1. Troy Corser (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:35.954 2. Chris Walker (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:36.731 3. Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:37.003 4. Max Neukirchner (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:37.127 5. Karl Muggeridge (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:37.146 6. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:37.159 7. Ivan Clementi (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:37.299 8. Steve Martin (Petronas FP-1), 1:37.332 9. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati 999RS), 1:37.465 10. Norick Abe (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.520 11. Regis Laconi (Ducati 999RS), 1:37.566 12. James Toseland (Ducati 999RS), 1:37.648 13. Jose Luis Cardoso (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.650 14. Ivan Silva (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.727 15. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:37.763 16. Chris Vermeulen (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:37.878 17. Gary McCoy (Petronas FP-1), 1:37.942 18. Fonsi Nieto (Ducati 999RS), 1:37.947 19. Giovanni Bussei (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:37.970 20. Ben Bostrom (Honda CBR1000RR) 1:38.004 More, from a press release issued by Ten Kate Honda: MUGGERIDGE FIFTH FASTEST IN VALENCIA Karl Muggeridge set the fifth fastest time in today’s opening qualifying session for round three of the 2005 World Superbike championship at Valencia in Spain. In a hotly contested session, completed in warm and sunny conditions, Australian Troy Corser was fastest today with just over one second separating the next twenty riders. Muggeridge’s Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate Chris Vermeulen was sixteenth fastest this afternoon as he continued with the development of the Honda CBR1000RR. Coming off a podium finish in race one of the last round in Australian, Vermeulen will be looking to tomorrow’s qualifying session and Superpole event to improve his starting position for Sunday’s two 23-lap (92km) third round races. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “Chris didn’t use a qualifying tyre this afternoon as he continued to look for the best setting on his CBR. We’re using a lot of new chassis components this weekend and he tried many different set-ups today. That continual testing makes it difficult to switch the concentration to one fast qualifying lap but he was in the top five in practice this morning so should be up there again tomorrow. Karl is happy with the progress we’re making and every adjustment we make to the settings seems to be an improvement for him. We’ve got a lot of data to study tonight, though, and some more things to try tomorrow.” Karl Muggeridge fifth fastest, 1m37.146: “I made a small mistake in turn six on that fast lap and very nearly lost the front. It was the biggest front end slide I think I’ve had on the superbike and it took all the strength I could muster to save it legs, arms, everything! The track seemed to get more slippery as the session went on and it became difficult to match our times from this morning. I was having to concentrate hard to get everything right but I certainly had some grip problems on the last two sectors of the circuit. We’ve tried lots of things today around the front forks and things are definitely improving. But I think we’ll all be spending a long time looking at computer screens tonight to understand what progress we’ve made.” Chris Vermeulen sixteenth fastest, 1m37.878: “I didn’t put in a qualifier this afternoon because we’ve been trying so many different things on the bike especially around the front forks. If I were this far back with a qualifying tyre I’d be a lot more worried than I am! We’re still suffering from not getting much testing in before the season started and that means we have to try new things during a race weekend which is never ideal. I was fairly competitive during free practice and for most of that qualifying session before everyone else put in qualifiers; but for sure we’ve still got a lot of work to do before we find a setting that will work well for the races on Sunday.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: LACONI AND TOSELAND (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) FOCUS ON RACE SET-UP IN VALENCIA FIRST QUALIFYING Valencia (Spain), Friday 22 April: Ducati Xerox Team riders Régis Laconi and James Toseland finished the first day of qualifying at Valencia in eleventh and twelfth positions today as both riders opted not to make a qualifying attack and instead focus on their race set-up. Before the last five minutes of the one-hour afternoon session began, the Frenchman and his British team-mate were both up near the top of the timesheets and will concentrate on setting a good qualifying time in tomorrow morning’s second and final session. “OK, the result today is not too good, but we have been working very hard for the race” declared Laconi. “I’m quite happy with the settings we got with the bike, and before everyone else put the qualifier on I was second. I thought I could risk not using qualifiers and stay in a high position but the others all improved in the last few minutes and I slipped down to eleventh, but that’s OK. Troy was still faster than me but I feel that we still have margin to improve. This track is very strange, the hotter it gets, the tyre seems to work less well. Tomorrow for sure it will be cooler and a lot better for the grip”. “We’ve got a bit of a problem with the suspension travel of the front forks and we haven’t sorted it out yet so the bike felt a bit harsh in that session” commented James. “The tyre is not allowing us to get away with it and as things go on the feeling gets worse. Everyone has similar problems with grip so as far as race times go, we’re all pretty similar. Lap times are slower because of the temperature, tomorrow will be faster for sure. The less grip there is on the tyre, the less the suspension is allowed to work. At the moment it’s a bit frustrating because the times are that close and I feel sure that when we sort the problem out, we’ll be up there at the front”. TIMES: 1. Corser (Suzuki) 1m35.954s; 2. