World Supersport 2004 - Round 1 - Valencia - Saturday Qualifying

Katsuaki Fujiwara will start tomorrow's opening World Supersport Championship race from the second row after posting seventh fastest position in today's final qualifying session, which was run in bitterly cold and windy conditions.

Team mate Stephane Chambon suffered some chassis problems today and that, together with the very strong winds, meant the diminutive Frenchman was always going to find it hard to completely control the bike round the 4.005km circuit. But, Chambon is one of the most experienced riders in the class and is renowned for his good starts, so he is not ruling out a good result.

Vittorio Iannuzzo continues his GSX 600R learning process - after a year on the much bigger and heavier GSX 1000R - and knows there's lots more to understand before he can contest a podium place.

Katsuaki Fujiwara - 7th, 1m38.676: "I really wanted to be on the front row for the race, but second row is not so bad. I must make sure I get a good start. My two bikes felt quite different to me today - possibly to do with the fuel injection. Tomorrow, we'll make a few small changes in the morning warm-up and see if we can improve the bike. Tyres - or maybe I should say, tyre wear - may be a problem tomorrow, but it ll be the same for everybody, so a lot will depend on how we manage the tyres in the race. We are making progress every time we go out, but this is a new bike and, at the moment, I feel we need a bit more power before we can attack the top step of the podium."

Stephane Chambon - 11th, 1m39.223: "I am not happy to be on third row of the grid because it is so hard to overtake at this circuit. I had some chassis-type problems today and I just couldn't get the bike the way I wanted. Also, because I am small and light, I was affected by the very strong winds and couldn't control the bike as usual. I don't like this track so much anyway, but I do want to leave it with a good result, because points will be very important when the season nears the end. I aim to make a good start, try and look after my tyres and keep pushing hard throughout the race and see what kind of places I can pick up."

Vittorio Iannuzzo - 17th, 1m39.802: "I am finding that there's a lot to learn with this new bike and I can't just rush this process. Fifth row on the grid isn't a good position because it's going to be really hard to get a good result from there, but that will not stop me from trying. At the moment I am not fully comfortable on the bike, so I cannot be as aggressive as I would like. Tomorrow, I want to ride as best I can, make a good race, finish with some good points and leave here and start the preparation for the next round - with hopefully better weather."

The new USB Power Commander is already available for the ZX-10R, as is a powershifter