WSB : Pitt tops Yamahas in Monza
Round: 4 - Italy
Circuit: Monza
Date: 6 May 2005
Temp: 49ºC
Weather: Sunny

Yamaha Motor Italia rider Andrew Pitt was the fastest of the Yamaha riders during today's first qualifying for round four of the Superbike World Championship at Monza.

The Australian set the eighth fastest time at his team's home circuit with a best time of 1:49.422, despite spending the day evaluating many new parts for his YZF-R1, including a Yamaha YEC kit swingarm, Termignoni exhaust system and alternative brake calipers, but was still able to record a quick time around the fast Italian circuit.

Noriyuki Haga finished the day less than one tenth of a second and just two places behind his team-mate.

A lack of circuit knowledge meant that Yamaha Motor France teamsters Norick Abe and Sèbastien Gimbert ended the day down in 20th and 22nd places respectively. Both riders are making their first appearances at Monza this weekend and spent the two one hour sessions learning the high-speed circuit.

Championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) was the fastest rider of the day with a 1:47.878, to place him ahead of team-mate Yukio Kagayama. Karl Muggeridge (Honda) and replacement rider Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) round off the provisional front row.

Final qualifying takes place tomorrow (Saturday) morning, with the top 16 riders qualifying for the afternoon's grid deciding superpole session.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "We came here with two different swingarms: one is the Yamaha kit version and the other is the modified standard one have been using up to now. The kit one has its good points, but it does change the character of the bike which has made it difficult to fully evaluate changes to the suspension. For tomorrow we're going to change back to what we used in the previous races, simply I need to test the kit swingarm more. I'm quite happy with how it went today. We spent a lot of time working on the brake set-up. My biggest problem has been that the rear is coming lifting up under heavy braking, so tomorrow we'll be working to find a way of extending the rear travel under braking."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "We already have some good settings as we tested here a few weeks ago and overall I am happy with the way the bike is feeling. But in the qualifying session we had a small problem and that made it more difficult to concentrate and go for a fast lap time. We will fix this for tomorrow and if it is dry I can definitely improve my time."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia) - "Tomorrow I think we can see an improvement in both riders' times. Both of the guys have spent today working towards finding a good race set-up rather than going for one fast lap and it was only at the end of the session that we made the decision to go for a fast lap on a qualifying tyre. Although we tested here recently we still found things which we can improve."

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) - "It has been a tough day for me. I have never ridden at Monza before and it was very unfortunate that we had lots of set-up problems this morning, which cost me a lot of tracktime. It meant that the afternoon qualifying session was my first real time on the track. Tomorrow I need to get lots of testing in so that I can improve my position."

Sèbastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) - "This is a new circuit for me, so today it was important to learn about the track and find a good set-up. Tonight we will study all the information from today and tomorrow I am sure we can make some big improvements."

Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes made a positive start to their weekend in Monza today, setting the third and seventh fastest times respectively for Sunday's race.

With weather forecasts predicting a chance of rain tomorrow, both the Australian riders were keen to post a good time around the fast Italian circuit during today's warm and sunny session. Curtain overcome a crash during the morning practice session to set a best time of 1:53.092 places him on the provisional front row of the grid, with Parkes' 1:54.218 putting him directly behind his team-mate on the starting grid.

An oil spillage on the entry to the Parabolica corner caused a 20 minute delay to the session and effectively ruled out any chances of improvement for the Yamaha riders, as the cement dust laid to soak up the oil forced riders to enter the fast corner with extra caution.

Honda riders Sèbastien Charpentier set the fastest time in today's 45-minute session, his 1:51.971 lap time being just over a second ahead of team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara and Curtain. Another Honda rider, Michel Fabrizio completes the front row of the grid. Tomorrow's final qualifying session will determine the final grid for Sunday's 16-lap race.

Kevin Curtain - "I didn't really know how we would go around Monza but, yeah, I'm happy with how it went today. We've gone through so many settings on the suspension and I think that we've already found something that will work well in the race, although there are still some improvements to find at the front. It was good to get a good time in early today as we know it might rain tomorrow - although I really hope that it stays dry. The oil going into Parabolica was a problem though. You didn't want to go over that fresh dust and oil so you ended up running wider than you wanted into the corner, which ruined your speed going onto the straight."

Broc Parkes - "I'm a bit disappointed not to be on the front row today as the red flags came out just as I was about to put in a fast lap on a new tyre - and all the oil meant that it wasn't possible to go faster after the restart. But Kev managed to stick a good lap in early on and I'm pretty confident that I can join him on the front row tomorrow. The bike is feeling good and I know that I can go faster, so I hope that it stays dry tomorrow."

Terrell Thien (Team Manager) - We have a new technician joining us in Monza directly from WP, because they want to make further developments to their suspension. The riders are already really happy with the new suspension parts and are very happy with the feeling from the bike. We hope the weather stays good tomorrow as we are confident that we can get both Broc and Kevin on the front row."