Check out what some of the World Superbike riders had to say after today’s first qualifying practice at Phillip Island and find out who was happy, who wasn’t and why.
Carlos Checa – 1st“I’m really satisfied with today’s test.
I worked very well with my technicians and we tested some different tires and settings.
It’s always a good result for our team to reach the provisional pole position.
Nevertheless, we have to remember that the race will be on Sunday and that probably we’ll have different weather conditions with colder temperature, but this a very good starting point.
I would like to thank all the people in my team, and particularly the general manager Genesio Bevilacqua who was able to create such a competitive team.
I hope Shakey will be all right tomorrow to fight for a good result during tomorrow’s qualifications and Superpole”.
Michel Fabrizio – 2nd “We tried different tyre solutions this morning and various setting solutions in agreement with my engineer.
I had a fall, losing the front, but without causing myself, or my bike, too much damage fortunately.
Then in the qualifying session we found a good direction with the tyre solution that may well be the one to choose for the race; the results were quite encouraging.
During my fast lap I lost a couple of tenths through the last corner but I’m happy; we’ve worked well and I’m satisfied with the results.
We have a good race pace but a lot will depend on Sunday’s weather.
” Leon Haslam – 3rdI am really happy with today because we are well on the way to finding a good set-up for the race on Sunday.
We tried all three different tyres and now we have good ideas about which one we will use -depending on the conditions.
I didn’t even use a soft tyre this afternoon and my fastest lap was done on ordinary race rubber.
The differing temperatures have given us different challenges, but I’m pretty confident about the bike’s set-up, unless of course it rains and then we’ll all be in trouble.
The track felt a bit slippery and greasy today, because of the hotter temperatures, and the wind was a bit of a problem in turns 1 and 2 and sector 4, but it was the same for everybody and we just had to cope with it.
No problems really today, except that I heard from home this morning that my 19 year-old dog had died.
He’s had a good, long life, but he will be missed.
Shane Byrne – 4th“I had a big high side during my last fast lap while trying to improve my best lap time.
I landed straight on my back and at the moment I’m experiencing a lot of pain.
Hopefully tonight I’ll be able to rest and feel better tomorrow.
I’m disappointed because the feeling with the bike was very good and without crashing I probably could have bettered my position.
Now it’s important that I rest in order to be ready for tomorrow qualifying session and Superpole”.
Noriyuki Haga – 5th “We’ve tested the different rear tyres that Pirelli make available to us this weekend but we are still undecided as to which will have the best durability in these hot conditions.
Tomorrow we’ll try a different solution for the setting but overall I’m happy.
The lap times have been consistent but today was very hot and although I felt I could have pushed a little more, I didn’t want to risk it, also because I saw that several riders crashed.
” Max Biaggi – 6th“This track is giving us trouble.
In the long curves, the bike suffers on the disconnections, not smooth them and you can feel the skips, so we aren’t able to maintain the ideal lines and that’s a realproblem for us.
The fall was also a consequence of this problem, and because of the vibrations in the curve at the first bend, I lost control of the front wheel, but luckily I wasn’t hurt.
”Jonathan Rea – 7thIt’s difficult to know where the problems are coming from, but at least we have two sessions tomorrow to try to find the source.
I’m struggling to pull the pin for an entire lap and the main problems are in the first and last corners, where the bumps are really unsettling the bike.
The bits in between those two corners aren’t too bad, but it’s been hard work today.
I think we know which tyre we’re going to use in the race, but we definitely need more time on the bike before we’re ready for Sunday.
Sylvain Guintoli – 8thWe’ve made a good step forward today – maybe part of it was down to me using my right hand better – and I am really loving riding the bike.
We tried many different settings and also did a lot of work on trying to improve the tyre life and, like Leon, I did my best lap on normal race rubber.
At the moment, I am struggling a bit finding problems with the bike and everything is going very well.
That’s also down to the hard work put in by the whole team and we are feeling good about our prospects on Sunday.
First aim tomorrow morning is getting into Superpole.
After that, we’ll see what happens.
Jakub Smrz – 9th “I had to ride the second bike due to a slip.
I had some small issues in the opening section as well but the crew did a good job at solving them.
When I took to the track, I had very little time and a lot of fellow riders on the circuit.
I was improving my time by two tenths of a second in the full-speed lap but I then ran into Neukirchner who slowed me down.
However, I have nothing to worry about.
It’s only Friday and I know I can do better.
I just hope the track will be dry tomorrow so I can better prepare for race 2″.
Cal Crutchlow – 10th “I think we’ve worked hard and got rid of the chatter problem.
The 2009 parts that we’ve used seem to have helped us in that way.
The tank and the seat unit seemed to have stopped the chatter now.
If you look at our times, although we’re not initially fastest straight away we’ve got consistency across the sessions.
We’ve got some more areas to work on and I’m looking forward to making the bike even better tomorrow.
We’ve got a good direction to work in, it was just a little unfortunate that the track temperature was so hot today.
Even so we were still doing the same times as Ben’s race pace from last year.
Hopefully it will cool off over the next couple of days and work better for us.
” Leon Camier – 11th“We know what we need to do, “but we’re still struggling to achieve exactly what it is we want.
We have problems coming out of the turns and in changing directions which doesn’t allow me to drive the wayI’d like to.
Now the season has begun and it’s time to get down to business and I’m not satisfied because I realize there’s still a lot to be done.
”Chris Vermeulen – 12thJames Toseland – 13th“Unfortunately had a big crash today coming out of the penultimate corner which didn’t help things.
I did go back out on the other bike but had a pain in my hand so came in as I wanted to make sure it was ok.
We’re definitely making improvements, we’ve just had a lot to do in one day to work through the package.
We’re only a bit over a second off pole now so we’ll focus down and keep moving forward tomorrow.
”Lorenzo Lanzi – 14th “We’re sure were not lucky today but we still managed to do a good job.
Unfortunately both of our bikes have accused technical troubles.
However I am calm because I have seen that there is significant scope for improvement and we can fight for sure.
The team is doing at this time the verification and we will have further improvement tomorrow.
”Troy Corser – 16th“We had some problems with the grip and with the position of the bike in the first session.
Webasically changed the settings of the rear shock and the front fork.
We also changed the clutch to something we used last year.
My confidence was better immediately.
Still, we lacked grip at thebeginning of the second session.
Again, we changed the shock setting.
The bike then felt easier tocontrol and the grip was better.
At the end of the Qualifying Practice we fitted new race tyres to thebike.
I had more grip immediately.
I just arrived a little too fast in turn 10 and lost both front and rear at the same time.
”Max Neukirchner – 18thIt’s really frustrating, because we made some good progress this morning, using old tyres.
As soon as we put a new one in this afternoon, it was spinning all the way through the faster turns and making the bike shudder in other parts of the circuit.
Exactly the same thing happened with the second new tyre we put in, but we’re not sure exactly where the problem is.
I know I can go faster because I was during the test last weekend, so we’ve got some work to get through tomorrow I think.
Ruben Xaus – 19thToday simply was not my day.
During last week’s testing we completed nearly 150 laps without any major issues and today I crashed three times.
Usually you crash when you push to the limit, but I did not risk anything when I fell off.
I braked at the same points as before.
We now have to look into the data and see what we can find out.
However, I feel really sorry for the team.
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