James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) made strong early progress on his CBR1000RR at Misano, finishing the day eighth fastest, but consistently finding himself in the top echelons during each practice session. He would finish eighth overall, but only 0.650 seconds away from the quickest rider. Karl Muggeridge (Winston ten Kate Honda) had a crash, which held back his progress on the stopwatches, but otherwise felt day one was a move in the right direction for machine set-up and tyre evaluation. He finished day one 15th quickest, but knows there is great room for improvement in the final qualifying session on Saturday morning.

With track temperatures peaking well over 50°C Misano was once more a stiff test for all the competing riders. The main problem to overcome, however, was the air temperature of over 30°C, and the competition itself was equally searing, with 14 riders within a second of Troy Bayliss’ pole time, and 25 within two seconds.

Ronald Ten Kate - Team Manager
“It is going quite well on the Superbike side of things. With James we have already made quite a few longer runs on race tyres, and he seems to be able to put in pretty good times consistently. At the end we tried to put in some new tyres and make some better lap times but unfortunately we did not manage to do that. But tomorrow is another day. We still have quite a few improvements we can make to the machine anyway. For Karl we had basically the same strategy; running race tyres and then going for a quicker lap with a new rear tyre. In his quick lap he had a crash, but for sure he will be up the grid after tomorrow. Our aim is to get both riders on the front row.”

James Toseland – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(8th position – Fastest lap time 1’35.553)
“We were consistently one of the quickest and just with the new race tyre we have one problem around the long left corner, when it’s in a lower gear at maximum torque. The times are very close, so I’m not too worried about eighth place right now, because the bike feels good and the team is working well.”

Karl Muggeridge – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(15th position – Fastest lap time 1’35.965)
“We had a few things to try in that timed session and we ran out of time a bit, so we didn’t get a chance to put in a new front tyre with the new rear, to find the best overall setting for today. So I just went with a front that had done a dozen laps and the rear was brand new. It gave me a few warnings but on the last chicane, even though it all felt right until I fell, I ended up on my head. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Otherwise things feel pretty good, we have good speed from the bike, and I am confident we can do it; but we don’t need these little setbacks along the way. But we have another qualifying tomorrow anyway.”

Supersport

Standing in for regular team rider Sebastien Charpentier, Arie Vos (Winston Ten Kate Honda) posted a 13th best time out of 37 riders in the sizzling hot opening qualifying session at Misano, with more to come in the final qualifying session on Saturday 24th June. His team-mate for the weekend, Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) made a disappointing start to his Misano weekend, running only 24th fastest.

With air temperatures over 31°C and track temperatures of 53°C, Misano was a pressure cooker on day one, and the action on the track was made all the more frenetic after the session had to be stopped and momentarily restarted in the aftermath of a crash, close to the completion of the session.

Ronald Ten Kate - Team Manager
“It’s very strange for us not to have Sebastien Charpentier here at this race but I hope he will be back with us soon. It was a good first day for Arie, at what is a very hot Misano. His is more or less used to the bike but the tyres are quite different from the ones he runs with in the national championships, and working with the team is a little bit different for him too. He did very well and for sure he will improve tomorrow. We are surprised to see Kenan that far back when he showed his speed at the recent Brno tests. He was with the fastest guys there, so we will have a good look at the data to see exactly what is happening there. It is not the position where he would prefer to be, so we need to make some adjustments there to get him further up the grid tomorrow.”

Arie Vos – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(13th position – Fastest lap time 1’38.879)
“Not bad today but there are some important places on this track where if you get them right you can go really fast, and there were some things I did wrong today. After we look at the split times and the data we can improve for tomorrow and for sure I can go faster. Gerrit Ten Kate and my brother went on to the track and they watched me at various places, so they can give me some advice. The goal for tomorrow is the second row, that would be nice.”

Kenan Sofuoglu – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(24th position – Fastest lap time 1’39.756)
“It’s a shame to be not so fast after the good test at Brno so we will have to look at the data and find out where and why I am losing time. I tried everything today but when I see a result like this it makes it very difficult for me. This is not me; my position is not 24th. If I am fifth or fourth I can understand but 24th I really can’t understand. I have put in 100% in preparation for this and I will keep working right through to Sunday.”