2007 Superbike World Championship
Round 10, Brands Hatch, GB
Friday 3rd August
Weather: Dry, mostly sunny 25 C.
STEADY START FOR TEAM ALSTARE ON DAY ONE.
Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and
Max Biaggi made a steady start on the first day of qualifying
at Brands Hatch today. Yukio finished eighth quickest and
Max ended the day fourteenth, but both are confident of significant
improvement tomorrow. Yukio spent the day getting used to
his Alstare Suzuki again after his Suzuka 8 hour success on
a very different GSX-R1000 and took things steadily as a result.
Max has never raced at Brands Hatch before, so used the time
today learning one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar.
Series leader James Toseland (Honda) topped the standings
today - much to the delight of his home fans - with Troy Bayliss
(Ducati) second, Ruben Xaus (Ducati) third and Troy Corser
(Yamaha) fourth.
Yukio - 8th, 1:27.544
Last weekend I rode a Yoshimura Suzuki in the Suzuka 8 hour
race and that bike is very different to my Alstare Suzuki.
So, today it was necessary for me to get used to the Alstare
bike again after many, many hours on the other one. I have
been to Brands Hatch many times before, so today I just tried
to find a good set-up for my bike. This track is a fun track
to ride when you have a good set-up and good feeling on the
bike. If you do not have a good set-up, then it is a difficult
track to go fast.
Max - 14th, 1:28.215
The track is quite short and there are not so many fast corners
here. There are many tricky corners, and some blind approaches,
and if you do not know what you are doing it is easy to lose
time. It is definitely a track where you need good knowledge
to go fast and as I have not raced here, I need to learn the
track first. This is what today was about for me. We’ll
make some gearbox changes for tomorrow and explore what the
bike can do more deeply. To go fast round here, you have to
have a good set-up and feel comfortable and that’s what
we’ll go after tomorrow.
Friday qualifying
1 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:26.400, 2 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:26.625,
3 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:26.746, 4 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:26.815,
5 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:27.268, 6 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:27.351, 7
Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:27.507, 8 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki
Corona Extra) 1:27.544, 9 Rolfo (I-Honda) 1:27.763, 10 Fabrizio
(I-Honda) 1:27.823, 14 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona
Extra) 1:28.215,
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