Checa tops day one at Imola from Rea & Haslam

A positive first qualifying session for Ducati Xerox riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio; among the fastest on track in both of today’s sessions, the factory riders concluded qualifying in fourth (Haga) and fifth (Fabrizio) position.

This morning, in the first half of the free practice session, both riders had some difficulty. Michel’s bike came to a stop during his first exit and Nori later rode too close to the flexible curb, touching it at high speed his right knee while exiting the penultimate corner, and causing severe swelling and bruising to his lower leg. From mid-session on however, both rider started to make good progress, Fabrizio making a string of fast laps to finish in third place and Haga, having lost precious time after the incident, closing in tenth.

Later, in first qualifying, both Noriyuki and Michel made a strong start. Mid-session Nori projected himself to the top of the timesheets with a very fast time of 1.48.6. This remained his best lap of the session; the Japanese rider thus concluded first qualifying in fourth position. Michel, consistently fast, didn’t record his fastest lap until the very last minutes (1m48.7), lying in fifth at the session’s end.

Noriyuki Haga 1m48.6
“Even though I don’t have exactly the level of feeling that I had during the tests, I must say that I’m satisfied. The conditions, the track temperature for example, are very different compared to how they were in the summer of course and unfortunately the tyres might not be the best ones for today’s conditions but, if we manage to improve rear feeling, we’ll be able to make two great races on Sunday I think.”

Michel Fabrizio 1m48.7
“We’ve started well, after the initial technical problem that is! We have been making good progress this afternoon and I’ve feeling quite confident. They say it will be wet tomorrow which will complicate things of course but for now I’ve not got any problems really, though I hope I can improve further tomorrow, weather permitting.”

—  Yamaha Report

Yamaha Sterilgarda riders Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland completed the first qualifying session at the Imola circuit today battling the cooler temperatures and bumpy circuit as they worked on their set ups in advance of Sunday’s two races. The qualifying session was hampered towards the end as rain started to fall, preventing both riders from setting their hot laps of the session.

Crutchlow had started the session well and was the first rider to break into the 1.48s, spending part of the session with his R1 as the only four cylinder machine in the top six. Team mate Toseland improved on his morning practice time by over 0.7 of a second. The two-time World Champion switched to fresh tyres at the end of the qualifying session but was unable to make use of them as rain prevented any attempts at improving on the lap times.

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (7th, 1’48.813)
“It wasn’t too bad today, my ideal time was second position, and I got held up on my fast laps at the end of the session which didn’t help. It’s going to be a bit of a gamble over the weekend with tyre choices, when we tested here back in July we were 1.4 seconds quicker than we are now and that was with a hotter track temperature. Now the same tyre isn’t working as well with the cooler conditions so we’ll have to look at other ways. It looks like the Ducatis’ have an advantage in these conditions so we’ll have to see what we can come up with overnight. Overall I know we can be faster so we’ll see tomorrow.”

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (12th, 1’49.528)
“Not the greatest day today, we had a few issues to resolve this morning so I missed some of the practice before I could get going. This afternoon wasn’t so bad, the times weren’t too far off but we’ve got some work to do to get up to pace. The weather didn’t help; it just started to rain at the end when I had a new tyre so I couldn’t get a good lap in. We’ll have a good think this evening and come back in the morning.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“As a first day the results were not so bad. For sure we will work to understand where we can improve the set ups for both James and Cal’s bikes and after that we will make some changes in order to start the first session tomorrow with a faster pace. It was a shame that Cal got held up at the end of the session by other riders, and the rain ensured we couldn’t lay down any fast laps at the end.”

—  BMW Report

Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport started the 12th and penultimate race weekend of the 2010 FIM Superbike World Championship in a solid way: Troy Corser (AUS) finished the first qualifying practice eighth, while his Catalan team-mate, Ruben Xaus, finished the session tenth.

Troy Corser: “The day was not too bad. We are still working on improving the stability of the bike and its performance under braking. The engine feels strong and fast, but a little bit unstable on the exit of the corners. My lap times were not too bad, but at the moment I feel like I am making the bike do the time rather than the bike letting me do it. But I am sure we can solve this. The track’s grip was also a little bit down, so this also makes the bike more difficult to ride. All in all we made some improvements today. As it could rain tomorrow, it was important to get a good lap time in, so we are sure to be in the Superpole qualifying. I was able to push and do the time, so I am reasonably happy.”

Ruben Xaus: “This morning my feeling on the bike was not too bad. In the afternoon we made some changes to it, and I had no grip at all, which meant I had no traction. Because of this it was quite difficult to do a proper lap time. Now we shall try to find a solution for this. The basis is not too bad, and I hope we can make the next step tomorrow to allow me to ride in the low 1:48s. But, of course, this depends on the weather.”

