Round 3, Europe, Donington Park, UK
Friday qualifying, 30th March
Circuit: 4.023 km Conditions: Cold, mostly damp 6-8 C.
Conditions during the first day of the third round of this
year’s Superbike World Championship were difficult so
Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and
Max Biaggi started cautiously. The morning session was cold
and wet and, although conditions improved marginally in the
afternoon, the track still had several damp patches. It was
one of these that Yukio hit towards the end of the qualifying
session and which caused him to suffer a heavy fall, knocking
him out for a few minutes He was taken to the Medical Centre
for a check up and X-rays, but luckily suffered no broken
bones or any other injuries apart from a sore back. His team
mate Max Biaggi took today very carefully, using the two sessions
to find a good base set-up for his GSX-R1000 K7, before beginning
to push hard.
Troy Bayliss (Ducati) posted the day’s fastest lap,
over a second under the lap record. Second is Troy Corser
Yamaha), with Ruben Xaus (Ducati) third and series leader
James Toseland (Honda) fourth.
YUKIO - 7th, 1:34.549
The conditions today were not easy and then I crashed! It
happened at Craner Curves, when I hit a small damp patch on
the track and lost control. I hit my head and knocked myself
out for a little while, but there were no other injuries.
My back is very sore, but I’m sure it’ll be OK
after a good sleep. I would like to race this weekend, but
it is not up to me. We shall see what happens in the morning.
MAX - 9th, 1:34.593
Today was not so easy and I used the time to try and find
a good base set-up for my bike. We had no data from here,
so we had to start at the beginning and work our way through
quite a few things. In these conditions it is difficult to
try and choose tyres for the race because conditions could
be very different tomorrow or Sunday. This afternoon, when
the track was half wet and half dry was tricky and I didn’t
want to push too hard and crash. A few times today I made
small mistakes breaking too hard and having to run a bit wide.
That was probably because we had some clutch problems and
that was probably why I couldn’t go any faster at the
end of the qualifying session.
Friday qualifying
1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:32.33, 2 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:32.817,
3 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:33.646, 4 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:33.692,
5 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1:33.729, 6 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:34.203,
7 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.549,
8 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:34.553, 9 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki
Corona Extra) 1:34.593, 10 Rolfo (I-Honda) 1:35.363,
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