Superbike

Karl Muggeridge and Chris Vermeulen set the fifth and sixth fastest times in this afternoon’s opening qualifying action for round two of the World Superbike championship at Phillip Island. Enjoying the support of family and friends, the two Australian riders continued to improve their lap times on the Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR

Fellow Aussie, Troy Corser, grabbed provisional pole position for Sunday’s two 22-lap races around the fast and undulating 4.4km Phillip Island circuit but both team and riders are confident of further progress in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “I’m extremely happy with the steps forward we have made here today, even though we are a little further back on lap times than we would want to be. We have a lot of work to do on the bikes tonight but we have found the direction we need to go in to close the gap tomorrow. Every single lap at Phillip Island is important to the riders because it is such a fast and technical circuit. Unlike some other teams, we didn’t test here before the season started so Karl and Chris are having to use each lap to become familiar with its characteristics once more.”

Karl Muggeridge – fifth fastest, 1m34.364: “My first lap here on a superbike this morning was really funny! I came down the start-finish straight thinking: ‘When is this thing going to stop accelerating?’ It was kind of mad and makes the 600 feel like you could make a cup of tea going down the straight. The power lifts the front wheel as you go over the crest and then the wind wants to send it sideways, so it’s kind of interesting! The bike’s great but we’ve worked on two different fork settings today and I’m looking for something between the two; so we’ll aim for that tomorrow.”

Chris Vermeulen – sixth fastest, 1m34.405: “It’s so fast at Phillip Island and I haven’t ridden here for a year so you have to spend a while reminding yourself just how quick you can go. You think you’re at the edge and then find that there’s still more there. We came with a range of suspension settings: from Phillip Island last year, the first race at Qatar and the test at Valencia. We’re definitely going in the right direction but I didn’t really make the most of the grip from the qualifying tyre today. But I put in some consistent quick laps on a race tyre so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Supersport

Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Sébastien Charpentier set the fastest time in today’s first qualifying session for Sunday’s second round World Supersport championship race at Phillip Island in Australia. His Japanese team-mate and championship leader, Katsuaki Fujiwara, was fifth fastest.

In warm sunshine, Frenchman Charpentier continued his recent good form, lapping the 4.4km circuit near Melbourne in a time of 1m35.999s – the only rider to break the 1m36s barrier – and was 0.3s faster than his nearest challenger, Honda-mounted Michel Fabrizio.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: "We’re pretty happy with the way things have been going on our first day here at Phillip Island. We’ve still got some more work to do to improve the bike for both Sébastien and Katsuaki but we’re progressing in the right direction. There are a lot of areas where we can improve the bike a little bit, like gearing, suspension and geometry. Phillip Island is also very technical, very much a riders’ circuit, and I’m sure we’ll see both riders improve their times as they get more laps under their belt."

Sébastien Charpentier – fastest, 1m35.999s - "Yes, it’s all going OK and I really enjoy riding here at Phillip Island. We’ve been working on different tyre and suspension combinations today and it’s going fine. We have a few more things to try but I think we’re pretty close to deciding what tyres we want to use in the race. We’ll try to give that set-up a longer test tomorrow and try to get pole position like we had at the first round in Qatar."

Katsuaki Fujiwara – fifth fastest, 1m37.177s - "We’re trying to get the right feeling for the bike and I think we have lots of work to do tonight and tomorrow. It’s a good circuit but the wind is blowing quite hard and it pushes the bike wide when we go through the long left-hander at turn two. Apart from that we have some more time tomorrow but it is really Sunday that counts so, as long as I can start near the front, it should be OK."