Round: 2 - Phillip Island
Circuit: Phillip Island
Date: 2 April 2005
Temp: 35ºC
Weather: Sunny

Yamaha Motor Italia rider Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's Yamaha-sponsored Australian round of the Superbike World Championship from fifth place after an impressive performance in his first ever one-lap superpole run.

The local hero had been consistently in the top five all weekend but had to survive a scare during the pre-superpole practice session. The Australian was heading the time sheets when he highsided on the exit of turn 10 and was struck by his machine. Pitt was thankfully uninjured in the incident and was able to resume the session on his second machine.

Pitt went into the superpole session as the third fastest rider from regular qualifying, but despite setting his fastest time of the weekend, a 1'33.461, on his flying lap the Australian found himself slipping back to fifth despite setting his fastest lap of the weekend.

Norick Abe was another Yamaha rider who impressed in his first outing in the one-lap shootout. The Japanese rider gained four places on his position after regular qualifying and will start the race from 12th place and the third row of the grid.

Pitt's team-mate Noriyuki Haga was 19th fastest in qualifying, and did make the cut for the top-16 superpole shootout after failing to find a good suspension setting during the morning qualifying session. However Haga was able to set the 14th fastest time in the untimed afternoon practice session, giving hope of an improved performance in tomorrow's races. Lining up behind Haga in 20th and 21st places respectively are European superstock champion Lorenzo Alfonsi, making his world superbike debut with the DFX Yamaha team, and Yamaha Motor France's Sebastien Gimbert, although all three riders are likely to move up one place as 17th qualifier Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda) will not start after breaking his collarbone.

Championship leader Yuki Kagayama (Suzuki) will start tomorrow's races from pole position after setting a superpole time of 1'33.241, narrowly pushing out local ace Steve Martin (Petronas) and young German talent Max Neukirchner (Honda). Another Australian, Troy Corser (Suzuki), rounds out the front row in fourth.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "I'd have liked to have been on the front row but I did my best lap on the superpole so I feel that I did my best. We've got a good set-up and I have been up the front all weekend on race tyres, so this looks good for the race. I expect a good race tomorrow with many riders fighting for the lead. I am happy with the way my bike is, so hopefully I will be one of them!"

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) - "I have been feeling sick all weekend so I am quite happy with my superpole performance - it was good fun! I have a good set up and was able to do a lot of consistent lap times, so I am looking forward to the races tomorrow."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "It's been a difficult day and I do not really know why I was riding so slowly. We have had big chatter problems here all weekend. We tried so many changes and we made some improvements in the last session, so we will need to see how it goes tomorrow."

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) - "This is my first time here with the R1 and I made a small mistake with my suspension settings today. That is why I couldn't go fast enough to get into superpole but we made some changes in the free practice session so I am sure that we will have a much better performance in the races tomorrow."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator Yamaha Motor Italia) - "We are feeling very positive about tomorrow's races. Andrew is running very strongly on race tyres and thankfully also he was uninjured in the crash. It was also good that he but in his best laps after the crash because, although a rider will always deny it, they usually lose some feeling in these events. With Nori I believe he can do a good job for us. He is always better on race day than on qualifying and I remember him, I think it was at Brands Hatch in 2000, starting in 16th and being second at the first corner, so we know what he is capable of doing."

Yamaha Motor Germany's world supersport riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes had opposing fortunes on the final day of qualifying at Phillip Island today. Curtain put his YZF-R6 on the front row, in fourth place, but Parkes was forced to sit out the afternoon session after crashing during the morning's free practice.

Curtain improved his time by almost half a second during the second qualifying session with a best of 1'35.436, but was unable to eliminate the set-up problems which is causing excessive wheelspin and tyre wear on his YZF-R6. The experienced Australian, winner of this race in 2002, and his team will make further changes to the rear suspension in a bid to improve the settings for tomorrow's 21 lap race.

Parkes crashed heavily midway through the morning session and was taken to the medical centre after being highsided from the machine. Thankfully examinations revealed no broken bones and the rider was sent back to his hotel to rest. He is expected to take part in tomorrow's race and, if fit, his Friday time of 1'38.021 will put him 12th on the grid.

Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) will start on pole position after posting a time of 1'35.746.

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "I'm really glad to be on the front row at my home race. I rode as hard as I could on that lap but we've still got problems with the rear suspension. We tried a few things today to solve it but unfortunately it's still there. We're just spinning up coming out of the corner and that's destroying the tyre and losing us drive down the straight. We'll make some more changes for tomorrow and if we can get some good times in the warm-up I feel confident that we can get a good result."

Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "I'm pretty badly beaten up but I intend to race tomorrow. My back is badly bruised and I'm very stiff just now, but I will have an early night tonight and hopefully will feel better tomorrow. It's a shame as I felt that we had made some good improvements to the bike since yesterday. At least my Friday time was good enough for the third row, so that's not as bad as it could have been."