ALSTARE’S NEW BOY ALMOST TAKES SUPERPOLE!
Max Neukirchner, standing in for the injured Yukio Kagayama,
stunned everybody by almost winning Superpole on his first
outing with Team Alstare Corona Extra at Magny-Cours this
afternoon. Despite only riding the Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000
K7 for the first time yesterday, he immediately got on terms
with the bike and was a force to be reckoned with throughout
practice and qualifying.
In this afternoon’s 16-rider shoot-out he blasted round
the 4.411 kilometre track in 1:38.524 and was only deprived
of Superpole by a determined James Toseland (Honda). At the
end, the margin between him and Toseland was only 0.023, so
he will start alongside the series leader in tomorrow’s
pair of 23-lap racers. Third quickest today was Troy Corser,
with his Yamaha team mate Noriyuki Haga fourth. Regular Team
Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Max Biaggi finished Superpole
with the sixth fastest time and will line up on the second
row of the grid with Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati), Troy Bayliss
(Ducati) and and local favourite Regis Laconi (Kawasaki).
MAX NEUKIRCHNER - 2nd, 1:38.501
I am so happy to be on the front row of the grid after today,
especially as I’ve only been on this bike a total of
about three and a half hours. Everything about this bike is
different to my Suzuki Germany bike and I really like riding
it. The chassis, engine and brakes all feel so much better
and I can push it a lot harder. I still find it a bit hard
to believe how well these two days have gone and I’m
hoping that it all continues. I would like to finish on the
podium tomorrow, but we shall have to see what happens in
the races, as I know that I have to ride for the team.
MAX BIAGGI - 6th, 1:38.982
Every time I go out, I learn the track a bit more, so it’s
no big surprise that my best lap was in Superpole. I have
been consistently improving my lap times throughout the weekend
and I feel I can run at a consistently good pace now. Of course,
we still have some things to work out, so we will look at
all the telemetry tonight and decide what changes to make
for the warm-up tomorrow.
Final qualifying
1 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1.38.501, 2 Max Neukirchner (D-Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) 1.38.524, 3 Corser (AUS-Yamaha) 1.38.624,
4 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1.38.897, 5 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1.38.955, 6
Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1.38.982, 7 Bayliss
(AUS-Ducati) 1.39.174, 8 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1.39.638, 9 Nieto
(E-Kawasaki) 1.40.129, 10 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1.40.150,
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