 |
World
SuperSport 2002 - Round 7 - Lausitzring Friday - Qualifying 1 Jun 7th, 2002 |
|
|
Honda's Chris Vermeulen set the pace with the fastest lap time in Friday
afternoon's opening qualifying session for round seven of the World
Supersport championship at Lausitzring, Germany. Vermeulen moved to the head of the leader board in the dying seconds of the 45-minute session, edging out James Ellison to second before Ten Kate Honda team rider Iain MacPherson moved into second place with the chequered flag out to signal the end of qualifying. Ellison ended the day in third with Italian Piergiorgio Bontempi fourth to complete the provisional front row for Sunday's race. Former champion Jorg Teuchert made the most of his home circuit knowledge to take fifth place in the wet conditions. Stephane Chambon, the championship leader, was sixth quickest and the provisional second row is completed by Yamaha pair James Whitham and Alessio Corradi. Honda's Christophe Cogan and last year's Lausitzring race winner Kevin Curtain complete the top 10. Honda UK's Robert Ulm and Karl Muggeridge were 12th and 16th respectively with Muggeridge suffering a crash, without injuries, in each of the Friday sessions. Muggeridge - "I'm disappointed that they didn't stop that session with there being so much mud around everywhere. "It was my own fault that I crashed but I was trying to make up the time that I'd lost avoiding the mud from someone else's crash. I've given the team a lot of work to do tonight but I know we'll be in good shape for tomorrow." Vermeulen - "It's tough going out there I watch three guys crash. The cars don't race here in the wet, so that means the track holds a lot of the water and dirt. As it dries, it gets really slippery," the teenager said. "My best lap was just as the track started to dry out a bit, I didn't realise we had pole until after the session when I rode in. “I am really hoping for a dry race. The Pirelli guys have got a great race distance tyre. So I hope it fines up. “Nobody knows what the weather is doing, I am standing outside now and it is fining up. The forecast says similar weather tomorrow and then fine on Sunday. If it rains, great I'm on pole, if it fines up we'll have another crack tomorrow." Reigning World Supersport Champion, Andrew Pitt, finished an uncharacteristic fourteenth fastest today, after holding a top ten position for the majority of the session. Pitt opted to fit a dry rear tyre to his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6R for the final five minutes of qualifying but despite a visible dry line emerging, the conditions proved unsuitable for anything less than a full wet tyre and the Australian was unable to improve on his previous best time. "I made the wrong tyre choice at the end of the session, coming in and changing, when I should really have stayed out on the original rubber. We went pretty well in free practice this morning and the bike felt real good in both sessions today, so I'm not too worried about my qualifying position at the moment. Wet or dry tomorrow, we know we'll have a good set-up on the bike, and I'm confident of improving my grid position," commented Pitt.
|
|
FREE classifieds - Late Braking News - 2002 New Bike Catalogue
Product News - Wallpaper - Racing - Bike Tests - Discussion
MCNEWS.COM.AU