Crutchlow and Toseland get down to business in Assen

QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 23/04/2010 Crutchlow and Toseland get down to business in Assen Yamaha Sterilgarda riders Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland spent the first day of the Assen race weekend working hard on setting up their bikes for tomorrow's Superpole heats. Crutchlow got quickly down to fast consistent laps, spending the majority of the first qualifying session in second position. Two crashes resulting from losing the front end disrupted his session although he was unhurt and came away from the heat having demonstrated a consistent fast race pace. Team mate James Toseland spent the session working with his team on two very different bike set ups, exploring both front and rear end feel. They found positive steps in both areas so will work to combine and produce a race package ahead of tomorrow's Superpole session. Cal Crutchlow Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (5th, 1'36.752) "It's been a good day speed-wise, I felt quite comfortable keeping the pace I had. We had two stupid crashes, both when I lost the front end. I was using my usual tyre for the first one, I hit a bump and crashed, on the second one I used the new harder front tyre but didn't have any feeling in it, I came into the last chicane maybe 6km slower than usual and just crashed for some unknown reason. Still, as I said I'm happy with the pace so looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can improve and achieve something good in the Superpole session." James Toseland James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (10th, 1'37.166) "We've been trying a few things with the geometry to see if we can improve the front feel and the rear feel. Over the last three rounds we've either got the one or the other so we're trying to find a better balance using head angles and offsets. On one bike I had a setting very similar to what we used in Valencia, and the other bike had something completely different, I've been jumping between the two, and towards the end of the session I think we were getting there. My best lap time of the session was on the harder rear tyre which is generally not the quick tyre which is encouraging. I'm pleased with what we've done today, we've got through a lot and we've got some good ideas for tomorrow. There's a lot more time in me and the bike to come." Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager "For our first day today we saw some good things, for sure tonight the technicians and the riders will continue to work to find ways to improve on the current set up even more. I'm expecting to be in a different position tomorrow afternoon. Cal has really good times through three sectors of the track, he's losing something in the last sector, we know this and so we're studying to understand why so we can fix that. When we do I think he will be really strong. I'm expecting James to take another step forward tomorrow, today he was focussed on comparing two very different bike setups, we found good things in both so we'll work tonight to bring those together." Circuit Length: 4555 Weather: Sunny Lap Record: 2'04.685 (Chris Vermeulen, 01/01/2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1'37.626 (Ben Spies, 26/04/2009) Last Years Winner: Noriyuki Haga 2010 WSB The Netherlands - Assen 23/04/2010 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'36.041 2 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 1'36.339 3 Troy Corser BMW AUS 1'36.489 4 Leon Haslam Suzuki GBR 1'36.618 5 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1'36.752 6 Carlos Checa Ducati ESP 1'36.805 7 Leon Camier Aprilia GBR 1'37.064 8 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1'37.081 9 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'37.165 10 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'37.166 11 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'37.344 12 Tom Sykes Kawasaki GBR 1'37.434 13 Max Neukirchner Honda GER 1'37.453 14 Noriyuki Haga Ducati JPN 1'37.462 15 Luca Scassa Ducati ITA 1'37.506 Yamaha Racing Communications Barentszplein 4B / 1013 NJ Amsterdam / The Netherlands T. +31 (0) 20 625 6539 E. office@yrc.nl W. www.yamaha-racing.com © Copyright Yamaha 2010 | Unsubscribe