Yamaha World Supersport Team riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes made a good start to their home race at Phillip Island today, ending the first qualifying session second and fourth respectively. Having set the fastest lap of the morning practice, Curtain racked up 15 laps in the afternoon qualifying session as he prepares for Sunday's 21-lap race.. The session was stopped 10 minutes before the end due to an accident, but when the action resumed Curtain went out and set a 1:35.425 lap, marginally slower than his best from the morning session but still good enough for second on the overnight grid.
Curtain's fellow Australian Parkes was another rider working on getting his R6 ready for race day. The 25-year-old put in 10 straight laps on his first run, testing tyre durability in the warm conditions. Like his team-mate he fitted new tyres for his final run, recording a best lap of 1:35.837 just as the chequered flag came out.
Yamaha GMT94's French rider Sebastien Gimbert ended the day 10th in what is only his second meeting on the YZF-R6, one place ahead of Russia's Vladimir Ivanov on his privately-entered Yamaha. Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni's Massimo Roccoli heads up the fourth row of the provisional grid, in 13th, with David Checa 16th on the other Yamaha GMT94 machine.
Fastest man in today's session was former world champion Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) with a 1:35.166. Final grid positions will be determined after tomorrow's second 45-minute qualifying session.
Kevin Curtain (1.35.425 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)"A good day. The bike is working really well and we were able to get in a lot of laps on the tyres. We've tested here already and now we're working towards the race. Tonight I'm satisfied because there were no dramas or major concerns. Tomorrow we'll work some more on getting the maximum out of the bike over the race distance and hopefully that'll pay dividends for us on Sunday."
Broc Parkes (1.35.837 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)"Qatar was a real disaster for us so it was great to have a good opening day here and get all that behind us. After testing here in January we've come with a good set-up so it's more a case of making a good bike better than trying to solve problems. Again we'll try a few things tomorrow and I'm confident we'll be ready to race come Sunday."
Circuit Length: 4445
Temp: 24
Weather: Dry
Qualifying 1 - WSS Phillip Island: 1 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 1'35.166
2 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'35.425
3 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'35.814
4 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'35.837
5 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'35.868
6 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'35.902
7 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'36.230
8 Yoann Tiberio Honda FRA 1'36.248
9 Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 1'36.398
10 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'36.627
11 Vladimir Ivanov Yamaha RUS 1'36.656
12 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'36.734
13 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'36.922
14 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 1'36.967
15 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1'37.050
16 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'37.114
Related Linkswww.yamaha-racing.com
