Superbike

Karl Muggeridge set the third fastest time in today’s opening qualifying session for round four of the 2005 World Superbike championship at Monza in Italy. In warm sunshine, the Australian lapped the 5.8km circuit near Milan in a best time of 1m48.203s, just three tenths off provisional pole man, Troy Corser.

Muggeridge’s Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate Chris Vermeulen was sixth fastest in today’s qualifying session as he bids to improve on the two second place finishes he scored at the last round in Valencia, Spain. Both Australian riders, spent today testing two contrasting set-ups on their CBR1000RRs as the race development of Honda’s flagship sports bike continues.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “That was another good qualifying performance from Karl who seems to improve every time he goes out. If not for his recent bad luck in the races, I’m sure he would be much higher up the points table. His best time today was on a soft race tyre as he couldn’t make full use of a qualifier he put in towards the end of the session. Chris had a small electrical problem on his number one bike, which we managed to fix during the session, but he lost a bit of time. I think we have moved forward from the improved position we found at Valencia so I’m hoping that we can carry this forward for the rest of the weekend.”

Karl Muggeridge – third fastest, 1m48.203s: “I’m so much happier with the bike here and the latest evolution of the chassis. Monza is always a bit of a compromise between the faster and slower corners because what works well in one part of the track may not be so good in others. But I think we found a direction this morning that will hopefully take us forward. The bike is much more user-friendly and we’re not suffering from the problems that have hindered our progress in the first few rounds. I’m pretty happy and looking forward to moving it forward some more tomorrow.”

Chris Vermeulen – sixth fastest, 1m48.849s: “We started today with two very different bikes – one based heavily on the Valencia set-up and the other with different geometry and chassis settings. It made this afternoon a little difficult because I was doing two or three laps on one and then two or three on the other. But I think we’ve got the information we were looking for so we’ll look at all the data tonight and confirm which direction we go in tomorrow. I also had that little electrical problem which developed this morning but that was sorted pretty quickly. We also tried different brake pads here so we’re learning a lot. I was expecting top five today and we’re not far off, so I’ll sleep tonight and come back stronger tomorrow.”

Supersport

Sébastien Charpentier maintained his recent stunning form by setting the fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying practice session for round four of the World Supersport championship at Monza in Italy. The Frenchman shrugged off the effects of a crash in free practice this morning to set a provision pole time of 1m51.971s around the 5.8km Monza circuit – almost a second inside the existing lap record.

His Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Katsuaki Fujiwara, set the second fastest time of the scheduled 45-minute session, which was stopped for 20 minutes after oil had been deposited on the entry to the Parabolica curve at the historic circuit near Milan.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “Well, we have another one-two after the first qualifying session but I can tell you that everyone is working very hard to keep these two riders at the top of the time sheets. One of the problems is that the traffic at Monza is almost as bad as the traffic going into Milan each morning, with lots of riders waiting for a tow. We have been concentrating on getting the CBR600RR into race trim and playing with different tyre combinations. We’re very pleased with the new exhaust system from Arrow which was developed especially for Monza. We can get more top speed without sacrificing drive out of the chicanes here.”

Sébastien Charpentier – fastest, 1m51.971s - “For me, the only problem here is so many riders trying to follow me to catch the slipstream. The crash this morning was not too bad – just one of those things losing the front, but I think we know why it happened. It was a strange session this afternoon because of the oil stoppage but the Parabolica was not too bad when we were finally allowed back out on the circuit. The bike is almost perfect but tomorrow is another important day when we will make some more fine tuning to the set-up, a race simulation and a final decision on tyres.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara – second fastest, 1m52.985s - “There is plenty more to come, for sure. We tried a lot of different things this afternoon, mainly trying to get the CBR more stable under the heavy braking that we have to do at Monza. Like Sébastien, I am getting used to being on a Ten Kate CBR which means everybody wants to follow you! I came in to change a tyre near the end of the session but I didn’t have enough time left so I just made a practice start. I know from Qatar that I still need to practice those!”