Crutchlow gets straight onto the pace at Kyalami

QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 14/05/2010 Crutchlow gets straight onto the pace at Kyalami Yamaha Sterilgarda rider Cal Crutchlow got straight down to business in the first qualifying session of the Kyalami race weekend today. Crutchlow spent the session in the top two positions, only losing out to leader Fabrizio at the end by less than a tenth of a second. The British rider had been on a hot lap at the end on track to take the fastest time but was unfortunately held up and unable to complete. Crutchlow's team-mate James Toseland had a slower start to the South African weekend. Fresh off the back of a big crash last weekend and having not ridden the Kyalami circuit for a number of years, Toseland spent the qualifying renewing his knowledge of the track as he worked on his set-up. Cal Crutchlow Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (2nd, 1'38.529) "I think today went ok, I'm pretty pleased to be honest. I should have been fastest but I got held up on my last hot lap. I think it's going to be difficult in race conditions; tyre wear is a big issue as the track is very abrasive. Overall second fastest isn't too bad on the first day, we'll go away now and will look at more improvements for tomorrow with the team." James Toseland James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (15th, 1'39.656) "It's my first day back on the bike since my crash last week and it's also my first time back on this track for ten years, it's very technical and I'd forgotten how bumpy it is. Unfortunately the base setting we started the session with wasn't right so we had a lot of work to do to get the bike working well. At the end we found something that worked better and got down to good race times, so tomorrow we'll improve on that some more and we will get down to the faster times they're running at the front today. Given everything I'm only just over a second off after the first day so I'm not displeased with that and we've got a lot more to give tomorrow." Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager "I was a little bit worried today, this is not traditionally a good track for us, but finally the results were good. Tomorrow I believe James will move up as he gets used to the track again and improves his set up. Last year the track was the most difficult for us, but after all our development the situation is completely different, to be second fastest with Cal and James only a second off after a big crash when hasn't been here for ten years is pretty good, and taking into account our strong performance at Monza I am quite optimistic for tomorrow." Circuit Length: 4263 Lap Record: 1'42.178 (Noriyuki Haga, 01/01/2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1'37.288 (Ben Spies, 17/05/2009) Last Years Winner: Noriyuki Haga 2010 WSB South Africa - Kyalami 14/05/2010 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'38.477 2 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1'38.529 3 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 1'38.687 4 Troy Corser BMW AUS 1'38.896 5 Leon Haslam Suzuki GBR 1'38.951 6 Carlos Checa Ducati ESP 1'38.954 7 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'39.027 8 Max Biaggi Aprilia ITA 1'39.094 9 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1'39.281 10 Luca Scassa Ducati ITA 1'39.288 11 Tom Sykes Kawasaki GBR 1'39.336 12 Leon Camier Aprilia GBR 1'39.621 13 Noriyuki Haga Ducati JPN 1'39.630 14 Ruben Xaus BMW ESP 1'39.642 15 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'39.656 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