Having qualified tenth in the combined sessions, James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) showed all his battling qualities in Superpole to earn a hard-won front row start, from third, for Sunday’s 24-lap Superbike races. He improved on his previous best time in a full qualifying session by more than a second and was comfortably faster than his previous best on qualifying rubber this afternoon to boot. James’ team-mate, Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda), who had out qualified Toseland after the two official timed sessions, made a small error in the first split during Superpole and that cost him enough to drop him to ninth position on the grid, offering him a third row start.

Troy Bayliss headed the Superpole timesheets, with Noriyuki Haga second, and thus the top three on the grid reflect the top three in the championship chase. Toseland is closest to leader Bayliss on points, and two ahead of Haga, and has to shoot for wins on Sunday to claw back enough points to Bayliss to carry the overall fight beyond Lausitz.

Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager
“Mixed feelings because on one side of the garage we have improved quite a bit and James took it to third. Fairly close to pole position, even. On Karl’s side we moved a bit backwards. He didn’t go as fast as he has done in previous practices, so that was a bit unlucky for him. It means he’s on the third row. Anyway, on race set-ups we are quite happy here. We want to do a bit of research tonight to see if we can improve it a bit, but for sure the racing will be tough and hard tomorrow. I don’t think anyone can walk away with it, so there should be a big group battling in a long, hot race.”

James Toseland – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(3rd Position – Fastest Lap 1’38.254 – 45 Laps)
“Before Superpole, it looked worse than it was. We were doing OK in terms of consistency and then right at the end we put a tyre in and we just didn’t get it together on my final lap. So we made a few changes and I knew that once we had got the qualifier in we would go well in Superpole and I just had to hold it together for one lap and we did. It’s difficult to pass here in traffic, but when you are on your own you can get into a rhythm, and use lines you need to use to go fast, rather than just stop people coming past you. Troy has been fast all weekend, so we just need to get off the line fast and stick in there.”

Karl Muggeridge – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(9th Position – Fastest Lap 1’38.749 – 45 Laps)
“I just made a small mistake in my first split and was almost 0.6 seconds down at that point, so it was a lot to come back from. But I tried and didn’t make it, so I’m not happy. It’s ridiculous being on the third row when things had been going so well all weekend. It’s not what we’ve been working for and not what we deserve. I need to get a good start and then we have got a good race pace. We just have to get away from the line well."

Supersport

Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) and Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) will start the 23-lap World Supersport contest at Eurospeedway Lausitz from the front row, after Kenan scored the second fastest lap time in combined qualifying, with Sebastien fourth. An exciting race is assured, as Kevin Curtain, Charpentier’s main championship challenger, went pole and thus lines up on the front row alongside the Winston Ten Kate Honda pairing, and the Ducati of Christian Zaiser.

Sofuoglu and Charpentier will once more attempt to improve the set-up of their machines around the bumpy and tortuous Lausitz circuit during Sunday morning’s warm-up session, but they have already slashed into Curtain’s day one advantage on the time sheets after a very fruitful day of work today. Charpentier is a mere seven points behind Curtain in the championship at present, with all to play for at Lausitz and the final two rounds of the year, scheduled for early October.

Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager
“With both riders on the front row we have reached our main aim for this stage of the race weekend. It is twisty around here so you need to be at the front at the beginning. We are quite happy about the improvement Sebastien has made. Yesterday was difficult and we had to work hard to sort out things on the machine, and it seems we are getting there step-by-step. Again we will try to improve the bike for tomorrow’s race, and we have found out where to go. Now it is a matter of getting the bike even more sorted for tomorrow, and I am quite sure we will all work hard and he will fight hard for a top result tomorrow. So we have to wait and see what happens. Kenan was excellent once more, a great qualifying performance from him.”

Kenan Sofuoglu – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(2nd Fastest - Fastest Lap 1’41.402 - 35 Laps)
“Not so bad today, even better than yesterday and now I see the chance for the race again. Now Curtain and Sebastien are riding for the championship and I would like to help Sebastien. We will see how the race turns out, and how I am going in it, but I have to be consistent to be strong in the race. Hopefully I can take another podium tomorrow.”

Sebastien Charpentier – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(4th Fastest - Fastest Lap 1’41.679 - 32 Laps)
“The mechanics have worked very hard to improve the bike, many people try hard to help me in the last session and thanks to everyone. I am OK for tomorrow, and I will be going to win the race for sure. I would be happier being on pole - I have lost 0.6 to Curtain, but it is not a problem, as I still have tomorrow morning, with another alternative set-up on the bike. But I’m going all out to win the race, 100%.”