Tough opening day for Foggy PETRONAS Racing in France
The first day of qualifying of Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s
final outing in the Superbike World Championship at Magny-Cours
in France provided a tough test for riders Steve Martin and
Craig Jones.
Technical problems hindered afternoon progress after a promising
morning, with Steve finishing in 21st following a minor crash
and Craig in 25th as Noriyuki Haga set the early pace of 1:40.474.
Steve said: “Everything was going okay in the morning
but the afternoon did not exactly go to plan. I lost the front
end on my second lap, which was just one of those things.
But it meant that I had to go out on my second bike, which
is a different spec and did not feel as good, so we decided
to fix my number one bike. I tried the tyre that was supposed
to produce the better times but I think one of the other tyres
that I had tried earlier will be better for doing times. We
will have everything under control tomorrow and then I can
set about getting the bike into Superpole if the weather stays
fine.”
Craig said: “I really like the track. It’s nothing
like Imola, where you have to just bite the screen and hold
on. The surface is good and there are a lot of hairpins, which
suits my style because I bring the bike to a halt well. So,
considering it’s my first time here and the fact that
we had a few problems throughout the day, I’m not too
far away. I did not make that much time up in the afternoon
but I was more than a second up on one lap before I made a
mistake in the final sector. After that we struggled to get
the bike running properly and people were crashing in front
of me so I wasn’t able to improve. But I think I can
easily get into the 42s in the morning and maybe even challenge
for Superpole.”
Friday qualifying times, Superbike World Championship,
round 12, Magny-Cours, France: 1 Haga 1:40.474; 2
Toseland 1:40.734; 3 Lanzi 1:40.821; 4 Pitt 1:40.872; 5 Corser
1:40.936; 5 Corser 1:40.936; 6 Kagayama 1:40.950; 7 Nieto
1:40.954; 8 Bayliss 1:41.006; 9 Muggeridge 1:41.044; 10 Barros
1:41.184; 21 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:42.479; 25 Jones
(Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:44.020
Free practice times: 1 Corser (Alstare Suzuki
Corona Extra) 1:41.049; 2 Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda)
1:41.255; 3 Haga (Yamaha Italia) 1:41.312; 4 Bayliss (Ducati
Xerox) 1:41.385; 5 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) 1:41.451; 6 Walker
(PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:41.531; 7 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate
Honda) 1:41.609; 8 Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:41.796; 9 Gimbert
(Yamaha France) 1:42.066; 10 Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1:42.085;
11 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:42.202; 25 Jones (Foggy
PETRONAS Racing) 1:44.561
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