WSB/WSS Round 14 Portimao - Qualifying 2

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QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 01/11/2008 Wet Superpole sees Corser seventh and Haga tenth Troy Corser A dry start to the day ended up in a wet Superpole and such were the deteriorating conditions shortly after the start of the final 50-minute session that Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) set his best time early on, to take a second row start. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) was a little too late out of the pitbox to make the best use of the least wet track surface around the all-new 4.592km circuit, and went 10th, enough for a third row start. Each rider now has experience of wet and dry track conditions at the awesome new Portuguese circuit, as the final timed session and most of the last untimed session were dry. In the last timed period of practice, Corser was second fastest and Haga 14th. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) just missed out on a Superpole start, finishing 18th in final qualifying, with his team-mate David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) 23rd fastest. Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) edged out Checa to go 22nd quickest. Troy Corser (7th - 2'03.014 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I went out early but just not quite early enough. When I had started my lap it was pouring with rain around turn one. There were rivers running across the track at one stage. It was all down to how much risk you needed to take and I was hoping it would ease off, but it only stopped after the end of the Superpole session. Dry would be better for everybody tomorrow, and we tried some new things in the early session this morning, but we lost a bit of grip, so we may go back if we have to. I think maybe it was just the tyre choice we had at that time. We've had both wet and dry track time at least." Noriyuki Haga Noriyuki Haga (10th - 2'04.420 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "We had less time to choose dry tyres than we would have wanted today but I found a good feeling in the final dry session, because this morning I didn't have great traction. We changed the suspension and things were much better, but unfortunately in Superpole it was raining. We have a good feeling on the rain tyres too, but I want it to be dry for the races." Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "The best thing to do was to go out immediately in Superpole and Troy did that ending up on the second row. That's not so bad in such poor conditions. Unfortunately Nori waited a little bit too long and started from the third row. We are in good shape in wet or dry but we would like it to be dry. The only question mark now is tyres, and we will have to wait to see how things are before we make any decisions." Shinichi Nakatomi Shinichi Nakatomi (22nd - 1'45.803 - Team YZF Yamaha) "I used both motorcycles during the sessions, but I did not have enough feeling. The feeling was better by the end of the practice, but I made a small mistake while following another rider and I lost some time. We are progressing step by step for the race set up. We still have a small trouble." Circuit Length: 4692 2008 WSB Portugal - Portimão 01/11/2008 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'58.548 2 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 2'1.023 3 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 2'2.027 4 Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 2'2.107 5 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 2'2.779 6 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 2'2.861 7 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 2'3.014 8 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 2'3.023 9 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 2'3.494 10 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 2'4.420 11 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 2'4.496 12 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 2'5.250 13 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 2'5.408 14 Ayrton Badovini Kawasaki ITA 2'6.354 15 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 2'6.830 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'57.440 1'43.609 2 Troy Corser AUS 1'55.791 1'43.955 3 Fonsi Nieto ESP 2'0.194 1'44.056 4 Max Neukirchner GER 2'0.263 1'44.088 5 Cal Crutchlow GBR 1'58.327 1'44.145 6 Leon Haslam GBR 1'57.214 1'44.278 7 Regis Laconi FRA 1'59.939 1'44.299 8 Jonathan Rea GBR 1'59.356 1'44.481 9 Jakub Smrz CZE 2'0.362 1'44.499 10 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'58.115 1'44.521 11 Carlos Checa ESP 1'59.676 1'44.550 12 Yukio Kagayama JPN 2'1.154 1'44.608 13 Troy Bayliss AUS 2'0.012 1'44.647 14 Noriyuki Haga JPN 2'0.152 1'44.799 15 Ayrton Badovini ITA 2'0.643 1'44.960 18 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 2'4.094 1'45.469 22 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 2'4.570 1'45.803 23 David Checa ESP 2'2.086 1'46.010 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 01/11/2008 Parkes second in qualifying at a dry Portimao Broc Parkes Day two at the all-new Portimao circuit went to plan for Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) and on a dry track surface he came close to pole with his second best time of the weekend. He starts the 20-lap Supersport race from a coveted front row grid placing. Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport Team) was making great strides towards the top grid slots at one stage but could not improve his front-end feel enough to allow him to join Parkes, and he finished 16th fastest. He will therefore start the final race of 2008 from the fourth row. After the first wet qualifying session on Friday the team attempted to evaluate dry weather race tyres today and will continue to make final checks on raceday morning, before committing to their final tyre and set-up choices. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) had a difficult final qualifying session, finding his front suspension difficult to tune to the circuit as the new asphalt offered up more and more grip. David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) was an impressive 14th in a race close to his home base in Spain. Broc Parkes (2nd - 1'45.226 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "That was pretty good today but we didn't use as many tyres in the qualifying session as we expected. We tried to see which tyres would last the distance rather than going for a single fast lap until nearer the end. I put in a good lap close to the finish but I met some traffic and lost a tenth or so on my potential best time. I'm on the front row, and that is always good. I think we have a good set-up and starting off the front row is very important there, because there are not a lot of places that you can overtake. I need to get off the line smoothly and I think tyre wear may be a big factor in the race this weekend." Fabien Foret Fabien Foret (16th - 1'46.417 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I had some problems with the suspension because I did not have a good feeling, and then I hit some traffic at the end. I could not find a clear lap. I am disappointed to be only 16th so I want to get a good race done tomorrow and then think about next year." Massimo Roccoli Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team) "It all came together a bit better in the dry on Broc's side of the garage and Fabien tried hard to make a good grid spot, but maybe a little too hard. He had some difficulties with the feel from the front so he is not in an ideal position. Let us wait and see tomorrow. Everybody has lost one day in terms of tyre choice, and the track surface is changing constantly, so we still have something to do to in warm-up tomorrow." Massimo Roccoli (19th - 1'46.381 seconds - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "I was happy to be riding in the dry today but I found the front end really bouncing around and that made finding the correct lines and a good lap time very difficult. I am still not 100% happy with my knowledge of the circuit but I expect to make improvements before we start racing tomorrow and I hope for a good result to finish the year on a high." Circuit Length: 4692 2008 WSS Portugal - Portimão 01/11/2008 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 2'3.083 1'45.156 2 Broc Parkes AUS 2'7.830 1'45.226 3 Barry Veneman NED 2'3.683 1'45.587 4 Andrew Pitt AUS 2'4.929 1'45.629 5 Gianluca Nannelli ITA 2'3.083 1'45.712 6 Joan Lascorz ESP 2'1.576 1'45.872 7 Joshua Brookes AUS 2'5.639 1'45.904 8 Josh Hayes USA 2'0.021 1'45.996 9 Matthieu Lagrive FRA 1'58.614 1'46.091 10 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 2'2.784 1'46.092 11 Mark Aitchinson AUS 2'5.496 1'46.149 12 Russell Holland AUS 2'5.444 1'46.163 13 Robbin Harms DNK 2'7.179 1'46.194 14 David Salom ESP 2'7.057 1'46.381 15 Simone Sanna ITA 2'6.614 1'46.381 16 Fabien Foret FRA 2'10.663 1'46.417 19 Massimo Roccoli ITA 2'8.485 1'46.630 Yamaha Racing Communications Hoogte Kadijk 61hs / 1018 BE Amsterdam / The Netherlands T. +31 (0) 20 625 6539 / F. +31 (0) 20 420 9470 E. office@yrc.nl W. http://www.yamaha-racing.com