Octagon

In the World Supersport Championship Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) had to give best at the very end of the final 45-minute session, the new World Champion Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) running out the clear leader by 0.3 seconds. Charpentier failed to improve on his best from day one, although virtually all the top riders were able to go faster, irrespective of the cold day two temperatures.

Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) rode to an excellent third qualifying place in his last race weekend for his Kawasaki, team, with the front row of the grid completed by the impressive Karl Muggeridge, who will be going for three wins on a row on race day.

1999 Champion Stephane Chambon (Alstare Suzuki) gained a fifth place start, and new Ten Kate inductee Broc Parkes went sixth. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki) will be attempting to take second place overall from the second row, in seventh, with the other factory Kawasaki of Pere Riba in eighth place.

Ten Kate

Ten Kate Honda’s recently crowned World Supersport champion, Chris Vermeulen snatched pole position with a red-hot final lap in qualifying on Saturday at Magny-Cours in France.

“I made a silly mistake on my last lap but I am very pleased with the outcome. I am going for the win tomorrow,” said the 21-year-old Australian who clinched his third pole position of 2003.

Team-mate Karl Muggeridge will also start on the front row, having posted the fourth quickest time for Sunday’s race and is eager to equal Vermeulen’s run of three consecutive wins. “I would rather win tomorrow than today!“ said Muggeridge. “I improved my time a bit and everything is in tip-top condition for a great race tomorrow.”

Ten Kate new boy Broc Parkes was in equally buoyant mood following a fantastic sixth place on the grid. “The bike’s very good and I am hoping for a podium. It’s all new for me and I am still a little ring rusty. My aim will be to go with the lead group and take it from there,” said Parkes who was on the podium at Misano Adriatico, Italy in June for the BKM Honda team.

Team manager Ronald ten Kate was delighted with the day’s effort. “Two riders on the front row and then Broc on the second. It’s the perfect scenario and a great bonus for us. We could not have asked for anything more.

“Our race set-up will make a difference on Sunday. The combination of Pirelli tyres and WP suspension has been working a treat. Add to this the electric speed of the Honda CBR600RR and you have got a pretty potent cocktail!”

A win for Vermeulen will mean that the young Australian will shatter Fabien Foret’s points record of 186, set in 2002. Furthermore, he will equal Fabrizio Pirovano’s mark for the most wins in a season: five. And, it would be Ten Kate Honda’s seventh win from 11 rounds. Yet another record!

Karl Muggeridge

CBR rider Karl Muggeridge was fourth fastest in today’s final qualifying session at the last round of the 2003 World Supersport Championship at Magny Cours in France and will start tomorrows 23 lap race from the front row of the grid.

After another freezing cold morning free practise which was filled with red flags and lasted about two hours instead of 45 minutes, the afternoon qualifying brought back some normality.

Muggas comments: “The session was ok, it would have been great to grab the last pole of the year but I rather win tomorrow than today. The race set-up is pretty good, we only got to fine tune it a little bit for tomorrow and we are ready for another podium finish.”

Theoretically Muggas has still got a small chance to grab second or third place in the Championship, depending where Stephan Chambon, Jurgen vd Goorbergh and Katsuaki Fujiwara will be finishing. At the moment they got a lead of 17, 11 and 10 points on Karl, so that means he would have to make that many points more then them to get into the top three. But who knows what will be happing.

Muggas’ team-mate Vermeulen took his third pole position of the season and went even with Muggeridge in the 2003 pole ranking. The third yellow CBR rider of the weekend, Broc Parks finished 6th fastest and will start from the second row of the grid.

Chris Vermeulen

Australia’s youngest ever world motorcycle champion Chris Vermeulen is set to end the 2003 season with a bang, after grabbing pole position in the final round of the championship at Magny Cours in France.

The 21 year old already has the world championship stitched up, however there is one milestone still remaining and that’s equalling the most amount of victories in a season, which stands at 5.

It was the Honda CBR600RR rider’s third pole position of the year and came despite a crash in the 45-minute session.

