Yamaha Motor Italia warmed up for their second home race of the season with a productive day of practice in Misano today. Andrew Pitt spent the day's two one hour sessions working on finding good race settings for his Yamaha YZF-R1 in the hot conditions. The Australian was able to try out all the Pirelli tyre options at his disposal and settle on his likely choices for the race. Pitt posted the sixth best time of the session, a 1:35.448, despite being held up in traffic. With track temperatures of over 50°C, grip levels proved significantly lower than at April's test at the same venue. Noriyuki Haga struggled to find as good a setting as he would have liked on his YZF-R1. The Japanese star, who lies third in the championship, plans to make changes to his machine overnight to improve the handling and traction of his machine. Like Pitt he worked exclusively on finding settings for Sunday's two 25-lap races, ending the day less than a second from provisional pole - in 12th place with a best of 1:35.816. Yamaha Motor France riders Norick Abe, Sebastien Gimbert and Shinichi Nakatomi all fought problems during the session. Nakatomi was the fastest of the trio, ending the day 19th despite riding with an arm injury sustained during the last round in Silverstone. Gimbert experienced set-up problems and ended the day in 20th with Abe complaining of a lack of traction as he ended the day an unusually low 24th. Championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) was the fastest man on show today, recording a 1:34.903 on his final lap of the day. Troy Corser (Suzuki), Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) and Chris Walker (Kawasaki) complete the provisional front row. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I was surprised at how well the bike has gone in these hot conditions. We did a lot of laps and have tested all our tyre options, so we know what we'll be using for the race. At the end we put the best settings on and I was able to do a good lap, even though I got held up in traffic a bit. Tomorrow it's about trying to refine the package further so that we can be in the best possible shape for the race." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "The traction levels are a lot lower now than when we tested in April so we still have to improve the balance of the bike. I want to be able to change direction of the bike more easily and generally make the bike easier to ride. We'll look at the suspension and gearing tonight and I think we can find some progress for tomorrow." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "We had some problems with the chassis settings today so I think that we can make some big improvements tomorrow. The times are very close with just over a second between me and Bayliss in pole so I know that we can be close to superpole tomorrow." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I was able to do many laps today and my arm did not hurt too much, so this is promising for the race. I am glad to be coming to a circuit I know, because we have already tested here and I am pleased to be faster than my team-mates." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "For me it is the same as last year's race here. I have no grip and the back wheel is just sliding around. I tried very hard to make a good lap time, especially in those last three laps, but I could not make the improvement. We are already looking at the data to see what improvements we can make to try and find a solution for tomorrow." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "I'm quite satisfied. Obviously you want to be right up the front but Andrew has had a good day and was able to find a setting that works well. He's already found a tyre that works for the race and tomorrow we'll make a few changes to try and give him more front end feeling. Nori is still looking for the best set-up but I am not too worried as he is often wanting to make big changes to the bike on the Friday night but we usually find a solution for Saturday." Round: 6 - Misano Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 34.913 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.525 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Date: 23 June 2006 Temp: 25ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 1 T. Bayliss Ducati AUS 1' 34.903 2 T. Corser Suzuki AUS 1' 35.016 3 R. Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1' 35.166 4 C. Walker Kawasaki GBR 1' 35.255 5 S. Martin Petronas AUS 1' 35.313 6 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 1' 35.448 7 M. Fabrizio Honda ITA 1' 35.466 8 J. Toseland Honda GBR 1' 35.553 9 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1' 35.561 10 F. Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1' 35.667 11 R. Rolfo Ducati ITA 1' 35.682 12 N. Haga Yamaha JPN 1' 35.816 13 L. Lanzi Ducati ITA 1' 35.851 14 A. Barros Honda BRA 1' 35.858 15 K. Muggeridge Honda AUS 1' 35.965 16 F. Foret Suzuki FRA 1' 36.037 19 S. Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1' 36.111 20 S. Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1' 36.144 24 N. Abe Yamaha JPN 1' 36.625 WSS : Yamaha dominant in first practice at Misano Round: 6 - Misano WSS Circuit: Misano Date: 23 June 2006 Temp: 31ºC Weather: Sunny Yamaha enjoyed a dream start to qualifying for Sunday's sixth round of the Supersport World Championship at Misano, with YZF-R6 riders occupying four of the top five places in first qualifying today. Yamaha Motor Germany's Australian rider Broc Parkes topped the timesheets with a time half-a-second under Katsuaki Fujiwara's three-year-old lap record. The 24-year-old had slipped off uninjured in the morning warm-up but fought back to set a best of 1:37.407, one-tenth-of-a-second faster than Gianluca Vizzello on the Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6, in the afternoon's timed practice. Local rider Massimo Roccoli ended the day fourth on the other Yamaha Team Italia entry. The 21-year-old, who hails from nearby Rimini, posted a fastest time of 1:37.601 to complete the provisional front row. Young French rider Yoann Tibero is the odd man out on the provisional front row, taking third on his Honda. Parkes' team-mate Kevin Curtain had been at the top of the timesheets when his bike developed a minor technical fault with 15 minutes of the session remaining. The Australian was able to return to the pits and rejoin using his spare machine, but with his second bike using different settings he was unable to improve his time and slipped back to fifth. Yamaha GMT94's David Checa ended the day ninth to give the YZF-R6 five of the top 10 places on the grid. Grid positions for Sunday's 23-lap will be decided by in tomorrow afternoon's final qualifying session. Round: 6 - Misano WSS Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 37.924 (Katsuaki Fujiwara, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 36.846 (Simone Sanna, 2003) Date: 23 June 2006 Temp: 31ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 1 B. Parkes Yamaha AUS 1' 37.407 2 G. Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1' 37.515 3 Y. Tibero Honda FRA 1' 37.555 4 M. Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1' 37.601 5 K. Curtain Yamaha AUS 1' 38.157 6 C. Zaiser Ducati AUT 1' 38.183 7 R. Harms Honda DNK 1' 38.450 8 J. Stigefelt Honda SWE 1' 38.555 9 D. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 38.578 10 S. Sanna Honda ITA 1' 38.626 11 X. Fores Yamaha ESP 1' 38.663 12 S. Zerbo Yamaha ITA 1' 38.875 13 A. Vos Honda NED 1' 38.879 14 M. Berger Kawasaki FRA 1' 38.947 15 G. Leblanc Honda FRA 1' 39.005 16 B. Martinez Yamaha ESP 1' 39.101 20 M. Sanchini Yamaha ITA 1' 39.440 26 A. Corradi Yamaha ITA 1' 39.795 27 J. Enjolras Yamaha FRA 1' 39.816 28 V. Ivanov Yamaha RUS 1' 39.888 30 A. Velini Yamaha ITA 1' 39.985
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