Davide Tardozzi (BMW Motorrad Motorsport Team Manager): “Our day was quite good. We worked on the bikes’ setup and simply struggled with the grip level. I am confident we can sort this out for tomorrow and manage to find some rear grip. Unfortunately the race track itself was not in a perfect condition. Nevertheless, our qualifying result is a solid basis for tomorrow. We will now analyse the data and continue working on the bikes.”

—  Suzuki Report

Team Suzuki Alstare rider Leon Haslam defied the pain barrier on his way to posting the third-quickest time on the opening day’s qualifying at the Imola World Superbike 12th round.

Visibly in discomfort throughout the day, Haslam put aside the pain in his left knee and hustled his way round the 4.936 kilometre circuit and recorded a lap of 1:48.621, just behind Carlos Checa (Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Honda).

Team mate Sylvain Guintoli ended 13th quickest, but felt it had been better than his usual Friday performance.

Leon Haslam – 3rd, 1:48.621: “In the morning session my knee felt really bad and the whole session was a bit of a struggle, even though I had some strapping on it. So for the afternoon qualifying, we made the strapping much stronger and I had some pain-killing injections before I went out. I definitely felt a bit more comfortable and was able to put in some decent laps. My thumb is a bit irritable, but I forget about when I am on the bike and it’s OK as long as it doesn’t move in a certain direction!

“Today the track didn’t feel as good or as quick as the tests and it is a bit more slippery. Hopefully, as more rubber goes down, it will improve. This afternoon, my lap times were quite comfortable and I really didn’t have any big problems. Obviously my main competition is Max and I have to beat him in both races if I want to keep my title dream alive. I’ve heard that he’s not so good in the wet, so maybe it would be better for me if it did rain on Sunday. But, the weather is something I cannot do anything about so I will be doing my best, whatever the conditions.”

Sylvain Guintoli – 13th, 1:49.560: “For me, for a Friday, today wasn’t so bad. We’ve made some good progress even though it has taken me a bit of time getting back into a rhythm. At the moment we’ve been working on getting a good balance for the bike on race tyres and I am happy because I think we’ve more-or-less decided what tyres we’ll use in the races on Sunday. Of course, if it rains we’re all going to suffer, but I really don’t want a wet race. The track felt a bit greasy this morning, but it was better in the afternoon. I am determined to do my best this weekend – as usual – and feel that I am very close to that elusive podium. I have four chances left and my aim is to make them count.”

—  Ten Kate

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider Jonathan Rea continued his recent run of form in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s two 12th round World Superbike championship races at Imola in Italy.

The 23-year-old Northern Irishman, who has finished no lower than second in the last six races, took second place behind Spaniard Carlos Checa, lapping the historic 4.936km Imola circuit in a time of 1m48.558s.

Rea’s fellow Brit, Leon Haslam, set the third fastest time today, as rain began to fall just a few minutes before the end of the qualifying session. Japanese rider, Noriyuki Haga rounded off the provisional front row of the grid.

Max Neukirchner ended up 15th fastest today after running near the top ten for much of the session. However, electronic gremlins near the end of the session prevented him from retaining a higher position.

Jonathan Rea – P2
Free practice was OK this morning but we still had some work to do on engine braking. We’re running as open as we can but we need some engine braking in some areas, so it’s a bit of a compromise. This afternoon, I went out on old tyres from this morning’s session and did a lot of work to find a set up that works when the tyres are nearly finished. When we put some new tyres in on that set up, it worked with the grip. The main thing for today was to get into a rhythm, so Peter (Breddels – engineer) sat me down, kind of got me by the scruff of the neck and sent me out. And it kind of worked! So, now I’ve got the rhythm, we know what tyres are working – we’ve been through all the options and I think we have two to work on for the race – we’ll do some long runs tomorrow and see which is working better after 21 laps. Then we’ll be good to go.

Max Neukirchner – P15
The track felt very heavy today and was a little difficult like Nurburgring, but we made some improvements today between the two sessions. The biggest problem we have is with the corner exit where we need to find some more grip. I was in P12 near the end of the session but I had some electronics problems and then it started to rain when we put some fresh tyres in and I found it hard to concentrate then. We started this morning with one bike from Nurburgring and one from the July test here. Most of the bike is like Nurburgring with some parts from the test, and we have quite a good direction I think. I also have some ideas to try in the morning, but it is forecasting rain for tomorrow and Sunday.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
It’s been a good start to the weekend with Jonathan. We had a few issues to resolve during the day and there are some other areas where we have to improve the bike, so there is still quite some work to do. We are already up to speed but we can already improve some more. Max made some progress today but wasn’t able to hold on to a good position right at the end. I’m sure he and his guys will look for some ways to pick up that progress again in the morning.