The afternoon qualifying for the Superbike riders saw little change in the circumstances leaving the riders once again struggle with wind and sand. The new Spanish arrival to the team secured the team’s fastest time of 2’01.409, placing him on the 13th place of the timesheets. WSB rookies Kiyonari and Sofuoglu put in a lot of work aboard the ‘work-in-progress’ CBR1000RR Fireblade and gradually reduced their lap times set over the day to end with a final best of 2’02.494 and 2’03.765 respectively. After changing the set-up of the bikes overnight, the team hopes to be able to put in a better performance in tomorrow’ s qualifying session.
Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: Today has been a very difficult day for our Superbike riders. Not only the conditions played havoc, but also riding a brand new bike that is still a work in progress proved to be a hard one for our riders. We will analyse the gathered data tonight and make some important changes in order to increase the performance for tomorrow’s qualifying. The potential is in our hands, but we still have to work on finding the right balance.
Carlos Checa, 2'01.409It has been very difficult to put in good lap times on the bike this morning. We still need to understand the bike balance and find consistency in order to improve our lap times. This basically is the last leg of testing for us, considering we missed out on some important pre-season testing. The CBR1000RR is completely new so we’ll just have to continue developing. It will be difficult to get ready for the race on Saturday, but I am confident about the bikes’ potential, we just have to find the best way to make it work for us.
Ryuichi Kyonari, 2'02.494I am not satisfied at all with my performance. Today has been very difficult for me trying to find the right balance on the bike, which makes it even harder to ride in these conditions. We have tried different set-ups to find the best balance, which will hopefully make me faster in tomorrow’s qualifying session. I am facing a difficult task ahead of me but am glad to hear the weather predictions are looking better for tomorrow.
Kenan Sofuoglu, 2'03.765My first qualifying in Superbike was very difficult for me because of the harsh circumstances. If you can control your bike it’s probably easier to control the bike, but right now it’s the conditions that seem to control the bike instead of me. For sure I will need to be a lot faster then this. We will have to change some settings on the bike for tomorrow. With the changing weather conditions I am hoping to be able to put in a better performance.
Circuit: Losail, Qatar
Conditions: Strong wind, sunny
Qualifying times:1. T. Corser 1'59.627
2. T. Bayliss 1’59.853
3. F. Nieto 2'00.307
4. N. Haga 2'00.476
5. Y. Kagayama 2'00.599
6. R. Xaus 2'00.695
7. R. Lanzi 2'00.724
8. M. Biaggi 2'00.744
9. S. Gimbert 2'00.857
10. M. Neukirchner 2'00.904
11. M. Fabrizio 2'00.937
12. K. Muggeridge 2'01.086
13. C. Checa 2'01.409
21. R. Kiyonari 2'02.494
25. K. Sofuoglu 2'03.765
