World SuperSport 2001 - Round 7 - Misano - Final Qualifying / Grid
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Iain MacPherson put in a last lap burst of speed in Saturday's final qualifying session to take pole position for Sunday's seventh round of the World Supersport championship at Misano, San Marino. Iain said, “Pole position was a pleasant surprise, because that lap didn’t feel fast. I just tried to be as smooth as possible and knew the time would be good. The bike is really easy to ride fast at this track and I know that’s important to be smooth so the tyres will last the distance. This is only my second pole position so I hope I can continue with a good result tomorrow.” The Scottish Kawasaki rider held off Ten Kate Honda's Pere Riba in a thrilling one-hour session at the sun-kissed, 2.52-mile circuit to determine the grid positions for the 23-lap race. Yamaha rider Jorg Teuchert, the defending world champion, will start from third place while Suzuki's Katsuaki Fujiwara ensured four different manufacturers are represented on the front row as he took fourth place. Championship leader Paolo Casoli heads the second row with fellow-Italian Vittoriano Guareschi failing to improve on his provisional pole position time of Friday to take sixth. Riba's Honda team-mate Fabien Foret took seventh while 19-year-old Vittorio Iannuzzo completes row two after taking eighth place on his Suzuki. Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen - again fastest in the morning free practice session - will start from ninth and his fellow Australian Andrew Pitt completes the top 10. Vermeulen - "As the track gets hotter in the afternoon it seems to slow me down but I'm happy with ninth place, the second row would have been nice but row three's OK. We've made a lot of progress throughout the weekend with the CBR machine and the Michelin tyres and I'm happy about that. I had a silly little crash this morning but, apart from that, I'm confident of a good result tomorrow. This is such a tricky circuit to get right but a lot like a my local circuit at Lakeside in Australia so I've been confident from the first few laps of testing we did. Making the start will be crucial tomorrow, I'd like to run with the leaders for a change and see if I can get my best finish of the year. A podium finish would be a dream come true." Pitt - “I was consistently fast all day, but when it was time to put in a good lap I just got held up. I was following Iain at the end of the session and he managed to get past a couple of riders and I got held up. Iain’s time would have taken some beating, but I think I could have been up there with him. The race is going to be close, but our set-up is really good so I think we are in a good position for tomorrow.” Alpha Technik Honda's Adam Fergusson took 13th place with the BKM pair of Cristiano Migliorati and the injured Kevin Curtain 24th and 33rd respectively. Fergusson's team-mate Markus Barth will start from 36th after a crash in the final qualifying session. Dean Thomas qualified 15th, Karl Muggeridge 23rd and Shannon Johnson 31st. Muggas comments: “We didn’t make any improvements from yesterday’s session and so are still on the 6th row of the starting grid, which will make it really difficult for tomorrow’s race. But we want give up and I hope we can find a better set-up in the morning warm-up. The race is anyway always a different story, and many things can happen. For sure I will try to go for some points for the championship, but it will be very hard work.” Final World Supersport qualifying times: |
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