2007 Superbike World Championship
Round 11, Eurospeedway Lausitz
Circuit: 4.265 kms. Weather: Mostly cloudy 14-19 C.
TOP THREE FOR YUKIO ON DAY ONE.
Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Yukio Kagayama ended
the first day of qualifying at the Eurospeedway Lausitz with
the third fastest time. The Japanese rider was suffering a
little from sore ligaments in his right knee (sustained when
he crashed at Brands Hatch in the last round), but still managed
to get on the pace right from the start. His team mate Max
Biaggi finished the day with the seventh quickest time, but
was not pushing his GSX-R1000 hard as he had not found a comfortable
set-up in today’s two sessions. Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
took provisional pole, with a lap of 1:38.569, in the closing
stages of this afternoon’s timed qualifying. His fellow
countryman Troy Corser (Yamaha) is second quickest, two tenths
of a second behind, with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) in fourth
- just behind Yukio.
Yukio - 3rd, 1:38.980
The bike is not so bad here today and the only problems I
had today was a small brake problem and some pain in my right
knee. The brake problem happened when I was hard on the brakes
and the bike did not feel as stable as I would’ve liked.
But we will work on this small problem and I am sure that
it will be better tomorrow. After Brands Hatch, I went home
to Japan and while I was there, I saw a doctor about my knee
and he told me that I had damaged some ligaments in my right
knee. So I knew that it might get a bit sore once I was back
on the bike. Today, I had a little problem when I tried to
change direction quickly. So, I will have some physiotherapy
and see how much I can improve it. At the moment, I don’t
think it’s going to affect my riding too much and my
intention is to forget about it, qualify well and fight for
the podiums on Sunday.
Max - 7th, 1:39.433
Today was OK. I did not find the best set-up so I was not
confident enough to push the bike hard. Conditions today were
not so good; in the morning parts of the track felt damp and
although it was dry in the afternoon, it felt cold and certainly
not like when we all tested here in June. We started the day
with more or less the same set-up as we had used in the last
two rounds, to see how it would work here. But didn’t
work really well, so tomorrow we will go in the same direction
as when we tested here. In the end, I think that our set-up
will probably be something between the two. I feel sure that
we will improve tomorrow and hopefully we will find a good
set-up for the races.
Friday qualifying
1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:38.569, 2 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:38.780,
3 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:38.980,
4 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:39.011, 5 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:39.086,
6 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:39.127, 7 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki
Corona Extra) 1:39.433, 8 Fabrizio (I-Honda) 1:39.487, 9 Muggeridge
(Aus-Honda) 1:39.525, 10 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:39.639,
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