Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) will line up eighth and 11th respectively on the grid for Sunday's WSB races at Donington, after a wet Superpole contest full of drama and incident. Corser fell at Craner Curves with only 15 minutes and five of his permitted pitlane exits left to use up, but after sprinting back to the team garage, he got out again on his spare bike to move up to eighth place. On his spare machine he fell on the very last corner on his fastest lap of all, with 30 seconds left to go. Bashed and bruised, he survived otherwise unscathed.
Haga had a relatively steady wet Superpole, setting a quick early lap like most others, then waiting to see how conditions would change as the 50 minute session timed down to the end. He was finally only 1.2 seconds from the pole time. David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) missed Superpole qualification by only one place; his team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was 22nd quickest. Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) had a tough final timed session before Superpole and was the final rider to qualify, in 30th place.
Troy Corser (8th - 1'42.875 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team):"I picked up a few more bruises today and we are still looking for a bit more grip from the rear. The first crash I had we tried a new rear but it did not have so much feel and I fell going down Craner Curves. I hope it is dry tomorrow because it will be as safe to race for everyone with a short dry set-up time as it would to race with a set up you found after riding all day in the wet. The spray is too intense in a race situation, and that means you can't see where the puddles are, so you don't know what to avoid. We have tried out our new electronic suspension and it works in the dry and the wet, it's just that we have to find a reasonably good set-up without using it and then start using it to see if we can improve on it. So that is what we tried to do, we've got a base wet set up and we have started to play around with the electronic side."
Noriyuki Haga (11th - 1'43.218 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team):"I have some mixed feelings about today because we did not crash but we have also not got the result we were hoping for. We could not get the best grip out of our tyre, I think, but it could have been worse of course. Tomorrow is the important day and I am thinking positive. We will try to do whatever we can do and the key will be tyre choice if it rains. It will be a gamble of course, but a gamble we will be forced into, not one we want to make! But mentally I am positive for tomorrow, as I like this track."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team): "We had a very difficult day in some respects but both riders qualified for wet Superpole and now we have one on the second row and one on row three. We would always like them both to be on the front row but today, in the heavy rain, every lap was a risk of some kind. The weather for race day will be very unpredictable, so we have to work on a series of options for raceday, from dry to full wet conditions. But whatever conditions we have, we feel positive that we can take good results with each rider."
Shinichi Nakatomi (30th - 1'50.454 - Team YZF Yamaha):
"The conditions have been difficult but today my feeling was better than yesterday. My lap time and my grid position are not very satisfying. We did not have enough time and the team did not have enough information. I hope it will be dry tomorrow."
QUALIFYING 2 REPORT Confused final session puts Parkes and Laverty back
Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) lost dry track time in a tough final qualifying session at Donington Park and despite moving up the order at the mid-point of the session he is now 20th on the starting grid. A crash in the final session for Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Supersport Team) meant he had to ride with a compromised tyre and machine set-up from then to the end of the session. He also missed his chance to get an ideal set-up matched to ideal track conditions, as the rains started and stopped at inopportune moments. Heavy rains, which came and went in waves all day, made many aspects of qualifying something of a lottery, with one side of the track dry or drying but some other corners around the lap frequently wet. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) dropped his machine in the wet conditions this afternoon, and then dropped down the order, finishing 26th. David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) was only 32nd in qualifying, while his team-mate Jason Crowe missed out on a qualifying time.
Broc Parkes (20th - 1'46.885 - Yamaha World Supersport Team): "I don't know what to say about today except that we are trying to improve and we had a few hiccups in the session. It rained a lot, and maybe we missed the ideal time on the track. It started to rain at the end when I was starting to get going and make a time quick enough to take me into the first few rows. We are not on a good position on the grid, but we'll see what we can do tomorrow."
Eugene Laverty (21st - 1'47.909 - Yamaha World Supersport Team): "My timing was unreal. On the harder wet tyre I did one lap to try it out and the time was quite fast, so on the second lap I was going for a real fast lap. I entered Coppice just as the rain had started again and then tried to get it round. On the exit the rear let go and I went over the top. As soon as we entered the corners the tyres started moving. We even tried a dry rear as the track dried out, but then the rains came again. We were just so unlucky with our timing as the rains went off and on all through the session. Tomorrow anything can happen and my practice starts have been really good on this bike."
Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team):"The weather played a big part today and we faced a couple of electrical problems with Broc's machine as well. So we he had to come in and go out quite a few times. And when it was dry sometimes Broc had to come in and when he went out again it was wet. Because of the quick changes in weather we were swapping over tyres, but then the weather would change again. We have a lot of wheels for each rider, but you simply can't change the wheels as fast as the weather was shifting today. Finally Broc got a lap in, but right now we are not fast enough for sure. Eugene had some problems as well, and he could not finish his fastest lap because the drizzling rain had started again. He tried to complete his lap but his highside was a big one. At least each rider will start the race without injury."
Massimo Roccoli (26th - 1'48.409 - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni): "I had a crash in the final timed session and it was just my mistake. On a wet track I have no feeling with the rear and it constantly moves around exiting corners. I hope it will be dry tomorrow because in the wet conditions I am struggling for confidence."
