The first day of qualifying in Misano took place in hot weather conditions today. With the temperature rising to 34 degrees, the three men strong HANNspree Ten Kate Honda squad struggled to find the right pace for the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblades.
Carlos Checa’s fastest lap of 1'38.189 in the first qualifying practice was 1.326s off the fastest time set by provisional pole sitter Troy Bayliss.
After his strong performance in the USA round, Checa’s experienced difficulties with the set-up of his machine and used most of his 60-minute session to focus on finding the right grip for his Honda CBR1000RR. Chattering issues halted his performance throughout the session in which he was not able to find the pace and set some fast laps.
Kiyonari spent his qualifying sessions on getting used to the high temperature and learning the track as he has never ridden the Misano circuit before.
Carlos Checa, 1'38.189;
“I’m struggling to find the right feeling with the bike. We haven’t changed that much after America, but we seem to be unable to find the pace yet. The feeling is completely different. We have some chattering at the rear and the tyre seems to be jumping in some areas of the track so I can’t carry speed and ride consistently.”
“We need to find some more grip and work on the way the bike turns if we want to reach a better result in tomorrow’s qualifying. We are out of the pace at the moment and will need to improve a lot.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari, 1'38.392;
“It’s my first time on this circuit here today. I find it very difficult, specially with the temperature being so high compared to the other tracks we’ve been to so far. The tyre feeling is completely different here because of that. The feeling with the machine is getting there, but we will make some more changes to the set-up.”
“We’ll go through the circuit once again in the debrief and try to find the areas in which we can improve for tomorrow. It will be difficult but we need to improve the pace and set a good result in qualifying.”
Kenan Sofuoglu, 1'38.895;
“My position at the moment is not that good, but I am sure we can improve tomorrow. The feeling with the machine is good, but the lap times are not quite there yet.
“We still have a lot of work to do for tomorrow’s qualifying, hopefully we can get a couple of things sorted out.”
Results QP1:
1. T. BAYLISS 1'36.863
2. J. SMRZ 1'37.139
3. T. CORSER 1'37.224
15. C. CHECA 1'38.189
18. R. KIYONARI 1'38.392
24. K. SOFUOGLU 1'38.895
