Weather: sunny, 30° C
Track: dry, 49° C

Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Karl Muggeridge finished fourth fastest in the opening qualifying session of round 6 of the World Superbike Championship in stinking hot conditions at Santamonica Autodromo in Italy.

It definitely was a day to spend rather on the beach or at the pool than at a race track, but nevertheless the Ten Kate team worked hard to find some grip and get the CBR 1000 around the slippery corners at the 4060 meters long Italian circuit.

At the Magny Cours Test, Muggas tested some different swing arms and linkages which improved the handling of the bike the way he wanted, now at Misano it was time to get those new parts working together and find a balanced setting.

Muggas comments: “In today’s sessions we were trying to get the new set-up from the Magny Cours test more balanced. The bike sits a bit at the rear, we tried to adjust this both ways, higher and lower and also with different shocks but we were loosing a lot of grip through that and at the end of the day we run out of time. But we got some ideas how we can improve. The bike definitely feels better than the rounds before and I believe we are on the right way.”

Suzuki Alstare’s Troy Corser set the fastest time in today’s qualifying session with a spill on his second fast lap right at the end of the session. Honda’s Max Neukirchner finished second fastest in front of Frenchman Regis Laconi.