World SuperSport - Round 2 - Phillip Island - Friday Qualifying
|
Former champion Paolo Casoli set the fastest time in Friday's opening qualifying session for round two of the World Supersport championship at Phillip Island in Australia.
The Italian Yamaha rider was one hundredth of a second faster than Japanese ace Katsuaki Fujiwara on a Suzuki at a dry but windswept 2.76-mile circuit. BKM Honda rider Kevin Curtain set the third best time to give his home supporters something to cheer about. Italian Vittoriano Guareschi - the pacesetter in the Friday morning warm-up - ended the day fourth to complete the provisional front row. Scotsman Iain MacPherson on a Kawasaki was fifth after the one-hour session in which the top 14 riders were split by less than a second. Guareschi's team-mate, Dean Thomas took a provisional sixth place on the grid with veteran Suzuki rider Fabrizio Pirovano seventh and Kawasaki's Andrew Pitt eighth. Spaniard Pere Riba - winner of the opening round in Spain six weeks ago - took his G. Ten Kate Honda to ninth to head a third row which is completed by Australians. Karl Muggeridge set the 10th best lap time while Adam Fergusson - returning to the Alpha Technik Honda team after missing the first round with a cracked pelvis - 11th, marginally ahead of Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen, in 12th. "We chose the wrong tyre for a fast lap at the end of the session but, apart from that, everything went well," said the 18-year-old. "I put in my best lap early in the session on a rear race tyre then we tried a softer compound tyre but we chose wrong." "I did try another softer compound tyre towards the end of the session but there was too much traffic for me to get a fast lap. I've ended up on the third row so if it rains tomorrow I'll take that." He added: "I've been trying different front forks this afternoon. The forks I used at Donington Park in the British round three weeks ago didn't feel that good for around here so we're still experimenting with those settings." Muggeridge ended the day 10th quickest - "Tenth doesn't sound too good, but I'm pretty happy really. Looking back, the morning session was almost a waste, but at least we found the right direction in the afternoon, so I'm confident that we'll improve tomorrow. The big difference this afternoon was tyres we found some that worked really well, but it meant that we had to alter our bike set-up and it was a bit like starting from scratch. I'm happy with the result today, because we know where we are going. Sop, tomorrow we'll improve what we've done today and see how much quicker we can go." Riba's Ten Kate Honda team-mate Fabian Foret was 15th with Markus Barth 22nd on the Alpha Technik Honda and Curtain's BKM team-mate, Italian Ivan Goi 29th.
|