Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Yukio Kagayama ended the first day of qualifying at the Eurospeedway Lausitz with the third fastest time. The Japanese rider was suffering a little from sore ligaments in his right knee (sustained when he crashed at Brands Hatch in the last round), but still managed to get on the pace right from the start. His team mate Max Biaggi finished the day with the seventh quickest time, but was not pushing his GSX-R1000 hard as he had not found a comfortable set-up in today’s two sessions. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) took provisional pole, with a lap of 1:38.569, in the closing stages of this afternoon’s timed qualifying. His fellow countryman Troy Corser (Yamaha) is second quickest, two tenths of a second behind, with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) in fourth - just behind Yukio.
Yukio - 3rd, 1:38.980"The bike is not so bad here today and the only problems I had today was a small brake problem and some pain in my right knee. The brake problem happened when I was hard on the brakes and the bike did not feel as stable as I would’ve liked. But we will work on this small problem and I am sure that it will be better tomorrow. After Brands Hatch, I went home to Japan and while I was there, I saw a doctor about my knee and he told me that I had damaged some ligaments in my right knee. So I knew that it might get a bit sore once I was back on the bike. Today, I had a little problem when I tried to change direction quickly. So, I will have some physiotherapy and see how much I can improve it. At the moment, I don’t think it’s going to affect my riding too much and my intention is to forget about it, qualify well and fight for the podiums on Sunday."
Max - 7th, 1:39.433"Today was OK. I did not find the best set-up so I was not confident enough to push the bike hard. Conditions today were not so good; in the morning parts of the track felt damp and although it was dry in the afternoon, it felt cold and certainly not like when we all tested here in June. We started the day with more or less the same set-up as we had used in the last two rounds, to see how it would work here. But didn’t work really well, so tomorrow we will go in the same direction as when we tested here. In the end, I think that our set-up will probably be something between the two. I feel sure that we will improve tomorrow and hopefully we will find a good set-up for the races."
Friday Qualifying:1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:38.569,
2 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:38.780,
3 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:38.980,
4 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:39.011,
5 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:39.086,
6 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:39.127,
7 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:39.433,
8 Fabrizio (I-Honda) 1:39.487,
9 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:39.525,
10 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:39.639,
Circuit: 4.265 kms.
Weather: Mostly cloudy 14-19 C.
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