Superbike

Karl Muggeridge set the second fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s World Superbike championship sixth round at Misano, Italy. In hot conditions, Troy Corser took provisional pole position, despite crashing out unhurt towards the end of the hour-long session.

Muggeridge’s Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Chris Vermeulen, was fourteenth fastest, concentrating on fine-tuning the race set-up of his Honda CBR1000RR rather than opting for a quick lap on a qualifying tyre.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “Karl is doing well here – making small but steady improvements to his set-up. With the track temperature at around 50 degrees, the level of grip is very low for everyone so every little bit extra we can find is important. The changes we’ve made to the rear of the bike after our test at Magny-Course were confirmed in back-to-back tests this morning on the bumpier Misano track. Now we’ve found that improvement, it’s easier to see where else we need to improve things. Chris didn’t use a qualifier today but with the consistent hot weather here, there should be no problem for him to be up at the front after tomorrow’s sessions.”

Karl Muggeridge – fourth fastest, 1m36.170s - “The bike is so much easier to work with now and I’m able to give much more accurate and useful information to the guys back in the garage. We’re not there yet but we have a good idea that we think will work tomorrow. It’s nothing big but, because the track is so slippery everywhere, a little change can make a big difference. It’s really a question of finding the best balance between the front and the rear. More grip at the back makes it harder to turn but if we can find maybe four tenths, we’ll be in a good position. And four tenths is only like half a sneeze per corner so I’m pretty confident we can find it.”

Chris Vermeulen – fourteenth fastest, 1m37.223s - “We tried a lot of different tyres and combinations today, trying to find that grip that everyone is after. The track was really hot this afternoon, which makes it really slippery so we’re just after a combination of grip and durability, because 25 laps out there on Sunday is going to be really hard on the tyres. The ones we tried today all have advantages and disadvantages so we’ll try to nail the choice tomorrow and concentrate on that. I’m pretty comfortable even though I’m fourteenth at the moment, and at least I have a couple of qualifiers to use tomorrow that the others don’t have.”
 

Supersport

Katsuaki Fujiwara set the second fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for the sixth round World Supersport championship at Misano in Italy, missing provisional pole position set by Gianluca Nannelli by just one tenth of a second.

In hot and sunny conditions at the 4.060km Misano circuit, Fujiwara’s Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Sebastien Charpentier crashed out unhurt early in the 45-minute qualifying session. He recovered to set the seventh fastest time on his spare machine.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “It wasn’t the best start to a weekend that we’ve had this season but I’m really pleased with Katsuaki’s progress after he spent this morning’s free practice searching for the right set-up. He was very close to taking provisional pole but one thing’s for sure: both the weather and the competition here are going to be red hot. Sébastien crashed on his third lap, I think, which left him with only one CBR600RR to ride for most of the session. It made things difficult because he obviously had to ride with some reserve. I know he has more to come though, as he has shown all season, so I’m sure he’ll be back near the top tomorrow.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara – second fastest, 1m38.343s - “We changed most of the settings on the bike after this morning’s free practice – making the damping more and more soft as the day went on. The tyres were getting really hot out there and the weather was causing the suspension to move around more than usual. We’ll check the data later on and see if we need to make some more changes tomorrow but I’m happy that we are working in the right direction.”

Sébastien Charpentier – seventh fastest, 1m38.733s - “I’m not happy about the crash, for sure. I just lost the front going into the Tramonto corner at the end of the fast back straight. It made the rest of the session very difficult, especially in these hot conditions. We need to work some more on improving the rear grip as well but at least we have tomorrow’s sessions to do that. This season has been going really well for me so far, so I’m not going to let one crash worry me too much; but I’m not used to being where I am after today!”