Haga on form as rain thwarts Pitt’s qualifying run

Noriyuki Haga returned to the scene of one of his finest moments to end first qualifying in fourth position at Brno today. The Yamaha Motor Italia rider won at the classic Czech circuit last year, despite qualifying way back on the fifth row, and today confirmed his liking of the circuit by putting his YZF-R1 on the provisional front row for Sunday's race. A combination of high temperatures and residue left from car racing meant that the riders struggled for grip on the dirty surface and struggled to match their times from last month's three-day test at the same venue. Haga's best lap of the day was 2:02.904, over a second slower than his best time on race tyres at last month's test, but just half-a-second behind provisional pole man James Toseland (Honda). A heavy shower with just minutes of the session remaining meant that team-mate Andrew Pitt was unable to make what he expected to be his fastest lap of the day. The Australian, winner last time out in Misano, ended the day in 13th position. Despite his lower than expected position, the former supersport world champion was happy with his day's work, having made small but important improvements to his YZF-R1's settings and completing a race simulation.

Yamaha Motor France's trio of riders spent most of the session having their own personal battle just outside the top 16. Norick Abe, Sebastien Gimbert and rookie Shinichi Nakatomi. Just three tenths of a second separated the riders as Frenchman Gimbert ended the day 19th, ahead of Japanese colleagues Abe and Nakatomi, who were 20th and 21st position respectively. Final qualifying for Sunday's two-race seventh round takes place tomorrow. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Fourth is ok but really I am not so happy. The grip levels are much lower than when we tested here. I think that there have been cars racing on the circuit and they have left some rubber on the track. We only have three different tyres to choose from and I tried the soft and medium ones. The soft was sliding around like a qualifier after a few laps and the feeling was also not so good with the medium. I am surprised because I usually have a good feeling with the bike and the tyres. We can try some things for tomorrow but I think that the heavy rain will change the surface anyway. Maybe that will be better or maybe it will be worse. We have to wait and find out." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "What can I say, I'd just gone out on a new tyre when it started to pour down! Up until that point it'd gone fine. There's not a lot of grip out there but I was quite happy with the bike and had been able to get in a race simulation. We improved things quite a bit between the morning and afternoon and we're definitely going in the right direction." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "Unfortunately I missed the team's test here through injury but it should not be a big problem as Brno is one of my favourite tracks. Today the problem for me is again rear traction. The surface is very slippery but the team will try a few thing for tomorrow to try and improve the bike and give me a chance to run at the front on Sunday." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "Brno is a long and challenging circuit but it is not a new track to me as we tested here recently. I was able to go quickly straight away but at the end it started to rain when I went out with a new tyre on and I couldn't go for a final fast lap. I am sure that we can make a big improvement tomorrow because the bike and the track will probably be in better condition." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "After good tests here and at Lausitz I think we expected a little bit more from today. We're having some problems with the grip levels but this seems to be as a result of the track surface. Looking at the lap times it seems that everyone is only able to do two or three fast laps before the performance level drops off. We'll work further on the settings for tomorrow but we'll have to see if the track surface improves overnight." Qualifying 1                                         Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, James Toseland, Honda, GBR, 2'2.349 2, Fonsi Nieto, Kawasaki, ESP, 2'2.723 3, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 