The hard work continued for the HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Superbike team today as they came into action on the first day of qualifying in Brno.
Carlos Checa spent his two session chasing the optimum set-up for his bike but struggled to find traction on the new surface of the Brno track. Checa went out in the free practice session using a different swing arm, but switched back to the regular KR component after the much anticipated improvement on the rear grip stayed out. A fastest time of 2'00.424 today sets him back at fifteenth place after the first official qualifying.
Ryuichi Kiyonari improved his pace midway the first qualifying session and managed to keep his lap times consistently, but lack of time towards the end of the session stopped him from improving his fastest time of 2’00.581. Team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu, the record breaking rider in last year’s Brno Supersport race, set his fastest lap today at 2’01.302. Both riders finished in 18th and 20th place respectively.
Despite today’s results the team are working hard and remain confident they can improve the results and find the right set-up that will push them up the time sheets with one more day of qualifying to go.
Carlos Checa, 2'00.424”I am not satisfied after today’s qualifying session. We are still some areas in which we loose too much. We still have chattering problems and its difficult to keep the right line on the track.”
”We spent some time trying to find the best tyre combination but finally I didn’t have enough time to go out for my fastest lap. The front tyre was worn out and by the time I wennt in for a rear tyre change there wasn’t enough time to put a new front tyre. I am confident we can make a big step up front and find the connection with the fast group tomorrow.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari, 2'00.581”My feeling with the machine is as good as it was in Vallelunga last week during the test. I had some problems with the chattering of my bike and some smaller issues we tried to improve in the afternoon’s session. But it’s difficult and although I have been able to improve my lap times and keep them consistent, I am not happy with the results.”
“The tyre life on this circuit is very short and we had to try several. Today I mainly concentrated on my riding and my feeling with bike. The set-up of the machine is nearly there, we’ve tried various things based on the Vallelunga test we did last week. I’m confident I can improve my lap times tomorrow and hopefully qualify for the Superpole.”
Kenan Sofuoglu, 2'01.302“My results wasn’t really good today, but we made some improvements. I had some chatter problems in the first session but we worked on it and found a good set up and a good tyre and improved the pace a little bit.”
”I like the track a lot and have set some good results here in the past. It’s different on the Superbike but hopefully this will be a turning point for me and I can have a good result here on Sunday.”
Results Superbikes QP1:1 J. SMRZ
2 T. CORSER
3 T. BAYLISS
15 C. CHECA18 R. KIYONARI20 K. SOFUOGLU
