Report - First Qualifying - Kawasaki

A sweet and sour beginning on the first day at the Phillip Island track in Australia for the Kawasaki PSG-1 team. Fonsi Neito was a great protagonist in the first session of timed qualifying, he closed the day with the third best time, putting him on provisional front row. He improved minute by minute finding a set up which permitted him to go fast and have a good feeling with the bike.

It was a difficult first day for Frenchman Regis Laconi, he finished in the 17th place on the provisional grid, the biggest problem is in bends the bike goes wide . The important thing for both of them is to start from the first rows, essential conditions to be a top protagonist in the race.

FONSI NIETO: "First of all I have to tell you that I feel better even if I still have an annoying sinusitis and the air conditions doesn’t help at all. At the beginning of the qualification I didn't like the bike so we started to modify it without making too many extreme changes. We worked well and found the right feeling that permitted me to reach the third time without pushing to the extreme. But the important thing is the race pace and I have to say that we are on the good way here too. I rode race pace for half of today and the tyres has worn a lot but I'm not so worried 'cause all the riders have this problem. Tomorrow I will concentrate on the tyre choice for Sunday and then I'll dedicate all my attention to the Superpole: I still can't interpretate it on the right way but it's necessary to start no lower than the second row otherwise you lose the top riders' trail and the race can be compromised".

REGIS LACONI: "It's obvious I'm not satisfied. We started trying the same set up we had in Qatar but it didn't work. I've had problems most of all in the curves, and there are a lot on this circuit. When I let the brake go and opened the gas the bike went wide. We tried to put on a soft tyre too but it didn't work. Tomorrow we will return to the set up we used in the pre-championship tests and I hope that things will start to go better".