2'2.847 4, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 2'2.904 5, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 2'3.058 6, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 2'3.107 7, Michel Fabrizio, Honda, ITA, 2'3.112 8, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 2'3.178 9, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'3.389 10, Steve Martin, Petronas, AUS, 2'3.408 11, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 2'3.146 12, Troy Corser, Suzuki, AUS, 2'3.475 13, Andrew Pitt, Yamaha, AUS, 2'3.528 14, Alex Barros, Honda, BRA, 2'3.728 15, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 2'3.901 16, Pierfrancesco Chili, Honda, ITA, 2'3.915 17, Roberto Rolfo, Ducati, ITA, 2'3.947 18, Fabien Foret, Suzuki, FRA, 2'4.136 19, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 2'4.245 20, Norick Abe, Yamaha, JPN, 2'4.373 21, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 2'4.580 22, Craig Jones, Petronas, GBR, 2'5.152 23, Pawel Szkopek, Ducati, CZE, 2'5.165 24, Joshua Brookes, Kawasaki, AUS, 2'5.863 25, Ivan Clementi, Ducati, ITA, 2'6.299 26, Vittorio Iannuzzo, Suzuki, ITA, 2'7.241 27, Marco Borciani, Ducati, ITA, 2'7.895 28, Jiri Drazdak, Yamaha, CZE, 2'8.039 29, Berto Camlek, Yamaha, SVN, 2'8.237 30, Marek Svoboda, Yamaha, CZE, 2'8.372 31, Milos Cihak, Suzuki, CZE, 2'8.524                     QUALIFYING 1 REPORT - 21/07/2006 Yamaha Motor Germany pair fastest in first Brno practice Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes topped the timesheets in this afternoon's first qualifying session at Brno. The Australian YZF-R6 riders were able to take advantage of three days testing at the Czech venue last month and, just as at the test, it was Curtain who ended the day as the fastest rider - one tenth of a second ahead of his team-mate. Both riders were fractionally slower than the times they achieved in testing, Curtain's best of 2:06.407 comparing to a 2:06.0 set last month, with the hot conditions responsible for a reduction in grip levels. Third fastest in today's first qualifying session was Italian Simone Sanna (Honda), with Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) completing the provisional front row. Misano winner Massimo Roccoli ended the day eighth on his Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6, with Yamaha GMT94's David Checa 11th and Gianluca Vizziello 12th on the second Yamaha Team Italia entry. Qualifying 1                                         Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Kevin Curtain, Yamaha, AUS, 2'6.407 2, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 2'6.556 3, Simone Sanna, Honda, ITA, 2'6.736 4, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 2'6.863 5, Sebastien Charpentier, Honda, FRA, 2'6.906 6, Yoann Tibero, Honda, FRA, 2'6.979 7, Johan Stigefelt, Honda, SWE, 2'7.034 8, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.176 9, Christian Zaiser, Ducati, AUT, 2'7.188 10, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 2'7.407 11, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 2'7.408 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.476 13, Gregory Leblanc, Honda, FRA, 2'7.682 14, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 2'7.720 15, Mauro Sanchini, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.733 16, William De Angelis, Honda, ITA, 2'8.073 17, Kai Borre Andersen, Suzuki, NOR, 2'8.084 18, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 2'8.269 19, Sebastien Le Grelle, Honda, BEL, 2'8.269 20, Maxime Berger, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'8.272 21, Stephane Chambon, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'8.336 22, Xavi Fores, Yamaha, ESP, 2'8.397 23, Vesa Kallio, Yamaha, FIN, 2'8.667 24, Miguel Praia, Honda, POR, 2'8.883 25, Tatu Lauslehto, Honda, FIN, 2'9.054 26, Julien Enjolras, Yamaha, FRA, 2'9.113 27, Luka Nedog, Ducati, SVN, 2'9.214 28, Stuart Easton, Ducati, GBR, 2'9.495 29, Alessio Corradi, Yamaha, ITA, 2'9.740 30, Sebastiano Zerbo, Yamaha, ITA, 2'9.884 31, Vactav Bittman, Honda, CZE, 2'10.274 32, Alessio Velini, Yamaha, ITA, 2'10.320 33, Bernat Martinez, Yamaha, ESP, 2'10.337 34, Tom Tunstall, Honda, GBR, 2'10.437 35, Vladimir Ivanov, Yamaha, RUS, 2'10.536 36, Javier Hidalgo, Honda, ESP, 2'11.257 37, Andrea Berta, Yamaha, ITA, 2'12.193 38, David Garcia, Yamaha, ITA, 2'12.632