Pitt sixth fastest in first qualifying

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