HANNspree Ten Kate Honda rider Carlos Checa finished provisional third on the grid onboard his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade at the opening day of qualifying at the German Nurburgring. Rain looked likely during the first qualifying session at the 5.137m long track, but it remained dry throughout the hour long qualifying session.
Checa improved his pace in the last leg of the session and was the first rider to dip under the 1’58s mark. He remained in the top three till the end of the session and concluded the day in a best of 1'57.878, which puts him 0.6 seconds behind provisional pole sitter Troy Corser. Team mate Ryuichi Kiyonari ended the day in 13th place while Sofuoglu finished 22nd.
Carlos Checa:“For sure we have a lot less grip here compared to what we had in America. Maybe the setting we have been using is a bit too strong, we’ll have to work on that tomorrow.”
”The track is fantastic, I really like it, it has a bit of everything. We need to work on the grip of the bike. The temperature is low here, we had a wet practice this morning, then the track dried up with some wet patches and we finished the session on a dry track. This is the first hour we’ve been out on the new CBR1000RR, hopefully we can make some more progress in tomorrow’s session.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari:“I have never tried the Pirelli rain tyres before, this morning was the first time for me out in the wet and cold. The lap times are not fast enough but I am getting the feeling with the machine. Last week I went out in the HRC machine and now I’m back on the Ten Kate Honda which feels like my machine again.”
“In the afternoon’s dry conditions I really started to enjoy this new circuit, though I need to improve my pace in the last part of the circuit. There’s a lot of difference in height and I will have to adjust my riding style a little. We’ll have to change the suspension setting in the next qualifying and work on the tyres.”
Kenan Sofuoglu:“The weather is very cold here, but I am happy that we went out in dry conditions for our qualifying session this afternoon. I am not happy with the result. I need to get a good feeling with the bike. “Hopefully tomorrow, if it is not wet, we can take it one step more. I need to be more constant and make my way forward.”
Results QP 1:1 T. CORSER 1'57.257
2 T. BAYLISS 1'57.694
3 C. CHECA 1'57.87813 R. KIYONARI 1'58.39922 K. SOFUOGLU 1'59.675