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m36.731s; 3. Chili (Honda) 1m37.003s; 4. Neukirchner (Honda) 1m37.127s; 5. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m37.146s; 6. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m37.159s … 11. Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 1m37.566s; 12. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1m37.648s. More, from a press releass issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Martin on provisional second row at Valencia Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s Steve Martin recovered from a slow start to the third round of the Superbike World Championship at Valencia, Spain, to finish the first day of qualifying in eighth place. Team-mate Garry McCoy also made significant steps forward during a sunny afternoon qualifying session and was one of 16 riders within one second of third place. Using a new specification of engine, only previously tested for one day at Phillip Island, both riders were restricted in track time during the morning session during fundamental set-up work. But, on swapping to the softest rear tyre, Steve slashed nearly 1.5 seconds off his previous best in one lap and was lying in sixth place on race tyres before the end-of-session dash to record a time on qualifying rubber. Garry was also able to record a top speed of 282kmh, just 3kmh behind the pacesetting Troy Corser, the only rider to break into the 1:35s. Steve said: “It has been a tough day but I am still close to my fastest time around here. We are still working on the mapping of the new specification of engine at this tight track, as we have only previously tested it at Phillip Island where the throttle is open all the time. The gearing has also totally changed, so we will work on that overnight. We are also still trying to get rid of some chatter and trying to alter the balance of the bike a little bit. The new engine is definitely stronger but at this stage we still need a little more torque at lower revs, so that we can come out of the corners better.” Garry said: “The new specification of engine is definitely more aggressive and `peaky’, so I am still getting used to it and have had to be careful on the accelerator. But I can feel it is stronger and we are closer to the top speeds. I wasn’t able to do too many laps this morning and I am probably a bit disappointed to be one place out of Superpole, which means I have a little bit of work in front of me tomorrow. But I made a couple of mistakes on my fastest lap, probably because I had to push hard on the sighting lap in order to just get past the line before the end of the session. We have also made the wheelbase shorter than in Australia, which has changed the suspension characteristics.” More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi With a sunny weather and about 25°C of air temperature and a soft wind, which however gave any problem to the racing bikes, started today the third round of World Superbike Championship on the Spanish circuit R.Tormo in Valencia. Positive enough day for Scuderia SC Caracchi’s riders: the two 999RS Ducatis of Lorenzo Lanzi and Fonsi Nieto have been finally able to get a positive result, as well the 749R Ducati ridden by Gianluca Nannelli always close to te leaders, despite some technical trouble. Finally quite happy Lorenzo Lanzi, who looks to have result most of the problems that slowed him in the first races; the young Italian rider recorded the 9th fastest, first between Ducati bikes today. “The day started quite well today, just from the free practice session in the morning: we have been always in a position valid for the second or the thrid starting row.” commented at the end of the session Lorenzo Lanzi. “I’m rather happy because finally we al looking for the right way. That’s the first European round, quite near from home and surely there will be a lot of friends visiting Valencia to see the race, so it’s fantastic to be in the leader group. We have a lot of work to do, but this debut day gave us a good result as a prize for all the great work made by the whole of the team. Tomorrow we’ll have the final qualifying that are very important, but I’m confident to holt a final position in the second or third starting row, the in the two races of Sunday we’ll see what we could reach.” Fonsi Nieto too made a big step ahead and it’s not to look at the position because the Spanish rider is just 9/10 of second behind the third fastest, the veteran Frankie Chili. “Today we focused most on a new front fork.” says Fonsi Nieto at the end of the practice. “The set up need a lot of time, however we rode always with race tyres and at that moment I was in 7th position. Then in the last minutes I lost some position because when I get the soft tyre I found a lot of trafic and I lost the possibility to overwork it. I’m sure to improve my laptime tomorrow. I’m happy because finally I have a better feeling with the bike and I’m always faster.” Satisfied also Gianluca Nannelli, despite some small trouble which blocked his practice on the Ducati 749R Supersport. “It has been a quite suffert day.” has been the short final comment of Gianluca Nannelli. “In the morning we had electrical troubles on the first bike, the same as in the race in Australia. On the second bike suddenly I broken the gear shift lever while I was in the Charpentier’s trail, so I must stay long time in the pit. During afternoon practice the track was warmer as during the morning, with less grip; at the end a lot of small throuble that prevent me from improving my morning’s performance, when I was 4th fastest, almost a second faster.