WSB : Pitt leads R1s in Misano qualifying
Round: 6 - San Marino
Circuit: Misano
Date: 25 June 2005
Temp: 52ºC
Weather: Sunny

Australian rider Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's two-race round six of the Superbike World Championship from 13th position as he and his fellow Yamaha R1 riders found life tough during qualifying at the hot Misano Adriatico circuit in Italy.

The 29-year-old Yamaha Motor Italia rider improved his time and position from Friday's qualifying to end the one-lap session with a weekend's best lap time of 1'36.619 and a position at the head of row four on the starting grid.

Yamaha's Japanese riders Noriyuki Haga and Norick Abe had were unable to find a good set-up during the morning qualifying session and failed to make the cut for the 16-rider superpole. Both riders struggled for rear end grip and will start the race from 21st and 25th positions respectively. However each is confident of improving his positions in tomorrow's two 25-lap races after finding improved settings in the afternoon's free practice session.

Pole position for tomorrow's races goes to championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) with a 1'35.330 lap in superpole. Chris Vermeulen (Honda), Regis Laconi (Ducati) and Karl Muggeridge (Honda) complete the front row.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"My superpole lap was my best of the weekend and at the end of the day I think I did the best that I could today. We can't seem to find a set up that works well round here. Either we can get something that turns well but is struggling for grip, or we can get good grip but the steering is not good enough. There are a few things that we can try for the warm-up but it's going to be tough tomorrow, that's for sure."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"It's going to be a hard race from the sixth row but I don't think that this is our real performance. Grip is not so good but on race tyres our times are ok. When I tried the qualifiers this morning I could not go as fast as I expected and missed superpole. In free practice we changed many things and it was a little better but as the conditions become hotter the grip is getting less. We will try to make some more improvements to the bike tonight and for the race we will have to see."

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France)
"We have not been able to find a good set-up so far. Yesterday we had a big traction problem so today we changed many things. Unfortunately we still do not have a good set-up so we must now sit down and see how we can improve things for the first race."

Round: 6 - San Marino
Circuit: Misano
Circuit Length: 4060
Lap Record: 1' 34.913 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.525 (Troy Bayliss, 2002)
Date: 25 June 2005
Temp: 52ºC

Kevin Curtain will start tomorrow's sixth round of the Supersport World Championship from the front row of the grid following an impressive showing in today's second qualifying session.

The 39-year-old Yamaha Motor Germany rider improved his time from yesterday by one third of a second, setting the fourth best time of the weekend with a lap of 1'38.118 - moving him up from the second row. Team-mate Broc Parkes was another improver and will start on the second row after setting the seventh fastest time (1'38.470) on his YZF-R6.

Both riders go into tomorrow's race in a positive mood after being consistently among the fastest riders over the weekend. With Misano usually proving to be one of the toughest races on tyres and machine, the team's engineers and suspension technician have worked hard to find settings that will work well over race distance. Both riders reported good longevity from their Pirelli tyres, even when using the softest available option, and have benefited from a recent test at Brno which allowed them to improve the settings of their machines.

Misano specialist Fabien Foret (Honda) grabbed pole position with a best time of 1'37.620 with Katsuaki Fujiwara and Sebastien Charpentier (both Honda) completing the front row with Curtain.

Kevin Curtain
"I think we're in pretty good shape tomorrow. The times are all really close and we've been able to do a lot of 1'38 laps in race set-up. In this heat it will be a tough race for everyone but I think that we can be up there."

Broc Parkes
"I'm looking forward to the race. It's the first time this year that I've gone into the race feeling really comfortable with the bike and that's down to the guys finding a set-up that suits me as well as me changing my riding to suit the R6 better. We've been pretty much up there in every session and I reckon we're going to have a close race tomorrow."