Weather conspires to thwart FPR qualifying challenge
A damp French morning denied Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders
Steve Martin and Craig Jones the chance to challenge for the
final Superpole of the season at Magny-Cours, France.
With the track drying slowly from overnight rain only a handful
of riders ventured onto the slippery surface and times were
substantially slower than the first Friday afternoon qualifying
session.
So Steve and Craig will start on tomorrow’s grid from
21st and 25th respectively, with Troy Corser claiming pole
position just as he did on the PETRONAS FP1 two seasons ago.
Both FPR riders used the warm and dry afternoon free practice
session to good effect, with Craig slashing 1.5 seconds off
his best time from yesterday. Steve’s best lap also
improved by half a second to 1:41.786, a time which would
have been marginally outside yesterday’s Superpole qualifying
time.
Craig said: “I missed this morning’s
track time, which would have helped me learn the circuit better.
There were a couple of ups and a couple of downs in the afternoon
but my race times were fairly consistent and I did my fastest
time on the hardest tyre. The bike was as good as we can get
it and I need two good starts to challenge for some points
in the team’s final races.”
Steve said: “I was pretty happy with
the afternoon session as I did the fastest time I have done
round here on race tyres – it was certainly a big improvement
on yesterday. My time might have been just outside the qualifying
mark but we had a full tank of fuel and I wasn’t busting
a gut for lap time in free practice. Last year I struggled
to find consistent times on race tyres but this year the consistency
feels good. I just hope the weather is dry, because this place
is diabolical to ride in the wet. And I hope both Craig and
I can have two good races each to end the project on a positive
note.”
Superpole results, Superbike World Championship,
round 12, Magny-Cours, France: 1 Corser 1:39.147;
2 Toseland +0.208; 3 Lanzi +0.626; 4 Muggeridge +0.764; 5
Haga +0.767; 6 Bayliss +0.797; 7 Neukirchner +0.814; 8 Kagayama
+0.932; 9 Pitt +0.943; 10 Nieto +1.123; 11 Walker +1.160;
12 Gimbert +1.466; 13 Barros +1.966; 14 Nakatomi +2.265; 15
Laconi +2.328; 16 Fabrizio +2.828
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