World SuperBike 2001 - Round 11 - Oschersleben - Friday qualifying
 Troy
Corser ended the first day of qualifying in control and happy. The morning
session was blighted by rain and damp conditions, with a dry line
appearing only at the end of the practice. But in the afternoon, the track
was dry and the pace grew more and more frantic as everybody upped the
pace. The lap times fell and Troy posted a lap of 1m27.868,
taking provisional pole position, nearly three tenths of a second ahead of
his nearest rival. The remainder of the front row of the grid was all
Ducati. Championship leader Troy Bayliss was second fastest today, ahead
of Ben Bostrom and Ruben Xaus.Corser - "I'm pretty happy with how things went today. The bike set-up felt good and it was good to get back on the Aprilia after a month off. The break has given us all a chance to evaluate things and we've all come back ready to race. In the morning the conditions weren't all that good and when a dry line did appear it was only about 30 centimetres or so wide, so you couldn't really push it too hard. Fortunately the track was dry in the afternoon and we were able to get things working they way we wanted. It's going to very important to qualify well, because the track is very narrow and it's not easy to pass on. It's a single line track really, so a good start will be vital. There are still six races and 150 points available and I'd like to get as many of them as possible. Winning the championship is beyond us, but I'd like to finish runner-up at least and that's what we'll be chasing. Troy Bayliss - "That wasn’t so bad. Even though we struggled a little in the middle, we got there in the end”, declared Bayliss. “It hasn’t been a bad day overall – first in this morning’s free practice and second this afternoon. I think we’re going to have to work a little bit harder to make up time in the second split, but we’ve got a few more things up our sleeves for tomorrow”. Ducati L&M rider Ben Bostrom, winner of the last five races, was just one-tenth of a second behind his fellow Ducati rider but the 27-year-old Californian said he was not entirely satisfied with his performance during the one-hour qualifying session. “My bike doesn’t feel 100% comfortable”, said Bostrom. “We’re pretty good in the first and second split but we appear to be losing some time in the final sector. We’re close to getting everything right but there’s a little more work to be done yet. In particular when I change direction, we need to increase the feel on the bike because it’s not doing exactly what I want it to do”. Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) completed the trio of factory Ducati riders in the top 4 with an excellent run to an overnight fourth as the 23-year-old Spanish rider put together a number of fast laps around the 3.667 km circuit. “No problems to report out there today, I’m very pleased with that” , declared Xaus. “I’m getting better all the time and maybe I can improve my time tomorrow”. Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards and Tady Okada finished fifth and sixth respectively in today's opening qualifying session. Edwards - a double winner here last year - remained in a confident mood and is hopeful of being able to repeat his success of 12 months ago. He said: "We lost some time this morning when it was wet so I just got down to finding a good machine set-up this afternoon. We've made a lot of progress and I'm confident that I'll be able to concentrate more on finding a rear race tyre and on putting in a lap on a qualifying tyre in tomorrow morning's session." Okada was pleased with his opening day's performance on his first visit to the 2.27-mile circuit. The Japanese rider took sixth place and is hopeful of improving on his ninth place in the championship in Sunday's two races. Okada commented: "I like the circuit, it's been quite easy to learn and I'm sure I can go even quicker tomorrow. I know improving on my ninth place in the championship is important but ninth, eighth or seventh, it doesn't matter too much so I'll be looking to win some races if I can." Troy Corser's Aprilia team-mate Regis Laconi was 7th quickest - "I must say that seeing exactly the points were Troy brakes gave me some excellent references" says Regis Laconi. "It helped me up to second place in today's provisional ratings. I've got two different set-up configurations for my two bikes and now I'm going to choose the most suitable. My Aprilia couldn't be better and tomorrow, when I've found out a bit more about the track, I'll be able to reduce my time further. I'm going to carry on working at it." Team Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa and Gregorio Lavilla were 9th and 10th respectively. Yanagawa - "This year we haven’t been competitive on the Friday and that has put pressure on everyone in the team on Saturday. I’m certainly happier to be only one second behind, than any more. We still have a lot of work to do but I know that we have the right information to make more improvements. Today I set my fastest time on race tyres so now we can concentrate on qualifying.” Lavilla - "Today we really concentrated on setting up the bike for racing and didn’t worry about the times. I tried to use one qualifying tyre late in the session, but got caught up in some traffic. We were able to find the right set-up a lot earlier than normal and that gives me even more confidence for tomorrow.”
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