Corser on pole as 2007 R1 continues impressive debut

Troy Corser lived up to his reputation as the king of superpole in Qatar today, setting a blistering lap time to grab pole position for his first races with the Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team.

The new-for-2007 YZF-R1 has made an immediate impact in its first world championship outing with Noriyuki Haga setting the pace yesterday and Corser taking pole today. Haga continued his great form in superpole and will join his team-mate on the front row for tomorrow's races.

Corser, who will sit on pole for the 39th time tomorrow, didn't have the ideal preparation for his superpole lap after crashing at the end of the preceding free practice session. The Australian rider had gone out to test the soft qualifying tyre used for superpole but slid off as he entered the second turn.

His job looked doubly difficult when superbike newcomer Max Biaggi (Suzuki) became the first man to record a sub 1:59 lap time in superpole. Corser, who elected to run a tried and tested race tyre rather than the super-sticky qualifier, simply put the crash behind him and stormed to a 1:58.402 lap - one-third of a second quicker than the Italian and the fastest ever superbike time around the Losail circuit.

Team-mate Haga was delighted to secure an all-important front row start for tomorrow's 18-lap races. The Japanese star also opted not to use the softer qualifying tyre, preferring to use the softest race option instead. Haga's lap was, by his own admission, less than perfect but the combination of the R1's power and Haga's own skill and determination helped him stop the clock in 1:59.294, good enough for fourth place on tomorrow's grid.

Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi was the first rider to set off on his superpole lap after ending the two hours of qualifying in 16th position. The Japanese rider was unable to improve his time or qualifying position and will start the races from the fourth row after recording a time of 2:02.301. Despite failing to go faster on the soft superpole tyre, Nakatomi feels he has a good set up for the races and can make up positions as he regularly did last season.

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "I'm delighted to get the pole, although I think that Yamaha and the team are even more excited! You always just go out to have a clean lap and not make any mistakes. The front row is what you want but pole is always a nice bonus.

"I had a little crash just before the superpole. I went out on the qualifier and I don't really know what happened. I guess that I was probably taking it too easy because the back end just slid away as I turned in for the second corner. It was unfortunate. I got caught out yesterday as well, when went down on some oil, but I'm thankful that I slid down the way I did, because it could have been a nasty highside.

"It's a new bike and Nori and I are working really well together in the box. We're both doing our own things but we're also sharing a lot of information, especially on the suspension settings and tyre selections, to get the best out of the bike. I've got a really good feeling with the team and even though we've only been working together a short time we're working together well and it can only get better. The track is getting better the more we ride on it and I thought the tyres worked pretty well today. I did a lot of laps with James (Toseland) in practice and our lap times were pretty good. If we can make a good tyre choice then I think we should be up the front tomorrow."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "I'm very happy to be on the front row. During the superpole I made a mistake with my braking early in the lap, so I pushed hard and made another small mistake. But the lap time was good and the front row is always the target. We did a lot of work on the suspension today as we are trying to get the maximum from the tyre in race condition and I think that we can feel the benefit of this tomorrow."

Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) "I think we are ready for the races. This is what we concentrate on during the practice and I have been able to make lots of consistent laps. We are learning more about this new bike all the time and I think we can improve more tomorrow."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "We did not really expect to make the pole after Troy's crash but he was very focused and did a great job. Noriyuki's superpole lap was also done on the soft race tyre, rather than the qualifier, because he prefers to use this. So Troy on pole and Nori on the front row is a great result for the team and I hope we can continue the good results in the races tomorrow."

Circuit Length: 5380 Temp: 26 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSB Qatar 23/02/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'58.402 2 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'58.724 3 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'59.005 4 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'59.294 5 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'59.537 6 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'59.668 7 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'59.964 8 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 2'0.098 9 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 2'0.240 10 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 2'0.414 11 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 2'0.429 12 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 2'1.085 13 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 2'1.176 14 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 2'1.411 15 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 2'1.581 16 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 2'2.301

Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'58.681 2 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'58.922 3 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'58.955 4 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'59.286 5 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'59.369 6 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'59.457 7 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'59.507 8 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'59.830 9 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'59.919 10 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 2'0.077 11 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 2'0.244 12 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 2'0.329 13 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 2'0.350 14 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 2'0.839 15 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 2'0.936 16 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 2'1.076

QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 23/02/2007 Yamaha's Curtain storms to Qatari pole    Kevin Curtain made his intentions for the 2007 Supersport World Championship clear by blasting his Yamaha YZF-R6 to pole position for tomorrow's opening race at the Losail circuit in Qatar.

The Australian had endured a tough day in yesterday's practice, destroying his preferred machine when he was an innocent victim of a pile-up during the first practice session, but the Yamaha World Supersport team rider gave a virtuoso performance in today's second session, improving his time by almost two seconds. Curtain instantly improved his Thursday time and topped the timesheets for most of the session, although it was his perfectly timed run right at the end of the session that finally grabbed the pole and gave his rivals no time to respond. The Yamaha man's 2:02.081 lap was a whole second quicker than last year's pole position and gives the 2006 championship runner up the third world championship pole of his career.

Curtain's team-mate Broc Parkes battled set-up problems throughout the qualifying sessions and will start tomorrow's 18 lap, 97km, race from the second row after improving his time and one place from yesterday's opening session. Parkes stopped the clock at 2:03.396 on the second of his three qualifying runs and although he went out to try and move up the grid at the end of the session, he was unable to improve his time. Italian youngster Massimo Roccoli improved his opening day time by over a second to make round out the top ten and make it three YZF-R6s in the first three rows.

Joining Curtain on the front row for what is expected to be a closely fought race will be Sebastien Charpentier, Katsuaki Fujiwara and Kenan Sofuoglu (all Honda). Last season's race saw Curtain finish second to eventual champion Charpentier on the still-developing R6's race debut.

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha World Supersport team) "Today's been a great start for us and, to be honest, a little unexpected after what happened yesterday. I was a big victim of the oil on the track yesterday and I have to thank my mechanics for building me a brand new bike overnight, because the other one was destroyed. Thanks to them we were able to get on and concentrate on the work we wanted to concentrate on yesterday. The bike is working very good here and we've been able to do a lot of work on the chassis and suspension over the winter, so hopefully we can take advantage of that here this weekend."

Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport team) "It's been a frustrating few days so far because when we came testing here I was able to do 2:02 laps all day long but so far this we've had a lot of problems with chattering and we can't quite put our finger on why that is. We've virtually turned the bike upside down but we've not been able to make much progress. We know that the bike's quick because Kevin's right on it, which is great for the team but frustrating for me. I know we'll try a few things for tomorrow and hopefully that will help us solve the chatter problem and put in a good race."

Circuit Length: 5380 Temp: 30 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSS Qatar 23/02/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 2'2.081 2 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 2'2.183 3 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 2'2.376 4 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 2'2.752 5 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 2'3.266 6 Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 2'3.342 7 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 2'3.396 8 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 2'3.477 9 Yoann Tiberio Honda FRA 2'3.806 10 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 2'3.921 11 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 2'4.142 12 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 2'4.142 13 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 2'4.308 14 Javier Fores Honda ESP 2'4.489 15 Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 2'4.687 24 David Checa Yamaha ESP 2'5.334 25 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 2'5.414