FPR draw positives from second day in Brno
 The
Foggy PETRONAS Racing team was able to extract more positives
from the second day of qualifying for the seventh round of
the Superbike World Championship at Brno, Czech Republic.
Steve Martin finished the morning qualifying session ninth
fastest but was only able to match that lap to finish 14th
in Superpole, with Noriyuki Haga claiming his first pole position
of the season.
Team-mate Craig Jones bounced back from a problematic morning
session to come 18th in the afternoon free practice, his best
standing in a dry session on the FP1.
Steve said: “This is a power circuit
and the other bikes can probably extract more from the extra
grip of the qualifying tyres than we can. It was pretty much
a repeat of our test here, when I set the same times on race
rubber as the qualifiers. I am pretty happy with my set-up
for the race but I am going to have to be on the ball tomorrow,
although it seems that lap times are dropping off pretty quickly
and I seem to be able to do consistent lap times on race tyres.
I was only 0.7secs off the fastest time of the morning and
my best lap was faster than the quickest lap here last year,
so we can draw a lot of positives.”
Craig, who will start from 27th on the grid, said:
“It’s a real shame that this morning happened
the way it did because I think I could have been in with a
chance of making Superpole. I was only two seconds slower
than Bayliss in the afternoon and he was using a qualifier.
My times on race tyres are pretty quick but it is going to
be difficult starting from where I am. I should have been
a couple of rows further up. There was nothing much to achieve
by pushing too hard in the afternoon but I had a bit of a
point to prove and wanted to show what I could have done if
I had not had the throttle-body problem in the morning.”
Superpole results, Superbike World Championship round
6, Brno, Czech Republic: 1 Haga 2:00.457; 2 Toseland
+0.599; 3 Lanzi +0.616; 4 Bayliss +0.750; 5 Corser +0.894;
6 Kagayama +0.996; 7 Pitt +1.025; 8 Muggeridge +1.041; 9 Laconi
+1.163; 10 Nieto +1.342; 11 Foret 1.667; 12 Fabrizio +1.751;
13 Walker +1.763; 14 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) +2.112;
15 Barros +2.300; 16 Chili +3.407
Saturday qualifying times: 1 Kagayama (Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) 2:01.779; 2 Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 2:01.783;
3 Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 2:02.206; 4 Toseland (Winston Ten
Kate Honda) 2:02.213; 5 Haga (Yamaha Italia) 2:02.298; 6 Walker
(PSG-1 Kawasaki) 2:02.447; 7 Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 2:02.449;
8 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 2:02.534; 9 Martin (Foggy
PETRONAS Racing) 2:02.539; 10 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) 2:02.566;
27 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:05.152
Saturday free practice times: 1 Bayliss
2:01.857; 2 Kagayama 2:02.004; 3 Toseland 2:02.028; 4 Lanzi
2:02.050; 5 Walker 2:02.270; 6 Laconi 2:02.271; 7 Nieto 2:02.334;
8 Muggeridge 2:02.417; 9 Corser 2:02.510; 10 Fabrizio 2:02.647;
18 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2:03.999; 22 Martin (Foggy
PETRONAS Racing) 2:04.530
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