WSB : Yamaha makes a positive start at wet Qatar
Round: 1 - Qatar
Circuit: Losail Circuit
Date: 23 February 2006
Temp: 22ºC
Weather: Wet

Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga got their seasons underway by posting the seventh and eighth fastest times in today's first qualifying session for round one of the 2006 Superbike World Championship at the Losail circuit in Qatar.

For the second year in a row, riders arrived at the Losail circuit to find themselves faced with a wet opening practice, ironic considering that the country's annual rainfall is less than 130mm per year.

The rain stopped prior to the timed afternoon session and, although the track was to dry out in places the Yamaha Motor Italia riders opted to save their tyre allocation and run just one set of wet-weather tyres each throughout the day.

Having tested at the circuit just over two weeks ago, Haga sat out of the wet morning free practice session with Pitt completing just a handful of laps. With teams restricted to just nine front and 13 rear tyres throughout the weekend, the squad decided to preserve their rubber allocation for tomorrow's expected dry session. Even so, both riders were able get their first feel of the 2006-version YZF-R1 in wet conditions and carry out further work on the new engine management system.

Yamaha Motor France rider Sebastien Gimbert, fastest of the 17 riders who ventured out in the soaked morning practice, continued his record strong performances around the Middle Eastern venue in today's opening practice. The Losail lap record holder ended the day in fifth position and keen to replicate the front row start he gained in Qatar last year during tomorrow's superpole session. Team-mate Norick Abe took no risks to end the day in 12th place while Shinichi Nakatomi was probably the rider most badly affected by the morning wash out. One of seven championship rookies this year, the Japanese newcomer is one of only three riders never to have ridden at the Losail circuit. The 27-year-old clocked 35 laps over the two sessions, making him the day's most active rider. He ended the day 24th in the overnight standings.

Former world champion Troy Bayliss (Ducati) was the fastest man on track today, setting a 2:17.326 lap late in the session. Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) was second on 2:19.064 with Pitt and Haga less than a second behind, recording 2:19.991 and 2:20.164 respectively.

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France)
"This has been a good track for me in the past. I was on the front row here last year and also got the lap record, so I know that I can be strong. I am usually quite good in these wet conditions but I hope that it is dry tomorrow and we can get a good setting for the race."

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"We learned a lot today. This year's bike is definitely much better to ride in the wet (compared to last year's version) and we were able to work on the electronics again today and make some further improvements there. If the session had gone on for another 10 minutes then we could have gone out on intermediates but as it was we just used the one set of tyres for the morning and afternoon sessions. Even with a fresh set of wets I could have gone quicker but we didn't want to use up a set of tyres unnecessarily."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"We did what we could to improve the bike in the conditions but really I wanted it to be dry today. We already have a base from our test here but I want to work a little bit more on improving the set-up and choosing our tyre for the race."

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France)
"Twelfth is neither bad nor good, in fact it's not really important. Tomorrow the conditions will change and everyone will go faster, so today I treated qualifying as a warm-up session for my body and to get a feel for riding the bike again."

Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France)
"Today is my first visit to this circuit so I had to make as many laps as possible to learn the layout. I hope that it is dry tomorrow and we can make some faster lap times."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Overall it has been a positive day for us. We had no problems and both riders are happy with the bike in wet conditions. We decided not to use up any more of our tyre allocation than necessary in these conditions. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow and we can work on finding the best tyres for the race. Pirelli has brought along one option which is new to us, so we must try this out in the dry."

Yamaha riders occupied three of the top four places in today's wet first qualifying session for Saturday's opening round of the Supersport World Championship.

With rain falling just before the start of the 45-minute session, riders remained cautious in the wet and humid conditions - valuing circuit and machine time ahead of ultimate speed. Despite taking it easy, Yamaha Motor Germany's Kevin Curtain found himself at the top of the leader board until the dying moments of the session, when young Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) pushed hard to set a time almost two seconds quicker than his opponents. Curtain remained second by the chequered flag with another R6 rider, Gianluca Nannelli of the new Kopron Edo Racing squad third. Curtain's team-mate Broc Parkes completed the provisional front row on a promising start to what will be the third generation YZF-R6's first competitive race meeting.

Final qualifying for Saturday's race takes place tomorrow and, with improved weather forecast, today's times are expected to be irrelevant in deciding the final grid.