Corser on provisional superbike pole at home circuit

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) set the fastest lap on the first day at Phillip Island, posting a 1'32.366 lap time on his 17th out of 21 laps.

Despite suffering bruising and a pain from two crashes in last week's opening SBK round, Noriyuki Haga battled to 13th today, finding his current suspension settings less than ideal for the ever-changing Phillip Island track surface.

The relatively cool temperatures of final qualifying were nonetheless a great improvement on the first unofficial qualifying conditions, after morning rains had arrived to welcome the first day of action and the track surface took some time to give any great level of grip. Both Corser and Haga had set better times in testing than during the first qualifying hour, but the January tests were held in far warmer conditions than the 21 degree air temperatures of today (Friday 29th).


Troy Corser (Yamaha Italia) 1'32.336
"We have quite a good feeling from the bike, but I feel we can get it even better than it is. The test we had was held in very different conditions and the chassis setting we had for the test doesn't seem to be working now. The grip just seems to be different on the ground. We tried a few different things this morning and the afternoon, so we'll overlay data and see where to go with set-up tomorrow. We started today with a combination of settings from Qatar race and the winter tests. We jumped between the two bikes, trying to get the best life and performance out of the tyre. That's the main thing to do. If the temperature goes up again tomorrow it will get back to what we normally have at Phillip Island at this time of year, so it means we may have to change the bike yet again. The track here just gets bumpier and bumpier ever time we come here, especially in the first and last corners, and up to Hayshed corner."

Troy Bayliss (Xerox Ducati) 1'32.3s
"It's all gone well today. Grip on the track could be better, it's not perfect due to the rain earlier, but that will no doubt be better tomorrow. We'll try a few different things tomorrow to sort that out , working on the tyre set-up, but today we haven't really made many changes. We tried a long run which was worth doing and gave us useful information on the tyres. We're confident about the direction in which we're heading and we're looking forward to tomorrow."



Superbike first qualifying

1, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 1'32.336
2, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 1'32.374
3, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 1'32.570
4, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 1'32.808
5, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 1'32.827
6, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 1'32.827
7, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 1'32.827
8, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'33.188
9, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 1'33.269
10, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 1'33.283
11, Russel Holland, Honda, AUS, 1'33.340
12, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 1'33.489
13, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 1'33.588
14, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 1'33.718
15, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 1'33.995
16, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 1'34.050
17, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 1'34.082
18, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 1'34.171
19, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 1'34.419
20, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 1'34.446
21, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 1'34.491
22, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 1'34.659
23, Vittorio Iannuzzo, Kawasaki, ITA, 1'34.765
24, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 1'35.123
25, Luca Morelli, Honda, ITA, 1'35.498
26, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 1'35.946
27, Loic Napoleone, Yamaha, FRA, 1'39.400

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Supersport first qualifying
Andrew 'Pitty' Pitt claimed provisional pole for Ten Kate Honda, although he was being pushed close by two other championship contenders, Fabien Foret and Broc Parkes (both Yamaha World Supersport Team) each set times less than a quarter of a second from Pitt.

Parkes, competing at his home race only a week after winning the first round of the World Supersport Championship at Qatar, came closest to the top spot and was only 0.080 seconds from the fastest lap of the first qualifying session. Due to track surface and temperature changes, Parkes could not match the class-leading lap time of 1'34.6 seconds he set in winter testing. Despite not feeling able to push to the maximum right now, his best lap on the all-new Yamaha YZF-R6 today was just over half a second from the current official lap record of 1'34.976.

Qualifying was a generally positive experience for Foret also, only 0.168 seconds from his team-mate on the time sheets, but he also had issues with his set-up in the current track conditions.

Each rider has one more session in which to improve their times and grid placings, and with the first day starting off wet, the team will be hoping that predictions of good weather and warmer temperatures on Saturday prove to be accurate.



Fabien Foret (3rd- 1'35.674 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)
"It's always good to be near the front but I am not that happy because we tested here in the winter for three days and I cannot get the feel and the feedback that I really want. I could have maybe made an even better time, but I had a little front end slide entering one corner. We need to improve the feel from the tyre and get both more sidegrip and drive grip on this temperature of track surface. It's important for the lap time at this track to have both of those things, because you spend a lot of time leaned over in certain corners, and need good drive onto the straights. I think there will be more to come tomorrow."


World supersport first qualifying

1, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 1'35.426
2, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 1'35.506
3, Fabien Foret, Yamaha, FRA, 1'35.674
4, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 1'35.788
5, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 1'35.808
6, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 1'35.920
7, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 1'36.392
8, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 1'36.501
9, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 1'36.565
10, Garry McCoy, Triumph, AUS, 1'36.577
11, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 1'36.581
12, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 1'36.689
13, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 1'36.941
14, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'37.028
15, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 1'37.069
16, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 1'37.146
17, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 1'37.152
18, Gregory Leblanc, Honda, FRA, 1'37.294
19, Craig Jones, Honda, GBR, 1'37.340
20, Mirko Giansanti, Honda, ITA, 1'37.586
21, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Kawasaki, JPN, 1'37.680
22, Andrea Antonelli, Honda, ITA, 1'37.899
23, Lorenzo Alfonsi, Kawasaki, ITA, 1'38.077
24, Vesa Kallio, Honda, FIN, 1'38.143
25, William De Angelis, Honda, ITA, 1'38.536
26, Graeme Gowland, Honda, GBR, 1'38.551
27, Mark Aitchinson, Triumph, AUS, 1'38.678
28, Miguel Praia, Honda, POR, 1'38.785
29, Arnaud Vincent, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'39.180
30, Danilo Dell'omo, Honda, ITA, 1'39.276
31, Santiago Barragan, Honda, ESP, 1'39.333
32, Gergo Talmacsi, Honda, HUN, 1'39.600
33, Attila Magda, Honda, HUN, 1'40.222
34, Luka Nedog, Honda, SVN, 1'40.310
35, Josep Pedro Subirats, Yamaha, ESP, 1'42.189
36, Ilario Dionisi, Triumph, ITA, 1'43.106

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