2002 World SuperBike Championship - Round 11 - Oschersleben - Qualifying 1

Improvements in the area of machine set-up allowed Hitoyasu Izutsu to overcome the problems caused by his injured wrist during the opening qualifying session at Assen, with the former Japanese Superbike Champion eventually finishing the day fourteenth fastest aboard his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-7RR.

To avoid aggravating his injury, Izutsu limited himself to just three laps at a time during qualifying, but still managed to test a number of potential race tyres and suspension settings during the hour long session. The Fuchs Kawasaki rider ended qualifying in high spirits, after seeing a significant improvement in his lap times since Oschersleben.

'My wrist hasn't had much time to improve since Oschersleben, but the Assen circuit has proved to be less demanding of the injury,' said Izutsu. 'I still have to have painkilling injections before I can ride the bike, but the fact that we've improved the set-up of the machine has made riding a little bit easier for me; as can be seen from the improvement in my lap times today.'

Chris Walker put in a determined performance to finish this afternoon's qualifying session fifteenth fastest, just one place behind his team-mate. Set up and tyre problems meant that Walker was unable to progress any further up the provisional grid, but the hard charging 30-year-old Fuchs Kawasaki rider remains focussed for tomorrow's qualifying and Superpole sessions.

'I haven't ridden at Assen for a few years; I'd forgotten just how long and physically demanding it is,' commented Walker. 'It took me a while to get myself dialled in this morning, but the confidence had started to build during qualifying. Unfortunately, we went the wrong way with settings this afternoon, but after sitting down with the team after the session, we have a few ideas to try and I'm confident that we can move further up the grid tomorrow. I just hope that the weather forecasts prove incorrect and that it stays dry for the all important final qualifying session.'