World Supersport Championship
Round four: Valencia, Spain
Qualifying report one
Supersport success for HANNspree Ten Kate Honda in
first Valencia qualifying
 The
Spanish sun appeared just in time for the first qualifying
session for round four of the 2007 World Supersport Championship
in Valencia today. HANNspree Ten Kate Honda's Kenan Sofuoglu
is already well on the way to securing a front row start in
Sunday's race after he finished at the top of the timesheet.
Despite being caught out by an oil spill on turn two of the
4km track, temporary team-mate Andrew Pitt recorded the fifth
fastest time.
Sofuoglu started the day on top form and completed the morning
wet free practice with the fastest lap time of 1'39.549. He
followed this up in the official qualifying by beating his
earlier time by almost two full seconds. After putting in
some consistently fast laps for much of the 45-minute session,
he finished with a best time of 1'37.521.
With only eight minutes left on the clock, an oil spill on
track caused Pitt and six other riders to run off. The session
was red flagged while the substance was cleared, allowing
Pitt to regain his focus and swap to his spare bike. He re-joined
qualifying and put in an impressive final lap on the CBR600RR
to be placed fifth with a time of 1'38.478.
Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager:
"The Supersport riders have started very well. Kenan
not only concentrated on a single fast lap, he also made a
longer run while doing it. Whether we race in the wet or dry
we are pretty sure which tyres we will use. Andrew is steadily
becoming more acquainted with the bike and he got a good result
in the end. He was very unlucky to crash at the end of the
session as he had to move to his second bike, but he still
managed to secure his single fastest lap. All in all, fifth
position is good and I am sure that after what we have seen
from Andrew today he can definitely improve tomorrow."
Kenan Sofuoglu:
"I am happy with the position today. We tested here
about three months ago and found a really good set-up for
the bike but now it does not feel so right. I have learned
that testing and racing are two very different things and
the set-up we like at the test is not always right for the
race. Overnight we will be looking at this and we will change
some things in time for tomorrow. I hope the weather stays
good and I look forward to the second session."
Andrew Pitt:
"I was fifth this morning in the patchy conditions and
then fifth again this afternoon so I'm pretty happy with that.
I feel like I'm working well with the guys and the bike is
feeling good. I had a bit of a crash on the oil at the end
and had to go out on the spare bike for the first time, but
I was able to get one lap in and managed to improve my time.
So far, so good - I'm happy enough."
Qualifying times:
1 K. Sofuoglu 1'37.521
2 K. Fujiwara 1'37.729
3 K. Curtain 1'37.885
4 P. Riba 1'38.095
5 A. Pitt 1'38.478
6 F. Foret 1'38.524
7 B. Veneman 1'38.532
8 G. Nannelli 1'38.564
9 R. Harms 1'38.568
10 J. Lascorz 1'38.649
|
