Octagon

In the World Supersport Championship a virtually dry track saw the qualifying order from the first day of action change dramatically with Stephane Chambon (Alstare Suzuki) snatching pole with a time of 1:28.468. Misano race winner and current number one plate holder Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team) roared to second, with the Ten Kate Honda of Karl Muggeridge in third place.

World Championship leader Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda) took the fourth and last place on the front row, edging out top Yamaha rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh to fifth place.

Sebastien Charpentier (Team Klaffi Honda) was sixth, Katsuaki Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki) seventh. Christian Kellner (Yamaha Motor Germany) went eighth fastest, the last man to start from the second row. The top wild card rider proved to be Tom Sykes (Northpoint Yamaha).

Karl Muggeridge

CBR Honda’ rider Karl Muggeridge finished 3rd fastest in today’s final qualifying session of round 8 of the World Supersport Championship here at Brands Hatch and will start tomorrow’s 23 lap race from front row of the grid.

Muggas had a few problems to the beginning of the session but got settled back in just in time to set his flying lap to take him back to the front row. It’s been quite difficult to get a clear lap around the 4.197 km track here at Brands Hatch, most riders probably got hold up by traffic somewhere which doesn’t make it easy to qualify.

Muggas comments: “At the beginning it was a bit chaotic, my number one bike wasn’t running so I had to jump on the second one which had a complete different gearbox and than once it was the problem was fixed I got back on the number one which I liked better but then it took me a few laps to settle in a bit. We also got the front suspension working better towards the end of the session, which improved the bike a lot. All in all I think we got a pretty good set-up for the race wet or dry conditions and I’m happy with the result, specially as I know that I could have gone faster if I didn’t get hold up on my last two qualifying laps.”

Suzuki Alstare’s Stephan Chambon took pole position in front of Fabien Foret . Muggas’s team-mate Vermeulen completes the front row with his fourth position.

Suzuki

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Stephane Chambon stormed to his pole position of the season at Brands Hatch today. He posted a lap of 1:28.468, over two tenths of a second quicker then his nearest rival Fabien Foret (Kawasaki). Last year Stephane suffered a heavy fall at Brands, so pole today was a sign that there are no lasting effects from that incident. His team mate Katsuaki Fujiwara finished the day in seventh place after some problems with gear ratios, but is hoping that tomorrow's warm-up session in the morning will allow him to lap more quickly and confidently. Third quickest today is Aussie Karl Muggeridge (Honda), with team mate and series leader Chris Vermeulen fourth.

Stephane Chambon - 1st, 1m28.468 - I'm very happy to be on pole position today - especially after what happened to me here last year. Yesterday I was a bit nervous in the section of the track where I crashed, but today was no problem for me. I 'm happy with our set-up for the dry, but not so sure about our set-up for the wet. It's always important to make a good start and that's what I will be trying for tomorrow. I'd be happy with a podium, but really I want to win."

Katsuaki Fujiwara - 7th, 1m29.146 - "We improved the bike's set-up in the morning and then changed the gearbox in the afternoon, but I'm not completely happy with one of the gear ratios. We'll try to improve it in the warm-up tomorrow morning. I'm happy with my set-up for a dry race, but not 100% sure of our set-up if it is wet. I hope it'll be dry tomorrow, so that I can really push hard and challenge for a podium. Last year I won here, so I want another podium this year."

Kawasaki

The dry track conditions encountered by all the protagonists in the Brands Hatch World Supersport final qualifying session allowed times to tumble in relation to the wet first session on Friday and thus Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) secured an outstanding second place on the grid.

The reigning World Champion and Misano race winner was even on course to improve to pole position on his final flying lap, until he was slowed by another rider on the fast racing line and had to settle for second place. Foret lap of 1:28.692 was only 0.224 behind the fastest rider of the day, Stephane Chambon (Suzuki). Foret is nonetheless in an excellent starting spot for the race itself on Sunday, riding a ZX-6RR which has benefited from some mid season development work on the engine, something that Foret has already felt the benefit of.

"I'm happy for all the team but very angry with some riders as they stayed on the racing line and ruined my fastest lap," said Foret. "I could have been on pole but it is not possible because of this problem. We try to improve the bike all the time and it is definitely getting better, even if we still have some way to go in development."

Pere Riba (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) could not replicate his outstanding wet practice performances from Friday, after his favourite bike developed a technical glitch and thus Riba completed the final 45-minute timed session on his less favoured number two machine. With his second ZX-6RR running a different set-up than his number one bike, Riba could not get on pace with the best lap of the weekend and finished 19th in overall practice classification.

"I had a problem with my number one bike," said Riba, "but I managed to coast back to the pits. My second bike was not as competitive because the gearbox, chassis and engine settings were different to my no.1 bike. It was not possible for me to improve my time as I lost most of the session." The 23-lap Supersport race, round eight of an 11 round season, will take place on the 4.197km long Brands Hatch full circuit at 13.20 GMT.