Xerox
Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga got his Brno round off to a solid start with Nitro Nori taking the top-time in Friday’s first qualifying run in the Czech Republic. With a 1'59.277 on the opening day, the Ducati rider lapped within a second of the track record and topped the timesheet ahead of
Yamaha
Xerox Ducati's Noriyuki Haga had a strong start at Brno by taking the top time in Friday's qualifying session.
Sterilgarda’s Cal Crutchlow and Haga’s teammate Michel Fabrizio.
“Feeling with my bike improved this afternoon,” said Haga. “We took another step with regard to the suspension and that helped, as did changing the tire pressure. We still need to improve braking in certain sections of the track, and I’m not sure about tires yet, because although the new one seems fairly consistent, I still want to try our ‘usual’ tire tomorrow and see how it works in these conditions. We’ve made a good start and will try to improve further in tomorrow’s sessions.”
Crutchlow also had a time that was in the 1'59 range followed by Fabrizio, who after dominating the first practice session on Friday morning took the third-best time of the day.
“Everything’s going well for now and there are no real problems,” Fabrizio said. “The new rear tire seems to be working well here, as it did when we tested it in Imola recently, and I was able to complete race distance on it, so that gives me confidence, though we still have the new front tire to try tomorrow. I’m feeling fairly positive; I really like this track and hope to be able to do well tomorrow to qualify at the front for Sunday’s races.”
Rounding out the provisional front row was privateer Ducati rider Carlos Checa. Posting the fifth-quickest lap was
Aprilia’s Max Biaggi with a time of 2'00.174.
"Compared to last year the bike is more edgy," said Biaggi. "It has quicker reactions, so on a track which is ridden like this one is, we'll have some trouble coming out of the turns strong. We need to perfect the set-up we've been using for a lot of recent races, working above all on the balancing of the RSV4 in order to better manage the grip and long distance."
The current championship leader was trailed by
BMW’s Ruben Xaus in sixth, followed by Aprilia’s Jakub Smrz in seventh. Rounding out the top-10 times were
Honda Ten Kate’s Jonathan Rea, Yamaha’s James Toseland and Ducati’s Luca Scassa.
Meanwhile, BMW Motorrad’s Troy Corser suffered a late crash in the first qualifying session and had to settle for 12th on the timesheets.
Clearly struggling throughout the session were Aprilia’s Leon Camier and
Suzuki’s Leon Haslam, who took 16th and 17th, respectively. Also finding difficulty in the opening day at Brno was
Kawasaki duo Tom Sykes and Chris Vermeulen, who completed laps which were only good enough for 18th- and 19th-place.
2010 World Superbike Brno Qualifying:
1. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) 1'59.277
2. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 1'59.571
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1'59.730
4. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 2'00.153
Yamaha Sterilgarda’s Cal Crutchlow was less than three-tenths adrift of Haga's time and took second in qualifying.
5. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 2'00.174
6. Ruben Xaus (BMW) 2'00.273
7. Jacob Smrz (Aprilia) 2'00.348
8. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 2'00.442
9. James Toseland (Yamaha) 2'00.451
10. Luca Scassa (Ducati) 2'00.463
11. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 2'00.475
12. Troy Corser (BMW) 2'00.508
13. Shane Byrne (Ducati) 2'00.534
14. Max Neukirchner (Honda) 2'00.701
15. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) 2'00.739
16. Leon Camier (Aprilia) 2'00.745
17. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) 2'01.003
18. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 2'01.026
19. Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki) 2'01.497
20. Broc Parkes (Honda) 2'01.805
21. Matteo Baiocco (Kawasaki) 2'02.239
22. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki) 2'02.684
Supersport
Kawasaki Motocard.com’s Katsuaki Fujiwara may have been forced to miss the last round at Misano due to illness, but at Brno the six-time Supersport World Championship race winner proved to be in top form when he posted the fasted lap in the first day of qualifying. Less than a second off Fujiwara’s pace, Parkalgar Honda’s Eugene Laverty took the second-best time with Fujiwara’s teammate Joan Lascorz taking third in the books. Rounding out the top-four times was Hanspree Ten Kate rider Michele Pirro with a time of 2'03.999.
Kawasaki continued its strong showing in the Supersport class with Fabien Foret taking the fifth-quickest time. Foret was followed by David Salom in sixth, who was the highest-placed
Triumph rider during provisional qualifying. Runner-up in the championship series Kenan Sofuoglu took seventh with Miguel Praia, Robbin Harms and Gino Rea rounding out the top-10 times on Friday.
2010 World Supersport Brno Qualifying:
1. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki) 2'02.817
2. Eugene Laverty (Honda) 2'03.718
3. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) 2'03.902
4. Michelle Pirro (Honda) 2'03.999
5. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) 2'04.144
6. David Salom (Triumph) 2'04.157
7. Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) 2'04.158
8. Miguel Praia (Honda) 2'04.181
9. Robbin Harms (Honda) 2'04.308
10. Gino Rea (Honda) 2'04.410