"I was trying for a faster lap and pushed the front of the machine too much at the hairpin,” said Vermeulen. “But I’m happy to be on pole position, especially after today’s announcement about my World Superbike ride with Ten Kate Honda for next year ­ it¹s a double celebration tonight.”

The final event of the year will be held tonight Australia time.

Suzuki

Team Alstare Suzuki riders Stephane Chambon and Katsuaki Fujiwara ended final qualifying at Magny-Cours with the fifth and seventh fastest times today and will start tomorrow's 23-lap race from the second row of the grid. Conditions were very cold in the morning session and the practice was red-flagged three times due to crashes. After yesterday's big get-off, Fujiwara had to take painkillers so he could take part this morning. His left hip was the worst of his problems, but nevertheless he still managed to put in a substantial number of laps and take a place on the second row of the grid. Two places ahead of him on the grid will be his team mate, who was hoping for a front row place. Newly crowned champion Chris Vermeulen (Honda) dramatically stole pole position in the closing minutes of today's final qualifying and than promptly fell off on the very next lap! Second quickest toady is Sebastien Charpentier ((Honda), ahead of Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) and Karl Muggeridge (Honda).

STEPHANE CHAMBON 5th, 1:44.325 - "Well I improved my times from yesterday, but it wasn't enough for a front row place, so I'm not so happy. But second row is OK and as long as I can make a good start it'll be OK. It was very cold today and many riders crashed probably because of the conditions. Magny-Cours is a track where overtaking is difficult, so that's why I have to make a really good start. But, I am determined to make a good race, because runner-up spot in the championship is up for grabs and I want it!"

KATSUAKI FUJIWARA 7th, 1:44.520 - "Considering my hip, I am pretty satisfied with second row. I had painkillers this morning and once I was on the GSXR Suzuki I forgot all about the pain because I was concentrating so hard. When I got off the bike, I certainly knew about the pain straightaway! My big problem today and tomorrow will be the left turns because I cannot move the bike around as much as usual. It's hard work changing direction, so I know it'll be a hard day tomorrow. Second and third places in the championship are still available and I want one of them! Second may be a bit too much for me in this condition, but third would be OK especially if my team mate Steph managed second!"

Kawasaki

Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) scored a fine third place in final qualifying for Sunday's 23-lap World Supersport race at Magny Cours. Thanks to machine set-up changes made after the experiences of the first day, both Foret and Pere Riba (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) were able to make positive steps with their machine set-ups, enough to improve on their Friday times.

A frequently halted final session was adversely affected by several crashes, all of which broke the rhythm of the competitors in this last chance to shine before race day. Nonetheless the Kawasaki factory team put in solid rides in the final 45-minute session and line up third and eighth respectively, on rows one and two.

Wild card rider Julien da Costa (ART Kawasaki ZX-6RR) scored tenth quickest time, cutting half a second from his best lap on Friday.
The cold track temperatures, even in the welcome and omnipresent afternoon sunshine, complicated matters once more, and tyre choice will play an important part in the race on Sunday.

For Foret, there is still some fine tuning to do on front suspension, and he was left wishing what could have been had he continued the early push of his fastest lap. "I was up on the first and second split and knew I was on a quick lap," he stated. "I made a mistake in the third split yesterday so decided to keep it smooth today. I think I relaxed a little bit too much and lost some time. Before the session I wanted a front row start so I'm happy to be in third position. I am not 100% happy with my bike and do not have the feel I want from the front forks - so we will make some changes. For me to put in one quick lap is OK but in the race it will be difficult to be consistent."

Riba is glad to see the back of a final qualifying session and knows that as one of the most competitive riders in the series, he stands a good chance of securing a top placing in the last race of the 2003 season. "A second row start is good but the race is different - qualifying is one life and the race is another," said Riba, sagely. "We've improved the bike from yesterday but are still making some other changes. I will test a new race tyre in warm-up and hope we can put in a good performance tomorrow."

The 23-lap race on the 4.411km track is expected to be one of the closest of the season, as it is the last chance for a number of riders to make their mark before the onset of the winter months.