Ryuichi Kiyonari concluded his first Superpole appareance today with a best of 1'34.370 which places him on the 6th spot on the second row for tomorrow’s race. The young Japanese is consistently improving his pace and made an impressive appearance in his maiden Superpole lap in which he took 0.6 off his best lap time on qualifiers.
In the morning qualifying session, HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Carlos Checa put his new CBR1000RR Fireblade firmly on top of the sheets and passed provisional pole sitter Neukirchner with a new best lap time of 1'34.418. In the Superpole qualifying Checa had more difficulties to keep his leading pace on the qualifiers and finished 7th in 1'34.492 which puts him on the second row on the grid for tomorrow's race.
Ronald ten Kate, Team ManagerI am satisfied with the results achieved today. I am more then happy to see Kiyonari riding as well as he did today and finishing his first Superpole qualifying ahead of proven Superpole riders. He has already shown his pace in Australia so we’ll just have to see what more he has in store for us tomorrow.
Sofuoglu is improving step by step but the difficulties he’s facing in adapting his riding style to the CBR1000RR become more apparent on a small track like Valencia. I’m convinced he will improve further in the next race when we travel to the fast circuit of Assen.
Carlos Checa, Honda CBR1000RRI am satisfied with the second qualifying in which we tested tyres and selected the best one to work with in the Superpole session. I’m still struggling to set that one fast lap on the qualifiers but am satisfied we can keep a consistently fast pace on the race tyres. That’s were we can make the difference tomorrow in tomorrow’s race.
Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda CBR1000RRI was really excited for my first Superpole qualifying and happy with the result I achieved. After I endured some technical difficulties with my bike in the second practice session I had to get on my 2nd bike and change the set up for that one to improve my lap times. I started the Superpole with a best of 1’35.1 and managed to take some more off in one lap which has boost my confidence. There’s only that much time difference between the guys in the top 10 so it will be a fierce competition at the front tomorrow.
Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda CBR1000RRI feel like we have made some progression today but I still need to go faster to close the gap with the front. The field is so close, my best time of 1'35.911in the second qualifying put me on 24th place, but there’s only 0.7 between my best time and the last man in the top 10, Kiyonari who finished the second session in 1'35.148. That just shows how fierce the competition is.
Superpole:1 M.NEUKIRCHNER 1'33.805
2 Y. KAGAYAMA 1'33.928
3 T. BAYLISS 1'33.976
4 R. XAUS 1'34.332
5 L. LANZI 1'34.370
6 R. KIYONARI 1'34.370
7 C. CHECA 2 1'34.492
8 T. CORSER 1'34.613
9 M. BIAGGI 1'34.658
10 N. HAGA 1'34.770
