QUALIFYING 2 YAMAHA DONINGTON PARK 06/09/2008
Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) will line up eighth and 11th respectively on the grid for Sunday's WSB races at Donington, after a wet Superpole contest full of drama and incident.
Corser fell at Craner Curves with only 15 minutes and five of his permitted pitlane exits left to use up, but after sprinting back to the team garage, he got out again on his spare bike to move up to eighth place. On his spare machine he fell on the very last corner on his fastest lap of all, with 30 seconds left to go. Bashed and bruised, he survived otherwise unscathed.
Haga had a relatively steady wet Superpole, setting a quick early lap like most others, then waiting to see how conditions would change as the 50 minute session timed down to the end. He was finally only 1.2 seconds from the pole time.
David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) missed Superpole qualification by only one place; his team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was 22nd quickest.
Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) had a tough final timed session before Superpole and was the final rider to qualify, in 30th place.
Troy Corser (8th - 1'42.875 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"I picked up a few more bruises today and we are still looking for a bit more grip from the rear. The first crash I had we tried a new rear but it did not have so much feel and I fell going down Craner Curves. I hope it is dry tomorrow because it will be as safe to race for everyone with a short dry set-up time as it would to race with a set up you found after riding all day in the wet.
The spray is too intense in a race situation, and that means you can't see where the puddles are, so you don't know what to avoid. We have tried out our new electronic suspension and it works in the dry and the wet, it's just that we have to find a reasonably good set-up without using it and then start using it to see if we can improve on it. So that is what we tried to do, we've got a base wet set up and we have started to play around with the electronic side."
Noriyuki Haga (11th - 1'43.218 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"I have some mixed feelings about today because we did not crash but we have also not got the result we were hoping for. We could not get the best grip out of our tyre, I think, but it could have been worse of course. Tomorrow is the important day and I am thinking positive. We will try to do whatever we can do and the key will be tyre choice if it rains. It will be a gamble of course, but a gamble we will be forced into, not one we want to make! But mentally I am positive for tomorrow, as I like this track."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"We had a very difficult day in some respects but both riders qualified for wet Superpole and now we have one on the second row and one on row three. We would always like them both to be on the front row but today, in the heavy rain, every lap was a risk of some kind. The weather for race day will be very unpredictable, so we have to work on a series of options for raceday, from dry to full wet conditions. But whatever conditions we have, we feel positive that we can take good results with each rider."
Shinichi Nakatomi (30th - 1'50.454 - Team YZF Yamaha)
"The conditions have been difficult but today my feeling was better than yesterday. My lap time and my grid position are not very satisfying. We did not have enough time and the team did not have enough information. I hope it will be dry tomorrow."
Circuit Length: 4023
2008 WSB Europe - Donington Park 06/09/2008 Superpole
1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'42.013
2 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 1'42.353
3 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 1'42.486
4 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'42.573
5 James Ellison Honda GBR 1'42.582
6 Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 1'42.619
7 Tom Sykes Suzuki GBR 1'42.624
8 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'42.875
9 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 1'43.125
10 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'43.172
11 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'43.218
12 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 1'43.387
13 Chris Walker Honda GBR 1'43.492
14 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'43.895
15 Gregorio Lavilla Honda ESP 1'43.915
Qualifying 2
1 Cal Crutchlow GBR 1'44.627 1'43.486
2 Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN 1'44.528 1'43.508
3 Leon Haslam GBR 1'44.813 1'43.764
4 Troy Corser AUS 1'46.803 1'44.229
5 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'44.377 1'44.541
6 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'48.841 1'44.605
7 Tom Sykes GBR 1'44.682 1'46.041
8 Carlos Checa ESP 1'45.936 1'45.171
9 Max Biaggi ITA 1'45.384 1'46.123
10 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'47.114 1'45.590
11 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'45.725 1'45.635
12 James Ellison GBR 1'46.392 1'45.654
13 Gregorio Lavilla ESP 1'46.044 1'45.681
14 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'46.924 1'45.699
15 Chris Walker GBR 1'46.553 1'45.780
17 David Checa ESP 1'47.624 1'45.989
22 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'50.349 1'47.108
30 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'50.454 1'50.741
- Yamaha -
