WSB : Abe leading Yamaha in Valencia
Round: 3 - Spain
Circuit: Valencia
Date: 22 April 2005
Temp: 43ºC
Weather: Sunny

Norick Abe finished as the top R1 rider during today's first qualifying session for Sunday's Superbike World Championship round in Valencia.

The Japanese rider, not normally known for his pace in qualifying, set the 10th fastest time during this afternoon's one hour timed practice, which saw a number of surprise names at the top of the leaderboard. Abe's team-mate Sebastien Gimbert, fresh from winning the Le Mans 24-hour race with Yamaha GMT94 last weekend ended the day 15th, while Yamaha Motor Italia pairing Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt remained positive despite finishing way down the timesheets in 21st and 24th respectively.

Both riders experienced set-up problems in the warm conditions. Having made good progress during the last round in Phillip Island, the team used the base settings from the Australian races during today's action. However these proved less effective around the tight Spanish track and the team will revert to settings developed during last month's test in Valencia. Both riders also opted to save their soft qualifying tyres for tomorrow morning's qualifying session, which alone should lead to a significant improvement in time.

Despite not using the soft rubber, Haga's best time of 1:38.158 was just over a second behind third placed rider Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda) in a surprisingly close session. The Japanese star was fourth fastest during the morning session with a 1:37.470 lap. Pitt was also slower in the afternoon session, where he clocked a best of 1:38.291, with championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) taking provisional pole position with a 1:35.954.

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) - "This is a track I know very well both from testing and MotoGP. Also I am more familiar with the R1 every time I ride it so I am optimistic for a good result this weekend. We had no problems today, so hopefully I can improve my time some more tomorrow."

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) - "I am still very happy after winning Le Mans last week and I hope we can continue this form in Valencia. I am quite happy with today, I got pushed back a little late in the session but I know I can push a little harder tomorrow."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "Some days are good and some days are not so good, but this is racing. Ok, I want to be higher but the times are very close and I expect that everyone will go faster if it stays dry tomorrow. The track was very slippery today so I think that tomorrow we can go and make a faster time."

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "It's been a tough day today and I just haven't felt comfortable on the bike. We actually put a qualifying tyre on right at the end, but we were not sure if we could beat the clock and get another lap in before the chequered flag so we decided to call it a day rather than waste the tyre. Looking back I think this was a good decision as we will be able to find a better set-up tomorrow and take full advantage of the soft tyre."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "We made a big step forward in Australia and so came here with the same settings. But they did not work here and tomorrow we will go back to the settings from our previous tests here. We also have the advantage that each rider can use two qualifying tyres tomorrow, so we are confident that we can make big improvements tomorrow and that both riders will make the superpole."

Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes took their R6s to fifth and ninth place respectively on the provisional grid for Sunday's round three of the Supersport World Championship in Valencia.

Track temperature touching 41 degrees led to slower than expected lap times during the afternoon session, with most of the top competitors unable to better their times during the morning's cooler untimed practice.

Curtain was one of the few exceptions, improving by almost a quarter of a second to post a best of 1:40.244 around the Valencian circuit. Fellow Australian Parkes' best of 1:40.437 was almost four tenths of a second slower than his best in the morning session, although he did have to contend with heavy traffic late in the session.

Provisional pole position went to Frenchman Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) with a best of 1:38.351. Joining him on the overnight front row are Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda), Fabien Foret (Honda) and R6 riding Spanish wild-card Victor Carrasco of the La Glisse squad.

Kevin Curtain - "The hot conditions made it quite difficult today and everybody struggled to match the lap times from the morning session. We have a few small things to improve for tomorrow but generally it's looking ok for the rest of the weekend."

Broc Parkes - "We struggled a lot today. The bike is good for speed but grip has been a problem for us and I just didn't feel happy with the bike. That said, we have a lot of improvement to be made, as I didn't have the best of sessions anyway. I seemed to run into a lot of traffic and that stopped me from getting a better lap time."