Superbike

Winston Ten Kate Honda riders, Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge, will start from second and fourth places respectively for tomorrow’s two World Superbike championship sixth round races at Misano in Italy.

With track temperatures once again approaching 50 degrees, Vermeulen set the second fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole session, just behind championship leader Troy Corser. Muggeridge’s performance marks his second Superbike front row start since moving up from World Supersport last year.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “I’m really happy with the results of today’s Superpole and it’s very gratifying to have both our riders on the front row. Their performances are a good reflection of all the hard work that the team has put in – not just this weekend but since we left Silverstone. We are still making small changes, even right up to the beginning of Superpole, and we’ll make some more small adjustments for tomorrow morning’s warm-up. We’ve been making steady progress all weekend and it’s all been in the right direction. Now we must concentrate on getting the results in tomorrow’s two races.”

Chris Vermeulen – second fastest, 1m35.685s: “Yeah, everything’s pretty good and I was happy with my Superpole lap. It’s good when Superpole works but not so great when it doesn’t. But we’ve been going the right way all weekend, starting with the changes we made at the rear of the bike after our test at Magny-Cours and the team has been working really hard. Our main concern has been trying to find a combination of tyres that will last for 25 laps in this heat – it’s going to be hard on the tyres and hard on us. The only down-side with today is that I got beaten by Troy (Corser) again but we’ll be aiming to return the compliment twice tomorrow!”

Karl Muggeridge – fourth fastest, 1m35.866s: “I just tried to be really smooth on my Superpole lap and not make any mistakes, and in the end it was pretty good. We made that small change to the rear shock overnight and as soon as we tried it this morning, we knew it was right. From then on, we’ve just been making constant little changes and doing a little more work on the front of the bike. We even made a small adjustment just before the Superpole lap and then I put in my quickest time of the weekend. I think we’ve pretty much decided on tyres and the race set-up is good, so I’m looking forward to putting it all together in the races tomorrow.”

Supersport

Katsuaki Fujiwara had to concede pole position for tomorrow’s sixth round World Supersport championship race at Misano, Italy to fellow Honda rider, Fabien Foret, this afternoon; the Frenchman beat his Japanese rival to the coveted spot by just .019s.

Fujiwara’s Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Sébastien Charpentier, saw his string of consecutive pole positions come to an end as he had to settle for third place on the grid for tomorrow’s 23-lap race around the 4.060km Misano circuit. Charpentier has taken pole position at the first five rounds of this year’s championship.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “The one sure thing about a string of results is that it has to come to an end sometime and that’s what happened with pole position this afternoon. It’s good to know that we fought hard to keep it going though, and at least it has gone to another Honda rider. Sebastien recovered well from his crash this morning and I’m very pleased with the way that Katsuaki has gone about making steady improvements yesterday and today. Both our riders are on the front row and happy with their race set-ups. We’ll spend some time confirming tyre choice tomorrow morning and hopefully be able to continue our string of race wins.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara – second fastest, 1m37.639s - “I’m really happy with the set-up we have here and we’re pretty sure which tyres we’re going to use. We will check that in the morning during warm-up but we’re ready to race. It was very hot out there this afternoon, with the track temperature again very high. I think it might be even hotter tomorrow so 23 laps will be very hard work around here. But I like Misano and I’ve enjoyed being on the podium here before. Tomorrow I want to be on the top step.”

Sébastien Charpentier – third fastest, 1m37.959s - “It’s OK I guess but I’ve become used to pole position and I like it. The crash this morning was nothing really – near the end of a lap when I was coming in anyway. But I’m happy that we’ve continued to make progress with the set-up and the only problem we have is the lack of grip. The hot weather does not help and it is the same for everyone. Misano is certainly not my favourite track – those are still to come – so I’ll do my best here tomorrow and try to stay in a good position in the championship.”