Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport Team) made a fabulous start to his 2008 race season by posting the fastest lap of the opening qualifying session at the Losail International circuit in Qatar. The former World Supersport Champion had to fight high winds and a dusty track surface to set a best of 2'03.495, some 0.346 seconds faster than the next best rider. Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) has been the fastest rider of all in pre-season testing, including here in Qatar only a few days ago, but found unexpected issues in the Losail circuit's many fast corners today. He was 13th overall in the official practice session. One more qualifying session remains for both Foret and Parkes to improve their times tomorrow, before the 18-lap race on Saturday 23 February.
Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team rider David Salom was an impressive seventh fastest from the 36 riders in Qatar, making a good job of dealing with the treacherous winds that have plagued the desert circuit since for the past few days. His stand-in team-mate, Josep Pedro, substituting for the injured David De Gea, was 36th on his Qatar debut.
Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) worked hard to find the right suspension settings and choose a race tyre in the windy conditions, hoping to improve on his 18th fastest time today on the second day of qualifying.
Fabien Foret (1st - 2'03.495 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)"We worked very hard this winter and now we are seeing the benefits. The conditions are very difficult, for me and for everyone. I tried to be safe and yet push at the same time, trying to manage the wind. It difficult for us to set the bike up in these conditions as the wind is not constant, it changes lap-by-lap. I still have a little bit of chatter but we can improve tomorrow. We are there now and it has been a good start today."
Broc Parkes (13th - 2'05.301 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)"We are obviously having problems with the bike right now but we couldn't work out what was wrong in this session. I should maybe have hopped on my spare bike and had a go, but we concentrated on my number one bike. We ended up quite a long way out. I think there is something wrong that we will find and tomorrow will be OK."
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team"Fabien was very impressive and as fast as the tests last week, and that was also held in not ideal circumstances. We have different tyres now and everything is reacting a little bit different. Broc is having the opposite experience because all the tests have been great and now he is missing a lot of time compared to his testing pace. He did a 2.02.9 a few days ago here. Both our guys can be fast but everything has to be good, and right now Broc is losing a lot of time in fast corners."
David Salom (7th - 2'04.858 - Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team)"We have many years of hard work behind us all and this good result on the first day is down to the whole team. The Team manager has set up a great team and we have good suspension and telemetry people who are doing a good job. They are helping me to take advantage of everything I have. It is a team effort."
Circuit Length: 5380
Weather: Windy
Qualifying 1 - WSS Qatar - Doha/Losail:1. Fabien Foret - Yamaha - FRA 2'3.495
2. Jonathan Rea - Honda - GBR 2'3.841
3. Matthieu Lagrive - Honda - FRA 2'4.017
4. Joan Lascorz - Honda - ESP 2'4.017
5. Gianluca Nannelli - Honda - ITA 2'4.446
6. Craig Jones - Honda - GBR 2'4.766
7. David Salom - Yamaha - ESP 2'4.858
8. Barry Veneman - Suzuki - NED 2'4.880
9. Andrew Pitt - Honda - AUS 2'4.996
10. Ivan Clementi - Triumph - ITA 2'5.211
11. Mark Aitchinson - Triumph - AUS 2'5.217
12. Gianluca Vizziello - Honda - ITA 2'5.264
13. Broc Parkes - Yamaha - AUS 2'5.301
14. Garry McCoy - Triumph - AUS 2'5.349
15. Vesa Kallio - Honda - FIN 2'5.445
18. Massimo Roccoli - Yamaha - ITA 2'5.715
