WSB : Abe leads Yamahas in Valencia qualifying

Norick Abe had his best qualifying performance of the season, ending the day as the top Yamaha rider after setting the eighth fastest time in superpole. The former MotoGP star is reveling in a new specification engine provided by his Yamaha Motor France squad and has been up with the top riders all weekend. Fourth place in the pre-superpole practice session suggests that Abe should be at the sharp end in tomorrow's races. Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt will start from the third row in tomorrow's two 23-lap races in Valencia after setting the 10th and 11th fastest time in superpole. Both riders are finding grip levels at a premium on the Spanish track, which is not offering riders the same amount of traction they had at the official FGSport test at the venue several weeks ago. Despite running consistently strongly in race trim, Haga was unable to exploit the potential of his YZF-R1 in the one-lap superpole, struggling for rear end grip in a error-strewn lap. The Japanese star was unable to fully utilise the grip of his soft qualifying tyre and suffered a number of time sapping slides on his flying lap. While Haga lost five places from his position after the two one-hour sessions, Pitt dug deep to gain four places despite not completely eradicating the front-end handling problems that blighted him during Friday's session. The Australian rider survived a minor scare when he lost the front end in the preceding practice session, narrowly avoiding a crash by holding the bike up with his elbow. Yamaha Motor France's Shinichi Nakatomi found himself in the unfortunate situation of being one of the few riders to improve his time in the Saturday morning session but being shuffled back from his provisional grid position. The superbike rookie took over a tenth of a second from his best Friday lap time, but found himself dropped four places to 21st on the final grid as riders below him in the overnight standings found greater improvements. Lorenzo Alfonsi, standing in for the absent Sebastien Gimbert on the other Yamaha Motor France bike, will start from the back of the grid in his first race for the team. The former European superstock rider is not only having his first outing for the team, it is also his first race since suffering a serious injury at the end of last year. Pole position for tomorrow's races goes to world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) with Troy Bayliss (Ducati), Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) and Steve Martin (Petronas) completing the front row. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "The whole team is very motivated this weekend. For this race I have a new engine and it feels good, which is creating a good feeling in the team. There was more grip in the afternoon practice than in the superpole and it made the bike slide more easily on my time attack lap. I am happy with eighth. I am making very consistent laps and I hope that I can go and fight at the front tomorrow." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Of course, I am very disappointed to be starting 10th. After having a good test here earlier this month we are having traction problems this weekend. The superpole lap was not good. I made one mistake but also the rear traction was not as good as I had when I tried the qualifying tyre in the practice. The races will be very, very difficult for us but we will try to improve the bike overnight and work to get the best result possible." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I don't know if it's the rain we've been having or what it is but we just can't seem to get any grip this weekend. I'm lacking confidence in the front end. During the afternoon practice I had a big slide and ended up saving it on my elbow: the bike just went down and my elbow dug in and held me up. We made a lot of changes overnight but nothing seems to be making an improvement. Nori and I both seem to have the same problems and it's going to be a tough race for us tomorrow. The one thing we have on our side is that at least we are able to do consistent lap times over a race distance. Tonight though we will have a look to see what else we can try to make things better for the races."   Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "It was a shame we had the wet conditions in the morning as this meant I was unable to improve my time from yesterday. Tomorrow I will aim for a good start and try to get some points. I understand the Valencia track quite well now and I am pleased that we are all finding improvements with our bikes this weekend." