Brands Hatch today. Yukio finished eighth quickest and Max ended the day fourteenth, but both are confident of significant improvement tomorrow. Yukio spent the day getting used to his Alstare Suzuki again after his Suzuka 8 hour success on a very different GSX-R1000 and took things steadily as a result. Max has never raced at Brands Hatch before, so used the time today learning one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar. Series leader James Toseland (Honda) topped the standings today – much to the delight of his home fans – with Troy Bayliss (Ducati) second, Ruben Xaus (Ducati) third and Troy Corser (Yamaha) fourth. Yukio – 8th, 1:27.544 “Last weekend I rode a Yoshimura Suzuki in the Suzuka 8 hour race and that bike is very different to my Alstare Suzuki. So, today it was necessary for me to get used to the Alstare bike again after many, many hours on the other one. I have been to Brands Hatch many times before, so today I just tried to find a good set-up for my bike. This track is a fun track to ride when you have a good set-up and good feeling on the bike. If you do not have a good set-up, then it is a difficult track to go fast.” Max – 14th, 1:28.215 “The track is quite short and there are not so many fast corners here. There are many tricky corners, and some blind approaches, and if you do not know what you are doing it is easy to lose time. It is definitely a track where you need good knowledge to go fast and as I have not raced here, I need to learn the track first. This is what today was about for me. We’ll make some gearbox changes for tomorrow and explore what the bike can do more deeply. To go fast round here, you have to have a good set-up and feel comfortable and that’s what we’ll go after tomorrow. ” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: TROY HAPPY WITH THIRD ON DAY ONE Troy finished the first day of qualifying at Brands Hatch, happy with third fastest and a place on the provisional front row of the grid. Troy’s lap of 1:26.746 was the third quickest of the day and done without any special effort. Series leader James Toseland (Honda) led the charge today, with Troy Bayliss (Ducati) second, Troy third and Ruben Xaus (Ducati) fourth Troy – 3rd, 1:26.746 Yeah, I’m reasonably happy today and, all in all, things went reasonably well. In the morning, I didn’t feel all that comfortable because I didn’t feel there was much grip on the track. It sort of felt as if it was oily/filmy and so I didn’t push hard at all. We made some changes to the suspension, mapping and anti-slip for the afternoon session and we were able to improve the bike overall. We also learnt something and we’ll try those ideas out tomorrow. I wasn’t chasing times today and setting the third fastest came pretty easily. Also we were using some ‘old’ engines, but tomorrow we’ll have fresh engines and that should make a difference. I did an 18-lap or so run today and the tyres felt OK, so that was good news. Hopefully, we’ll continue to improve tomorrow and I’ll have a change of luck and a couple of good races on Sunday. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha Third and Sixth on Day One at Brands The Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team had a solid start to this weekend’s race at Brands Hatch in the UK with Corser finishing third and Haga sixth in qualifying. Both riders focused on finding the right set-up during today’s two sessions and by the end of the day both had identified a direction to go in. Corser knocked almost a second off his best morning lap time as he worked on a range of different settings and got a feel for how the Yamaha works around the Brands circuit. Haga tried several different tyre options and identified where he needs to focus to realize his full potential in tomorrow’s qualifying and Superpole sessions. Shinichi Nakatomi had less luck in the first day of qualifying, high-siding at Graham Hill bend and suffering minor injuries. The spirited rider was determined not to lose any more set-up time than necessary and continued to go out in the second session. He was rewarded with a provisional qualifying place of 16th. This weekend sees Steve Martin join the Team Yamaha YZF squad. This year Steve has already helped out the Yamaha World Supersport Team standing in for Kevin Curtain at the Assen round in April and he is now riding in the British Superbike Championship for the Virgin Media Yamaha Team for the remainder of the season. With this experience in mind, he is helping the Team Yamaha YZF squad with comparisons between the UK and French R1’s. Steve’s first day went well with him finishing the day in provisional 15th position. Tomorrow, Corser and Haga’s sights will be set on Toseland and Bayliss who occupy the top two slots at present. Troy Corser (3rd – 1’26.746 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “I came here today with no real experience of the combination of this track and this bike so today has been all about trying lots of different settings and gradually working out what works. We’ve made some good steps forward during today and I’m content with our progress. I’m sure we’ll make even more progress tomorrow and be ready for the race.” Noriyuki Haga (6th – 1’27.351 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “I’ve got some suspension problems to resolve, which will be my focus for tomorrow. I tried three different tyres today, two in the morning and one this afternoon, and am happy with progress there. The suspension is where we need to concentrate; I get a lot of movement over the bumps and then the rear starts stepping out. If we can solve then I’m comfortable that I’ll be up there.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “Tonight we’ll go through all the data we’ve gathered so far today and work at solving the small problems we’ve got. The good thing is that we didn’t use many tyres today so we’ve still lots left for tomorrow. The weather forecast is good and I’m positive because I know both riders are fast here.” Steve Martin (15th – 1’28.262 – Team Yamaha YZF) “It’s difficult because I’ve got two bikes and two different teams to think about. But I’ve found a good direction today and I’m confident I can go better tomorrow; I’m not too far from the group ahead so I think I can catch them.” Shinichi Nakatomi (16th – 1’28.545 – Team Yamaha YZF) “I had a big high-side in this morning’s practice and crashed. I wanted to go out on the second bike but everyone wanted me to go to the medical centre, which took about half and hour. By the time I got back there was only six minutes of the session left so I feel I have lost a complete session today. This afternoon I focused on finding a good set-up and worked with both bikes. I hope I can make up the lost time tomorrow and improve my qualifying position.” Martial Garcia (Team Manager, Team Yamaha YZF) “Tomi crashed this morning and hurt himself a bit, which wasn’t good, but he showed courage in this afternoon’s session. With Steve in the team this weekend we are able to compare the UK and French Yamaha’s, which will help us I’m sure. I’m pleased with Steve’s provisional Superpole position so far and am hopeful of even better results tomorrow.”