FG Sport

In the World Supersport Championship local rider and new series regular Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) took an assured pole position. Winner of a National Championship race at Magny Cours earlier this season, Charpentier put his experience to good use on the cold but dry track, taking a best lap of 1:43.881.

New World Champion Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda) scored second best time, ahead of outgoing champion Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team). Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda) slipped into fourth place, completing the provisional front row.

Stephane Chambon (Alstare Suzuki) kept up his challenge to finish second in the championship overall, securing fifth best time, one place ahead of the best-placed Yamaha rider, Christian Kellner (Yamaha Motor Germany). Katsuaki Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki) finished eighth, aiming to keep his second place in the championship alive until the culmination of race weekend.

Ten Kate

Ten Kate Honda’s recently crowned World Supersport champion, Chris Vermeulen posted the second fastest time in Friday’s first qualifying session at Magny-Cours in France.

The young Australian set a time of 1m 44.143s and concluded the session only 0.262s behind provisional pole-sitter and local favourite, Sébastien Charpentier.

“The only problem we had was with our choice of tyres as it’s much colder than when we tested here,” said Vermeulen, who is suffering from a bout of flu.

Team-mate Karl Muggeridge - looking for a hat-trick of wins following his successes at Assen, Holland and Imola, Italy – was fourth quickest with a time of 1m 44.699s.

“I’m sure I can do better tomorrow. I lost my head a bit on the final lap and made several errors. Hopefully, I can get back on track and move up the grid,” said the 29-year-old.

Ten Kate Honda’s third rider, Broc Parkes clocked a time of 1m 45.114s, which puts him in provisional seventh. The 20-year-old from Sydney was just thrilled to be back racing.

“I’ve not been on a machine since July at Brands Hatch [GB] and it’s just great for me to be back in the saddle. I’ve no doubt this machine can win on Sunday – I just hope I can do it justice!”

Team manager Ronald ten Kate was satisfied with Friday’s effort. “For sure the track temperature made it difficult for our tyre selection but all our riders are on the pace and in the top 10. That bodes well for Sunday.”

The Ten Kate team will be looking for its seventh win of the season from 11 rounds at the 4.411km circuit near the town of Nevers, and for Vermeulen a six-point haul will help him break yet another record: the most points in a season mark, currently held by Fabien Foret [186 points in 2002].

Karl Muggeridge

Ten Kate Honda’s Karl Muggeridge was fourth fastest in today’s opening qualifying session at the last round of the World Supersport Championship at Magny-Cours in France.

It was a bit a cold start in the morning free practice session by 8° C air temperature and 9° C track temperature no one got really up to speed and the tyres were generally not working with these temperature, so it was difficult to say if the settings were going to work in the warmer afternoons condition.

In the afternoon the French weather showed itself from a bit a friendlier site, but nevertheless the qualifying session was once again filled with a lot of crashes and red flags like in the morning.

Muggas comments: "It was a bit a strange session this afternoon, our timing was pretty unlucky. First I had a breaking problem when I was out on a Q and then on the second one the red flag came out, and when I was back in the box to get the tyres changed the track was clear and ready for a good lap. But never mind, I think we kept the damage to a minimum and with 4th place on the front row things are still ok. Then on my last Q, I made too many mistakes and I lost a bit of confidence into the brakes after the problems we had before. But for tomorrow things should work better and I’m ready for a top place on the time sheet.”

The Ten Kate Honda squad is racing with three bikes this weekend; the 3rd Musketeer in the team is Australian Broc Parkes, who lost his ride when his team BKM Honda went broke a couple of rounds ago.

Kawasaki

Kawasaki Racing Team members Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) and Pere Riba (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) both made an impact in the first timed qualifying session at the new World Supersport venue of Magny Cours.

World Champion in 2002 Foret, riding in his home country for the first time in the short history of the full status World Supersport series, secured a provisional front row start with fourth place on his ZX-6RR. Riba, finding more issues with chassis set-up on day one, finished a more than creditable tenth fastest in this most competitive of classes.

The generally cold air and track temperatures at the Magny Cours circuit have played their part in complicating the set-up tasks of each rider, as has the temperature differential between early morning and afternoon sessions.

Both Foret and Riba had tested at the Magny Cours circuit before the race itself, but the change in temperature put paid to their plans to improve on their testing times at this stage. For Foret, his first day speed was welcome but he knows that there is more to come.

"The lap time is OK but I had a big slide on one corner and ran wide through another, so the time could have been better," said Foret. "I'm having some chassis problems and don't feel 100% confident on the bike at the moment. I'm on the front row, which is where I expect to be but I've only done one fast lap and I'd prefer it if I'd been consistent."

Riba went through a wide range of options on day one and will spend day two refining his machine set-up still more. "I've tried a lot of different settings today but I don't have the right feeling to start pushing hard," said the competitive Spaniard. "The bike feels a little too hard and when I get on the power the rear is sliding. I've still got more settings to try, but because of the difference in temperature the things we are trying in the morning do not necessarily work in the afternoon."

Having won the 2003 French Supersport Championship at Circuit Carole last weekend, 23-year-old Julien da Costa (Art Kawasaki ZX-6RR) was given an opportunity to race at Magny Cours. He did not disappoint in the first session, securing the ninth best lap of the day. One more qualifying session on Saturday 18th awaits the Supersport combatants, with the 23-lap race on the 4.411km track scheduled on Sunday 19th.

Suzuki

Although both Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Stephane Chambon and Katsuaki Fujiwara qualified in the top eight today, neither is happy - for different reasons! Chambon went quite a bit faster when he tested here recently, but was unable to get down to same lap times -probably due to the much colder conditions. Fujiwara was the victim of split oil on the track and crashed - destroying his GSXR600 in the process. He also injured his left knee, left hip and gave his head a nasty bang at the same time, so will be far from 100% tomorrow and on race day. Local favourite Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) set the day's quickest time, with a lap of 1:43.881, with newly crowned champion Chris Vermeulen (Honda) second. Third fastest today is Fabien Foret (Kawasaki), with Karl Muggeridge (Honda) completing the front row of the grid.

STEPHANE CHAMBON - 5th, 1:44.926 - "I know it's much colder then when we tested here recently, but I am not happy to be fifth quickest today, when I should be on the front row for sure. We were trying a new front brake disc today and although it was better for actual braking, it didn't feel so good changing direction. We also had some carburation problems today, so all in all I'm not happy. I hope that it gets a bit warmer tomorrow and I can get down to the lap times I did before. Then, I'll be much happier and I'm sure I'll go much better."

KATSUAKI FUJIWARA - 8th, 1:45.223 - "The crash happened so quickly; I couldn't do anything about it. I think it must have been oil on the track, because a bike had crashed just before I arrived at that part of the track. My left hip and knee is very sore and I know I'm going to feel very stiff in tomorrow morning for sure. Also, I hit my head and I feel a bit sleepy. My bike was destroyed completely in the crash, so now my team have a lot of work to build me a spare bike in time for tomorrow. I hope to have a good night's sleep tonight and feel much better tomorrow because I still want to finish in the top two or three in the championship."