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "After two tests in Valencia and Misano we felt that we had made a good step forward, only to come here and find that we are fighting for grip. We came to Valencia using the same settings we had at the test, although now Noriyuki cannot make the same lap times. Our bike seems to be very sensitive to changes in the conditions and tonight we will sit down to try and further understand the problems, although with the surface here in Valencia we might arrive tomorrow morning and find it has changed again." Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "Second row and top Yamaha is a good result for us. Norick is always very strong here and I am confident he can do some good races tomorrow. Shinichi is improving too but we must also remember that he is working as a development rider for Soqi suspension and this means that sometimes he is a little bit up and down in the sessions. Despite this he is a very consistent racer and I think that we can target some points for him tomorrow."    Round: 3 - Spain Circuit: Valencia Circuit Length: 4005 Lap Record: 1' 35.007 (Neil Hodgson, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 34.633 (Neil Hodgson, 2003) Date: 22 April 2006 Temp: 24ºC Session 2 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying   Superpole  1  T. Corser  Suzuki  AUS   1' 34.920     1' 36.640     1' 34.992  2  T. Bayliss  Ducati  AUS   1' 34.963     1' 35.260     1' 35.175  3  L. Lanzi  Ducati  ITA   1' 35.999     1' 35.926     1' 35.203  4  S. Martin  Petronas  AUS   1' 35.653     1' 36.811     1' 35.255  5  F. Nieto  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 36.004     1' 36.211     1' 35.351  6  R. Laconi  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 36.161     1' 37.668     1' 35.410  7  C. Walker  Kawasaki  GBR   1' 36.428     1' 35.522     1' 35.452  8  N. Abe  Yamaha  JPN   1' 35.974     1' 37.257     1' 35.701  9  J. Toseland  Honda  GBR   1' 36.116     1' 36.571     1' 35.784  10  N. Haga  Yamaha  JPN   1' 35.658     1' 37.227     1' 36.115  11  A. Pitt  Yamaha  AUS   1' 36.262     1' 37.281     1' 36.214  12  Y. Kagayama  Suzuki  JPN   1' 35.670     1' 37.559     N/A  13  R. Xaus  Ducati  ESP   1' 35.721     N/A     1' 36.362  14  F. Foret  Suzuki  FRA   1' 36.026     1' 36.986     1' 36.502  15  R. Rolfo  Ducati  ITA   1' 36.848     1' 36.348     1' 36.786  16  A. Barros  Honda  BRA   1' 36.130     1' 37.040     1' 36.887  21  S. Nakatomi  Yamaha  JPN   1' 36.794     1' 36.659   WSS : Front row for Yamaha Motor Germany pair Round: 3 - Spain WSS Circuit: Valencia Date: 22 April 2006 Temp: 21ºC Weather: Sunny Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes sped their YZF-R6s to the front row of tomorrow's world supersport race in Valencia. Curtain took advantage of the unexpectedly sunny conditions at the Spanish circuit to improve his time from Friday by almost one second to bag second place on the grid, behind world champion and current points leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda).  The Yamaha Motor Germany squad worked hard overnight to change the set-up of the rapidly improving R6, giving Curtain confidence going into tomorrow's 23-lap race. The Australian has already taken second place finishes in each of the first two rounds and would dearly love to add to his three career wins in the class in tomorrow's race. Team-mate and fellow Australian Broc Parkes will start from fourth position, even though he was unable to better his Friday time in today's 45 minute final session. Like Curtain, he worked on finding a good race set-up and is happy with the way his machine is performing. Joining Charpentier, Curtain and Parkes on the front row is Japanese rider Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda). Two other R6 riders made it to the top 10 in qualifying. Javi Fores and Jordi Torres, two privately entered Spanish riders, ended the day in fifth and 10th places respectively. Round: 3 - Spain WSS Circuit: Valencia Circuit Length: 4005 Lap Record: 1' 38.874 (Alessio Corradi, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 37.331 (Chris Vermeulen, 2003) Date: 22 April 2006 Temp: 21ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying  1  S. Charpentier  Honda  FRA   1' 36.913     1' 37.565   2  K. Curtain  Yamaha  AUS   1' 38.646     1' 37.698   3  K. Fujiwara  Honda  JPN   1' 38.141     1' 37.750   4  B. Parkes  Yamaha  AUS   1' 37.942     1' 38.201   5  X. Fores  Yamaha  ESP   1' 39.534     1' 38.385   6  R. Harms  Honda  DNK   1' 38.403     1' 38.672   7  B. Veneman  Suzuki  NED   1' 38.960     1' 38.448   8  K. Sofuoglu  Honda  TUR   1' 38.489     1' 39.240   9  Y. Tibero  Honda  FRA   1' 38.643     1' 39.122   10  J. Torres  Yamaha  ESP   1' 38.724     1' 38.716   11  K. Andersen  Suzuki  NOR   1' 39.216     1' 38.772   12  M. Roccoli  Yamaha  ITA   1' 39.672     1' 38.836   13  J. Stigefelt  Honda  SWE   1' 39.266     1' 38.971   14  C. Zaiser  Ducati  AUT   1' 39.003     1' 38.980   15  G. Vizziello  Yamaha  ITA   1' 39.137     N/A   16  W. De Angelis  Honda  ITA   1' 39.794     1' 39.216   18  K. Noyes  Yamaha  USA   1' 39.415     1' 39.412