Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) posted an impressive second fastest time in the first qualifying session at the Circuit van Drenthe while riding his number two bike, after an accident in the early part of the hour-long first qualifying session prevented him from using his number one machine.
His team-mate Troy Corser spent his first day of action working through various machine settings in preparation for Sunday's 22 lap Superbike races, and thus was an unusually lowly 15th on the first day rankings. Corser had to react quickly to avoid a crash that caused the first of two interruptions to the Superbike qualifying session, and the session was finally ended by a second red flag, with only seconds remaining.
The day dawned with a wet track surface at Assen after overnight rain, but occasional sunshine and track temperatures which eventually almost hit 30°C allowed the lap times to drop and the teams to make progress in finding solutions for this fast and unique circuit.
David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) just edged out Corser in the first day's order and a three rider Yamaha run was completed by Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi, who was 16th fastest. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was 21st fastest on the first day, but less than 1.5 seconds from provisional pole man Troy Bayliss.
Noriyuki Haga (2nd - 1'40.009 - Yamaha Italy WSB Team)
"I didn't have any problems after the crash, I just folded the front on the first right after the back straight. I used the second bike and it felt a bit different but we can make it feel more like my number one bike tomorrow. We need to get the gearing sorted as well, between third and fourth gear. We are nearly there with the overall set-up; we'll just make some adjustments in the suspension settings. I think we have a choice of one tyre fitment, for the front and the rear, so tomorrow we will check that by doing a long run."
Troy Corser (15th - 1'40.778 - Yamaha Italy WSB Team)"We are just trying different things, swingarms, shock specs and offsets, to try and get the bike set-up for the real race conditions. I know I can do the lap times in qualifying but we are trying to get the bike ready to do some long runs on the tyres. The track is not offering a lot of grip right now and when the bike slides it slides quite fast. I almost got tangled up in a crash at turn one, just missed the guy's bike in front when he highsided."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)"Noriyuki's fall left him on his second bike for most of the session and it seems he had a better feeling on his number one bike. But he improved his time even on his second bike and that was significant. Troy is working hard to get the bike balance right and they know what they are looking for in the set-up. I think as usual he will be right there for tomorrow."
Shinichi Nakatomi (16th - 1'40.817 seconds - Team YZF Yamaha)"We had a lot of early problems with the machine settings and with only 15 minutes remaining in the afternoon session we changed the rear shock, and went 1.5 seconds faster. I am sure we can make more progress tomorrow and I will push hard to get into Superpole."
Circuit Length: 4555
Temp: 16
Weather:
Sunshine
Qualifying 1 - WSB The Netherlands - Assen:
1. Troy Bayliss - Ducati - AUS 1'39.677
2. Noriyuki Haga - Yamaha - JPN 1'40.009
3. Yukio Kagayama - Suzuki - JPN 1'40.036
4. Jakub Smrz - Ducati - CZE 1'40.064
5. Fonsi Nieto - Suzuki - ESP 1'40.195
6. Makoto Tamada - Kawasaki - JPN 1'40.278
7. Michel Fabrizio - Ducati - ITA 1'40.375
8. Max Neukirchner - Suzuki - GER 1'40.409
9. Ryuichi Kiyonari - Honda - JPN 1'40.496
10. Lorenzo Lanzi - Ducati - ITA 1'40.520
11. Max Biaggi - Ducati - ITA 1'40.673
12. Karl Muggeridge - Honda - AUS 1'40.695
13. Carlos Checa - Honda - ESP 1'40.745
14. David Checa - Yamaha - ESP 1'40.746
15. Troy Corser - Yamaha - AUS 1'40.778
16. Shinichi Nakatomi - Yamaha - JPN 1'40.817
21. Sebastien Gimbert - Yamaha - FRA 1'41.156
