Corser On Provisional Pole with Haga Fourth

Troy Corser set the early pace at the first round of the 2008 World Superbike season in Qatar, posting a first day qualifying time of 1'59.627 on race tyres and getting to within half a second of the current lap record. Corser's fellow Yamaha rider Noriyuki Haga secured a provisional front row position of fourth, despite falling heavily two-thirds of the way through the hour long qualifying session. Conditions at Losail were problematic for all riders, with a strong and gusting wind blowing down the kilometre-long main straight, holding down top speed potentials and making corner entry a challenge. With both riders inside the top four places, the experienced Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team made the best use of their recent testing experiences in Qatar, and few changes were made to the machine settings since that test at the 5.380km Losail circuit. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was on strong form on day one, setting ninth fastest time, with his team-mate Davide Checa (Yamaha GMT94) 17th. Final qualifying and then Superpole qualifying take place tomorrow, Friday 22nd, before Saturday's pair of 18-lap Superbike races. Troy Corser (1st - 1'59.627 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Having the test so soon before the race was good because we got a really strong engine setting with the bike. The chassis feels quite good but it is difficult to know how well things are working, just because of the wind. That is probably the windiest conditions I have ever ridden in.. It wasn't so bad that we shouldn't have been out there, but today was all down to how much you wanted to push. I didn't really change too many settings from the test, just left it to get today out of the way. We just need the wind to die down for tomorrow. The track grip is comparable to what we had here at the test. I think the wind is blowing as much sand off the track as it is blowing sand back on. The only real problem is that the worst direction for the wind to blow here is down the main straight, like it was today. The bike and the team are working well so it's been a positive start." Noriyuki Haga (4th - 2'00.476 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "It was difficult to make the best lap times in these conditions, but the feeling with the bike was very good. Unfortunately I had a big highside at turn one, on water coming from the bike. I landed straight on top of my head. I think before the crash I was half a centimetre taller. I am in a lot of pain but I will rest tonight and be better tomorrow. Top four is a good result for the first day. Our target point for tomorrow is make some changes in suspension, but I think we have the package right now anyway." Massimo Meregalli - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team, Team Manager "We are happy with that for a first day. We have to consider that we had a test here recently, so we should expect good results. Troy's time was great given the conditions and we know we have two very strong riders in all circumstances. We feel for Nori after his crash, we can see he is in pain, but we also know him and he is strong. Now we will look that the bike and see if there was a problem." Qualifying 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 1'59.627 2, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 1'59.853 3, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 2'0.307 4, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 2'0.476 5, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 2'0.599 6, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 2'0.695 7, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 2'0.724 8, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 2'0.744 9, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 2'0.857 10, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 2'0.904 11, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 2'0.937 12, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 2'1.086 13, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 2'1.409 14, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 2'1.677 15, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 2'1.729 16, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 2'1.955 17, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 2'1.984 18, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 2'2.004 19, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'2.100 20, Vittorio Iannuzzo, Kawasaki, ITA, 2'2.256 21, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 2'2.494 22, Luca Morelli, Honda, ITA, 2'2.980 23, Russel Holland, Honda, AUS, 2'3.006 24, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 2'3.542 25, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 2'3.765 26, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 2'3.796 27, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 2'4.264 28, Loic Napoleone, Yamaha, FRA, 2'6.363 ---------- QUALIFYING 1 REPORT - 21/02/2008 Foret Goes Fastest On Day One Of New Season Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport Team) made a fabulous start to his 2008 race season by posting the fastest lap of the opening qualifying session at the Losail International circuit in Qatar. The former World Supersport Champion had to fight high winds and a dusty track surface to set a best of 2'03.495, some 0.346 seconds faster than the next best rider. Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) has been the fastest rider of all in pre-season testing, including here in Qatar only a few days ago, but found unexpected issues in the Losail circuit's many fast corners today. He was 13th overall in the official practice session. One more qualifying session remains for both Foret and Parkes to improve their times tomorrow, before the 18-lap race on Saturday 23 February. Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team rider David Salom was an impressive seventh fastest from the 36 riders in Qatar, making a good job of dealing with the treacherous winds that have plagued the desert circuit since for the past few days. His stand-in team-mate, Josep Pedro, substituting for the injured David De Gea, was 36th on his Qatar debut. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) worked hard to find the right suspension settings and choose a race tyre in the windy conditions, hoping to improve on his 18th fastest time today on the second day of qualifying. Fabien Foret (1st - 2'03.495 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "We worked very hard this winter and now we are seeing the benefits. The conditions are very difficult, for me and for everyone. I tried to be safe and yet push at the same time, trying to manage the wind. It difficult for us to set the bike up in these conditions as the wind is not constant, it changes lap-by-lap. I still have a little bit of chatter but we can improve tomorrow. We are there now and it has been a good start today." Broc Parkes (13th - 2'05.301 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "We are obviously having problems with the bike right now but we couldn't work out what was wrong in this session. I should maybe have hopped on my spare bike and had a go, but we concentrated on my number one bike. We ended up quite a long way out. I think there is something wrong that we will find and tomorrow will be OK." Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team "Fabien was very impressive and as fast as the tests last week, and that was also held in not ideal circumstances. We have different tyres now and everything is reacting a little bit different. Broc is having the opposite experience because all the tests have been great and now he is missing a lot of time compared to his testing pace. He did a 2.02.9 a few days ago here. Both our guys can be fast but everything has to be good, and right now Broc is losing a lot of time in fast corners." David Salom (7th - 2'04.858 - Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team) "We have many years of hard work behind us all and this good result on the first day is down to the whole team. The Team manager has set up a great team and we have good suspension and telemetry people who are doing a good job. They are helping me to take advantage of everything I have. It is a team effort." Qualifying 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Fabien Foret, Yamaha, FRA, 2'3.495 2, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 2'3.841 3, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 2'4.017 4, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 2'4.017 5, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 2'4.446 6, Craig Jones, Honda, GBR, 2'4.766 7, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 2'4.858 8, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 2'4.880 9, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 2'4.996 10, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 2'5.211 11, Mark Aitchinson, Triumph, AUS, 2'5.217 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 2'5.264 13, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 2'5.301 14, Garry McCoy, Triumph, AUS, 2'5.349 15, Vesa Kallio, Honda, FIN, 2'5.445 16, Mirko Giansanti, Honda, ITA, 2'5.495 17, Andrea Antonelli, Honda, ITA, 2'5.586 18, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 2'5.715 19, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Kawasaki, JPN, 2'5.742 20, Arnaud Vincent, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'5.941 21, Graeme Gowland, Honda, GBR, 2'6.007 22, Gregory Leblanc, Honda, FRA, 2'6.033 23, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 2'6.139 24, Lorenzo Alfonsi, Kawasaki, ITA, 2'6.406 25, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 2'6.468 26, Miguel Praia, Honda, POR, 2'6.751 27, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 2'6.755 28, Ilario Dionisi, Triumph, ITA, 2'7.246 29, William De Angelis, Honda, ITA, 2'7.681 30, Santiago Barragan, Honda, ESP, 1'7.681 31, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 2'7.935 32, Luka Nedog, Honda, SVN, 2'8.761 33, Gergo Talmacsi, Honda, HUN, 2'9.165 35, Attila Magda, Honda, HUN, 2'11.246