World SuperBike 2001 - Round 6 - Friday qualifying
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Wild card rider Steve Hislop set the early pace with the fastest lap time in Friday's opening qualifying session for round six of the World Superbike championship at Donington Park, GB.
Hislop set his best lap time with less than a minute to go in the one-hour, afternoon session and remained on top despite a late challenge from Neil Hodgson. Neil, who won this round last year as a wild card rider, spent most of today tyre testing, in preparation for final qualifying and tomorrow’s Superpole event. “We’ve had a really productive day,” said the 27-year-old Burnley rider, who is eighth in the championship. “We have been doing some tyre testing and we tried a compound at the end of the session which didn’t suit my style, but I ’m still only 0.07 seconds off Hislop’s best time. “The bike feels great and I know that I’ll be able to go faster tomorrow. I’m quite surprised at the amount of encouragement I’ve received from fans today. I didn’t think that people would be cheering me on today. I can’t wait for tomorrow!” Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) was the revelation of the one-hour session as the 23-year-old Spanish rider recorded third quickest time on his Ducati 996R Factory. In only his sixth WSBK race, Xaus outpaced a number of top Superbike riders to end up with a time of 1’33.838, three-tenths away from provisional pole. “That was good and I’m really happy to be up there at the front”, said Xaus. “The bike was wonderful, it worked really well throughout the session and the times came easily. I had a few problems with my new leathers after my old ones were stolen at Misano last week, but they should loosen up for tomorrow”. Championship leader Troy Bayliss was one place behind for Ducati Infostrada as the 32-year-old Australian shrugged off a crash at the first corner with ten minutes to go to record fourth-quickest time of 1’33.949 on his second Ducati 996R Factory bike. “That wasn’t a great session, I’ve been faster before around Donington”, said Bayliss. “We had a few problems during the session which meant we were in and out of the pits a lot. I’ll just have to think things through a bit better and then we’ll be OK tomorrow”. Twenty-year-old Toseland had an impressive ride at his first British event on a World Superbike and finished Friday fifth fastest, with a lap time of 1:34.067. “I’m surprised at how quick I was,” said the ever-improving Sheffield rider. “The GSE Ducati is awesome. It’s so good around this circuit. It almost feels like it’s on rails.” Castrol Honda's Tady Okada was sixth fastest after holding a provisional front row position for much of the session. Okada said: "Donington is one of my favourite circuits and I'm sure I can win here if we get the VTR machine working well." Californian Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M), who dislocated his right shoulder and injured his right knee at the Monza round two weeks ago, was in a little difficulty as he rode his Ducati 996R Factory bike for the first time in two weeks in the morning’s free practice session. The 27-year-old then had a slow start to this afternoon’s qualifying hour but eventually struggled through the pain barrier to record seventh quickest time of the day in the final few minutes. “That was quite a struggle and I was in a bit of pain”, declared Bostrom, “but tomorrow should be a much better day. Seventh position is fine for the moment but the rider still needs to improve”. Pier-Francesco Chili eighth - "We have had quite a hard day today - the English riders are really strong at Donington Park. I am happy with the bikes current setup but we will be looking to improve tomorrow and get a front row start for Sunday's race. I am really looking forward to tomorrow's qualifying session." Gearing and gearbox problems prevented Troy Corser from riding at 100% and left him ninth fastest at the end of the first day of qualifying at Donington Park. He was disappointed with his position, but he and the team know which direction to take tomorrow. "In a way, I feel today was a day lost, but it wasn't because we know what the problems is and what to do about it tomorrow. Today everything on the bike felt wrong. The gearing was just too short and it was too easy to wheelie everywhere. I just couldn't use all the Aprilia's engine power. So for tomorrow we'll change the gearbox and gearing and get back on the pace. I felt as if I had a bit of a tyre problem, but that might have had something to do with the gearing and the characteristics of the bike today. We'll sort it OK.", commented Troy. Castrol Honda's defending champion Colin Edwards 10th after a crash early in the session at the chicane. Like the Supersport class earlier in the day, just one second separates the top 10 riders. "The crash was my own stupid fault," said Edwards. "I wrecked the session because of it. I crashed my best machine and spent the rest of the session riding the spare machine but it just didn't have the same feel as the machine I'd crashed." Edwards - a winner at Donington Park last year and in 1999 - added:
"I'm sure we'll be on the pace tomorrow and it's Sunday's two races that count not Friday
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