WSBK’s may now be under the the same umbrella as MotoGP, but they still work better, because they’ve already posted a highlight video of today’s Superpole action at Nurburgring that saw the seemingly unstoppable Carlos Checa take another pole position while breaking the track lap record.
Max Biaggi is thinking of bowing out of tomorrow’s round (we doubt it) because of his foot injury that makes shifting gears very difficult.
Here’s what some of the Superbike riders had to say after qualifying:Carlos Checa – 1st“Yesterday we learned a lot and the changes we made between yesterday and today’s sessions brought the right results.
We’re really happy with the work completed, we’ve improved the bike and the lap times have come.
In the first Superpole phase I was having a little difficulty but the second and third sessions went better and I was able to take pole.
The Nürburgring is one of those tracks where it’s difficult to make passes so it’s certainly an advantage to start from the front here.
Tomorrow I will be aiming to make the best possible start and do all I can to fight for the win; I think we’ll see two really exciting races.
” Eugene Laverty – 2nd“I’m very satisfied with today’s result.
I usually spend the few sessions working on chassis set ups but this weekend I had a good feeling from the beginning and was up there in the time sheets since yesterday, so that’s a great start for me and hopefully I can keep it up tomorrow.
Carlos was that bit stronger today and he’ll be the guy to catch in tomorrow’s races.
It won’t be easy but I’ll give it my best shot.
It’s important to be starting on the front row especially considering we don’t know what to expect with the weather.
As we can see, also with Marco’s front row position, the Yamaha is working well once again on this track so I’m confident we can do two good races tomorrow.
I’m aiming for two podiums finishes!”Marco Melandri – 4thIt wasn’t an easy qualifying day but I’m really pleased as I reached my highest objective which was to be on the front row for tomorrow’s races.
I really hope the weather will be good and it won’t rain.
That will make a huge difference as we spent today working on a suitable race set up.
We haven’t decided what tyres to use so we need to work on that in the morning.
Rain will make things very difficult, the few laps we did on wets yesterday was not easy.
It’s an enjoyable track but quite difficult, especially the first corner which is particularly demanding.
”Noriyuki Haga – 5th“I slightly modified the suspension during the Superpole trying to improve myself and entering the first row.
But the bike got better only on certain stratches, getting worse in some others.
So I couldn’t hit a better time.
However, I’m still satisfied because I even managed to try a race simulation and got to know the tyre’s performances.
I’m ready to fight for the best goal and I really hope that all this work will turn out helpful, even though forecasts say there’s high chance of rain that would make everything different and complicated.
”Tom Sykes – 6th“We progressed through Superpole in a good fashion and the only struggle we had was when we tried out different tyres in the second free practice.
When we went back to our race setting it worked out well and we did a 1’55.
6 on race tyres.
We had our hand forced to use a qualifier in the first session but I am happy to come back from that big crash in Silverstone and be in the middle of the second row.
I am confident we can stay there or thereabouts in the race but I have heard there is a chance of some English weather rolling in tomorrow.
”Leon Haslam – 7th “I am happy with the way everything has gone today.
I managed to post my fastest lap time on race tyres which is promising for the two races tomorrow.
Sadly we don’t seem to be able to extract the full potential from the qualifying tyres like the other guys but we made it through to SP3 which was the main objective.
For the races tomorrow I will be hoping for a good start and to push for the podium.
I think Carlos has good pace and will be hard to beat but we can definitely challenge the others so I am looking forward to tomorrow.
”Jonathan Rea – 9thTo be honest, it’s about where I thought I might be – inside the top ten – but I had hoped for a little better.
It would have been nice to be on the second row tomorrow, but it’s not the case and we just missed out on Superpole 3 by a small margin.
We had a little bit of trouble getting the tyre to work well in the higher temperature today so we’ve got a bit of work to do tonight.
Tomorrow the conditions are said to be a lot different, cooler with maybe even some rain, but it doesn’t satisfy us that we haven’t got over the temperature issues today.
Come what may tomorrow, my aim is to finish strong in both races.
I’ve been a long time off the bike now, but I’m slowly getting back into a rhythm.
Hopefully we’ll find the right settings to get two solid results, whatever the weather’s doing.
Mark Aitchison – 11th“I’m pretty happy how things went in the free practice session and in Superpole phases 1 and 2.
We had a good practice session meaning I believe that we can confirm which tyres we will use tomorrow in the race, depending on the weather of course.
Superpole phase one was good enough because I immediately managed to get through to the second stage.
In phase two I wanted to push very hard and I managed to do a very good first lap.
Unfortunately I made a mistake in the middle section of the track and had to slow down as it was a bit of a scary moment.
I tried to do a second good lap but the tyres were no longer in top condition.
Anyway I’m happy enough, we’re starting eleventh and I’m looking forward to the two long races in Nurburgring because I think we can be competitive.
I want to improve our bike in some points of the track so we will analyse where we can improve tonight and go from there”.
Michel Fabrizio – 12th“Obviously I am disappointed how things worked out, because I expected to do much better.
Probably the crash in Superpole ruined all our plans and we had to change our programme.
I crashed in more or less the same place as yesterday and I am wondering if there is a bump on the track or something like that because both times I went down without any warning.
I was unhurt in the crash and able to get my bike back to the pits and then jumped on to my spare bike and continue Superpole 1.
I did enough to get into Superpole 2, where I used my number one bike again, because it’s the bike I prefer – even though both bikes are set up more-or-less the same.
But my favourite bike was not like it was before the crash and I experienced quite a bit of chatter and so I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to.
It’s a shame because I really felt that I could have been on the two front rows of the grid for tomorrow.
Now I’ve got to make two good starts and work as hard as I can to have any chance of some good results.
”Joan Lascorz – 16th “We could not find the best set-up in practice but we got into Superpole, which was important.
We could not make the best use of our tyres in Superpole one and could not improve to get into the next session.
It will not be easy starting from the fourth row but I am sure we can improve our position in each race.
We all hope it does not rain because some people seem to think it will tomorrow.
”Troy Corser – 17th“To miss out on Superpole is frustrating for sure.
Yesterday we had a technical issue which really cost us a lot of track time and since then we have been simply playing catch up.
It is almost like we are a session behind everybody else and I think that has cost us.
But the issues we had were unforeseen and we couldn’t do anything about that.
We just need to make sure we work hard in the morning to finalise our set-up and race strategy, then for sure we can do something in the race.
At the minute the weather forecast predicts rain, but either way if we get a good start and stay out of trouble we can challenge for the top 10.
”Roberto Rolfo – 19th“I’m really disappointed with today’s qualifying practice.
We still have some set up problems to solve that are evident on this track.
I was able to improve my performance but I wasn’t able to push hard enough to improve my lap time in order to enter the Superpole.
This afternoon we worked a lot on suspension to find a solution for our setting problems ahead of tomorrow’s races.
We will try to find a better race setting tomorrow in warm-up, to give me better feedback.
Anyway I will be trying my absolute best for the races although I expect it to be very tough tomorrow.
”Makoto Tamada – 20thIt has been quite tough riding again in such a competitive championship after some time away.
I had a small crash this afternoon but I was trying very hard to improve my lap time.
The team has worked very hard these two days to give me a good feeling on the bike, but still it is very tough to improve.
Of course, I will work with the team tonight to see if there is anywhere we can improve the setting and I will try my best in both the races tomorrow.
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