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Norick Abe finished as the top R1 rider during today’s first qualifying session for Sunday’s Superbike World Championship round in Valencia. The Japanese rider, not normally known for his pace in qualifying, set the 10th fastest time during this afternoon’s one hour timed practice, which saw a number of surprise names at the top of the leaderboard. Abe’s team-mate Sebastien Gimbert, fresh from winning the Le Mans 24-hour race with Yamaha GMT94 last weekend ended the day 15th, while Yamaha Motor Italia pairing Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt remained positive despite finishing way down the timesheets in 21st and 24th respectively. Both riders experienced set-up problems in the warm conditions. Having made good progress during the last round in Phillip Island, the team used the base settings from the Australian races during today’s action. However these proved less effective around the tight Spanish track and the team will revert to settings developed during last month’s test in Valencia. Both riders also opted to save their soft qualifying tyres for tomorrow morning’s qualifying session, which alone should lead to a significant improvement in time. Despite not using the soft rubber, Haga’s best time of 1:38.158 was just over a second behind third placed rider Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda) in a surprisingly close session. The Japanese star was fourth fastest during the morning session with a 1:37.470 lap. Pitt was also slower in the afternoon session, where he clocked a best of 1:38.291, with championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) taking provisional pole position with a 1:35.954. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “This is a track I know very well both from testing and MotoGP. Also I am more familiar with the R1 every time I ride it so I am optimistic for a good result this weekend. We had no problems today, so hopefully I can improve my time some more tomorrow.” Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) “I am still very happy after winning Le Mans last week and I hope we can continue this form in Valencia. I am quite happy with today, I got pushed back a little late in the session but I know I can push a little harder tomorrow.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “Some days are good and some days are not so good, but this is racing. Ok, I want to be higher but the times are very close and I expect that everyone will go faster if it stays dry tomorrow. The track was very slippery today so I think that tomorrow we can go and make a faster time.” Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “It’s been a tough day today and I just haven’t felt comfortable on the bike. We actually put a qualifying tyre on right at the end, but we were not sure if we could beat the clock and get another lap in before the chequered flag so we decided to call it a day rather than waste the tyre. Looking back I think this was a good decision as we will be able to find a better set-up tomorrow and take full advantage of the soft tyre.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yamaha Motor Italia) “We made a big step forward in Australia and so came here with the same settings. But they did not work here and tomorrow we will go back to the settings from our previous tests here. We also have the advantage that each rider can use two qualifying tyres tomorrow, so we are confident that we can make big improvements tomorrow and that both riders will make the superpole.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: World Championship leader Troy Corser put his Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra GSX-R1000 into provisional pole position for Sunday’s third-round World Superbike Championship round in Valencia, Spain. The former World Champion set a time of 1:35.954, more than three-quarters-of-a-second ahead of Briton Chris Walker (Kawasaki), while Corser’s team mate Yukio Kagayama – quickest in the morning Free Practice session – posted sixth fastest time with 1:37.159. Kagayama was lucky to not to crash in the afternoon session and only saved the bike and himself by deft use of his left knee and elbow: He lost the front in the left-hander before the back straight and as the bike tipped over he pushed it back upright with his knee. The force of the impact tore a hole in his leathers but he didn’t realise he returned to the pits. Troy Corser – 1st, 1:35.954: “Everything has been going good so far and I’m pretty happy with our start here. We began by using the same set-up we ran here in the tests before we went to Phillip Island for the race and then started to fine-tune it. We worked quite a lot on the clutch to try and improve the engine braking and we also worked on the suspension to make the front tyre feeling better and to improve its life. “When it was hotter in the afternoon, the grip went down and I set my quick time towards the start of the timed session. I knew that it was going to get hotter and that the grip would get worse. I did have a bit of a drama when I was on qualifying tyres – I lost the front at turn three – but I recovered it without a problem. At the moment, the balance of the bike is working for me and because of that I am having fun riding it, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.” Yukio Kagayama – 6th, 1:37.159: “I started today with my Valencia test set-up and for me it was so-so. And then we tried some more things and some other riders went faster than me. But, it’s not a problem because we learnt a lot of good information today and that will help us tomorrow for sure. “My only problem today was my near-crash: I lost the front end in the left turn onto the back straight and almost crashed. Somehow I managed to keep it up on my left knee and maybe my elbow for maybe a second before the tyres gripped again and then everything came back to normal! My heart was beating fast, but I was ok. I am a lucky man today!” More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group: SBK RIDERS START OUT UNDER WARM SPANISH SKIES Action Stations: Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki rider Troy Corser scored yet another early season high with the fastest time of the opening day, heading up both unofficial and official qualifying session at Valencia. The championship leader set a time of 1’35.954, almost 0.8 seconds faster than his closest rival, when it really mattered this afternoon. Each session was held in almost ideal conditions with just a gentle breeze blowing around the stadium-style circuit. Walker Strolls On: An outstanding first period for Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) saw him well up the qualifying order from the start to the finish. Ultimately second quickest on his ZX-10, hard work in the chassis and suspension department, plus a machine capable of posting the highest top speed of the day, 288kmph, conspired to help the Englishman’s effort. Klaffinators: The Klaffi team has made a serious impact in World Superbike in 2005, a superb effort in its rookie season in the top category. Despite a recent collarbone operation for Pierfrancesco Chili, to repair the break he suffered at the Phillip Island race, the experienced Italian set third fastest time of all. He was closely followed by his rookie SBK team-mate, Max Neukirchner, who is still working on suspension set-up. Third in race two in Australia, Neukirchner has already shown his true talent, and at the first time of asking on his full spec machine at Valencia, he secured fourth best time, 1.173 seconds from provisional pole. Muggeridge Fifth: Winston Ten Kate riders Karl Muggeridge and Chris Vermeulen had differing fortunes on day one, with Muggeridge well in the leading mix; his more experienced Superbike team-mate Vermeulen in 16th place. Diversity was the key in the top positions at Valencia, as Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki) and Ivan Clementi (Bertocchi Kawasaki) went sixth and seventh fastest respectively. Martin Up Front: A second row provisional qualifying position was a good reward for the Petronas team on day one, with Steve Martin taking eighth fastest time in a highly competitive session. His speed saw the fastest Petronas ahead of the fastest Ducati, to the immense satisfaction of the entire Petronas effort. That honour this weekend was taken by the SC Ducati 999RS of Lorenzo Lanzi, ninth fastest on his booming vee-twin. Yamaha Hanging Tough For Day Two: Fastest Yamaha R1 rider on display in Spain was Yamaha Motor France IPONE rider Norick Abe, an SBK rookie but a hugely experienced rider in other classes of global races. He was the last rider inside the top ten. Jose Luis Cardoso (DFX Extreme Yamaha) and Ivan Silva (LaGlisse) gave the first day its first smattering of Spanish flavour, going 13th and 14th respectively. Official entries from Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt, both Yamaha Motor Italia, and Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor Italia) struggled somewhat on day one. Gimbert crashed, yet still set 17 laps to go 15th. Haga was 21st, Pitt 24th. Ducati Doldrums: The competitiveness of the 2005 season was perfectly illustrated by the fact that the official factory Ducati pairing of Regis Laconi (Xerox Ducati 999F05) and James Toseland were in 11th and 12th positions after day one, behind a whole gaggle of fast multi-cylinder entries. Toseland was a race one winner last year, Laconi the winner of the greatest number of 2004 individual legs. Other Notable Names: Petronas rider Garry McCoy’s 17th place came after 21 laps of action, with local wild card rider Davide Checa (GMT94 Yamaha) scoring the top number of circuits, matching his qualifying position of 27. Local hotshot Fonsi Nieto (SC Ducati 999RS) is still adjusting to life on a big cc vee-twin, and ran out 18th fastest of the 33 prospective qualifiers. The SBK ‘big grid’ saw Ben Bostrom, aided by some new team personnel and machinery, 20th out of 33. Supersport: Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Sebastien Charpentier continued his magnificent early season form to take the best time on day one, pushing his machine to a 1’38.351 lap in glorious conditions. With temperatures in the mid twenties Charpentier’s own team-mate, Qatar race winner Katsuaki Fujiwara, was second quickest at this generally tight and twisty track. Some 0.404 seconds down on Charpentier, Fujiwara was nonetheless almost one second faster than another WSS legend, 2002 World Champion Fabien Foret (Team Italia Megabike Honda), who finished day one in third place. The top Yamaha runner was wild card man Victor Carrasco (LaGlisse Yamaha), the last rider on the provisional front row of the grid. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) edged out Michel Fabrizio (Team Italia Megabike Honda) for fifth fastest, with top Suzuki rider proving to be Javier Fores (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki). On Saturday 23 April the final qualifying sessions for both Superbike and Supersport take place, with Superpole following on to determine final grid positions.
