Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) rode superbly in Superpole to push himself onto the front row for Sunday’s Superbike races at the classic Monza circuit. The Japanese star was double winner at Monza last year and is now in the perfect starting place to go for more wins to add to his Valencia victory and his Assen second place. Haga shares row one with Troy Bayliss, Max Neukirchner and Carlos Checa.
Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) is still trying to find the optimum set-up to match a Monza circuit that is proving to be bumpy and a real test this season. Corser was 12th in Superpole, 1.5 seconds from the winner Bayliss, who set a new track best of 1’44.931.
The weather conditions at Monza have been warm from the outset of first practice, but the 50 degree track temperatures have made the business of set-up complicated for all the teams.
Superpole qualification eluded the rest of Yamaha’s main runners, with Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi 18th in regulation qualifying, Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was 20th and young American substitute rider Michael Beck (Yamaha GMT94) was 29th, riding in place of the injured David Checa.
Noriyuki Haga (3rd - 1’45.665)
“We have had problems with the general set up but we have been working hard to improve them through qualifying. Things feel a bit better now. We still need to find a little bit on the main straights. We need to have a bit more top end speed. For tomorrow, we need to make the most of our good starting position and get away with the front group.”
Troy Corser (12th - 1’46.496)
“The bike feels very nervous still, we shortened it a bit in free practice and tried a few other things. Our set-up is not very forgiving right now and the bike flicks you around a bit on the bumps. It’s not too bad but we need to find a set-up to push for the whole race. We have one choice of tyre we can use, and the duration is OK. The bump into Ascari was about half the size last year, and I think that’s because of the cars pushing it up under braking. We are struggling in a few places on the bumps. We need to get off the line clean tomorrow, stay with them, and see where we end up.”
Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager)
“We had a lot of problems at Assen on Friday but like this weekend we got better and better as the race weekend went on. For me, Noriyuki starting on the first row is really important. For sure we are checking and analysing the data to make some more improvements if possible. For Troy, starting from the third row is not so easy here, but with the slipstream it is less difficult here than some other circuits to pass. We cannot understand why we are slower than last year because the bike is even better this year. We must be positive and for tomorrow I am sure both Noriyuki and Troy will be racing to win.”
Shinichi Nakatomi (18th - 1’46.944 seconds - Team YZF Yamaha)
“Today we tried a new setting and it was better right away. I went one second faster but then I had a high side in the final free practice session. Nothing is broken and tomorrow I should be OK. I hope to try and gain some points.”
Circuit Length: 5792m
Weather: Hot and Sunny
Superpole Results
Pos - Rider - Manu - Nat - Total Time
1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'44.931
2 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'45.990
3 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'45.665
4 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 1'45.766
5 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'45.777
6 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'45.795
7 Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 1'45.942
8 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 1'45.975
9 Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 1'46.039
10 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'46.065
11 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'46.216
12 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'46.496
13 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'46.533
14 Makoto Tamada Kawasaki JPN 1'46.549
15 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'46.749
Qualifying 2
Pos - Rider - Nat - QUAL I - QUAL II
1 Max Neukirchner GER 1'45.990 1'45.506
2 Regis Laconi FRA 1'47.089 1'46.126
3 Yukio Kagayama JPN 1'46.371 1'46.154
4 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'47.074 1'46.202
5 Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN 1'47.246 1'46.314
6 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'46.990 1'46.332
7 Troy Corser AUS 1'47.232 1'46.333
8 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'46.359 1'46.673
9 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'46.814 1'46.390
10 Makoto Tamada JPN 1'46.404 1'47.210
11 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'46.915 1'46.409
12 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'46.604 1'46.578
13 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'46.750 1'46.664
14 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 1'46.854 n/a
15 Carlos Checa ESP 1'47.135 1'46.865
18 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'47.815 1'46.944
20 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'48.276 1'47.669
