Front row for max !
Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner rode a superb Superpole
and booked himself a place on the front row of the grid at
Qatar today. The young German had only been in the top ten
in regular qualifying, but he pulled out all the stops in
the 16-rider shoot-out, ending up on the front row behind
Superpole winner Troy Corser (Yamaha), Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
and Max Biaggi (Ducati). Suzuki Alstare riders Yukio Kagayama
and Fonsi Nieto finished eighth and eleventh respectively
and both know that good starts in the 18-lap races tomorrow
will be crucial.
Max - 4th, 1:58.964
I’m very happy with how my Superpole lap and getting
on the front row of the grid. Today my bike worked very well
on the Superpole lap and whenever I tried a really soft tyre,
but it didn’t work so well when I tried to do a long
run. So now we will look at all the data and telemetry and
see if we can adjust the bike so that it works as well in
a race distance. I hope we can find out what to do so that
I can run with the top guys throughout the race, but whatever
happens, this has been a very good start and that makes me
happy.
Yukio - 8th, 1:59.285
My Superpole was a bit of mixture, but it should’ve
been so much better. On my out lap I felt some vibration in
my rear tyre and that made it a little difficult to concentrate
fully on riding as fast as I wanted. It was a problem in many
corners and then, to make matters worse, I made a bit of a
mistake with the throttle exiting the last corner and I lost
some more time. But second row is not so bad and, as long
as I make a good start, I think I can get a good result here.
My race set-up is pretty OK, though we may make a small adjustment
to the electronics in the warm-up tomorrow morning to see
if we can improve the bike. I don’t anybody has done
a really long run here, so tyre choice and tyre conservation
will be critical. I think the winner will be the rider who
conserves his tyres best and is the most consistent in the
race.
Fonsi - 11th, 1:59.921
I guess my problem in Superpole is... Superpole. For some
reason I never go as well in Superpole as I do in practice
and qualifying. That has caused me problems in the past and
now I need to find a way round this problem and learn how
to attack Superpole in the best way. The problem with a bad
Superpole is that you end up way down the grid and that means
you have to push very hard in the early part of the race.
That wears the tyres out quicker, which means that the tyres
are in not such good condition at the end of the race. Today
I tried a qualifier in practice, but I got so much chatter
from it that I could not use it in Superpole. Instead I used
a very soft race tyre (like many other riders) and tried to
do my best. It’s going to be a long hard day tomorrow,
but I am determined to give everything I’ve got to get
some good results.
Results 1 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:58.053, 2 Xaus (E-Ducati)
1:58.689, 3 Biaggi (I-Ducati) 1:58.767, 4 Max Neukirchner
(D-Alstare Suzuki) 1:58.964, 5 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:58.975,
6 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:59.017, 7 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:59.224,
8 Yukio Kagayama (J-Suzuki Alstare) 1:59.285, 11 Fonsi Nieto
(E-Suzuki Alstare) 1:59.921
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