Haga hot in Valencia qualifying

Noriyuki Haga was in fine form during qualifying for Sunday's third round of the Superbike World Championship, ending the day fourth on the timesheets. Having enjoyed successful tests at Valencia and Misano prior to this event, the Japanese star was able to take advantage of the Yamaha Motor Italia team's continuing development work to put his YZF-R1 to the head of the timesheets for much of the session, only to be displaced in the closing stages. Despite his provisional front row starting position, Haga and his team will work on improving rear tyre grip and endurance ahead of Sunday's two races. Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt had a difficult first day in Valencia, struggling with set-up problems that saw him slide off at slow speed during the session. The Australian started the day with the settings used successfully during the recent Misano test, only to revert back to the tried and Valencia set-up with limited success. The former supersport world champion was perplexed by the lack of front end feeling offered by his machine and will work with his team on rectifying the situation ahead of tomorrow's final qualifying and superpole sessions. Despite his problems Pitt still ended the day in 14th position. Yamaha Motor France's Norick Abe had one of his best qualifying performances as a superbike rider. The Japanese star, who fought for a podium placing in Valencia last year, was using a new specification engine for the first time and topped the timesheets during the session, ending the day seventh. Team-mate Shinichi Nakatomi was another giving his best showing of the year, finishing the day in 17th. Provisional pole position was today taken by world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki), with championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and Steve Martin (Petronas) making it a trio of Australians at the head of the leaderboard. With weather forecasts predicting a high chance of rain, today's positions could determine the qualifying positions for tomorrow's top 16 superpole session. Noriyuki Haga "Compared to the test here a few weeks ago the grip levels are very low. Our times are not so bad but we must work on making the rear tyre work better, so tonight we will sit with the team and plan some big changes for tomorrow. This is one of my favourite tracks so I hope that we can find the changes to allow us to fight for the lead over the race distance." Andrew Pitt "I've got a problem with the front end and that caused me to crash. We started today with the settings we used at the Misano test, but they just didn't work here. We went back to what we used at the test here last month but I was just losing the front end everywhere. It was bouncing up and down and I just couldn't push at all. We're going to have to sort it out tonight but I'm not getting down about it. We're not far off the pace and if we can sort this problem out then we should be right up there." Norick Abe "My team has worked very hard to improve the engine performance for this race. In the first two races our performances were not so good and at the two tests we had I tried out six or seven engine specifications that did not seem much different. For this race we have another new engine and it is a big improvement. On my time attack lap I came across many slow riders and I was not able to make a faster lap time. I am feeling very confident for the weekend and hope to continue our improvements tomorrow." Shinichi Nakatomi "It's my best qualifying so far and I am happy with the progress we have made. The times are very close and I will be doing my best to make the superpole tomorrow." Massimo Meregalli "It seems that there is some kind of problem on Andrew's bike because we used the settings from when we rode here earlier this month and it is just not right. We are looking at the problem now and will have it fixed for tomorrow. Noriyuki did a good job but we are still not satisfied, we need to work on improving the set-up and will try some different things for tomorrow." Martial Garcia "We have made some good improvements to the bike following the Misano test and our riders have responded with some good performances. I am also very pleased with the performance of our other regular rider Sebastien Gimbert. He is not here this weekend as he is competing at Le Mans with Yamaha GMT94 and has put them on pole position." Parkes second in supersport practice Broc Parkes ended today's first qualifying session for Sunday's third round of the Supersport World Championship in second position. On a circuit that offered little grip following heavy overnight rain the 24-year-old Australian's best lap of 1:37.942 was headed only by world champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda). Parkes and his Yamaha Motor Germany team-mate Kevin Curtain arrived at the circuit using the settings found at their successful Valencia test earlier this month, only to find that they didn't work as well on the slippery circuit. Despite this the team worked to adapt the bike to the conditions, allowing Parkes to go over half a second quicker than his test time. Curtain ended the day seventh fastest with a lap time of 1:38.646 with 18-year-old Spanish wild-card Jordi Torres eighth on another YZF-R6. Final qualifying takes place tomorrow afternoon.