Haga close to a Superpole win

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) was only 0.023 seconds from a Superpole win at Brands Hatch, after a very confused 'wet' Superpole contest, which was eventually decided on a completely dry racetrack.

Despite the confusion caused by a late switch from a regular 'dry' Superpole to a wet session, Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) secured fifth place and therefore the prime spot on the second row for Sunday's 25-lap races.

The final few laps of the Superpole session were conducted at near track best pace, despite the start of the session being completely wet, and the pole time of 1'25.656 was set by Troy Bayliss.

Both Corser and Haga worked hard on their race pace in the regular qualifying sessions but the changes of weather at times today stopped them making a final tyre choice. Warm-up on Sunday morning will therefore be a vital spell for the team, which has high hopes for Sunday's races.

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) went 18th again today, as his team-mate David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) improved to 20th place.

Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) did not ride due to his earlier injury.

"Obviously I am happy to be second and before Superpole I was a little bit worried because of the rain stopping our plans. I was trying to improve my feeling on a dry track, and we did improve our performance. Anyway I will be trying absolutely my best for the races although I expect it to be very tough tomorrow. I really like this circuit, and I love to win here so I will be trying my best to do that."

"With the weather the way it was today it got a bit messy at times, and it caught everyone out. We had a wet Superpole but we couldn't get enough qualifying tyres to let us finish Superpole properly. We had 12 laps but we only had two qualifiers. I had used my first one when it started raining, so I re-used it, and then only had one left to set our best time. The bike is working well and we'll be ready for tomorrow. From row two it will be elbows out into turn one!"

"We are quite happy about things considering how much the weather had to do with today but we still need to think about tyre endurance. We have some good information already but tomorrow morning we will make a check and the forecast for the weather is better than today, It should be warmer, and I think we have a good set up for good results."

"Nakatomi had a bad crash because of a highside yesterday and hurt his left wrist. The doctors decided to declare him unfit, so that is that for this weekend."

1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'25.656

2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'25.679

3 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 1'25.840

4 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'25.960

5 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'26.021

6 Tom Sykes Suzuki GBR 1'26.166

7 Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 1'26.169

8 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'26.226

9 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'26.501

10 Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 1'26.688

11 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 1'26.751

12 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'26.807

13 Gregorio Lavilla Honda ESP 1'27.148

14 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'27.217

15 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'27.246

1 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'26.631 1'25.898

2 Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN 1'26.017 1'25.920

3 Max Neukirchner GER 1'26.830 1'25.958

4 Troy Corser AUS 1'26.461 1'26.030

5 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'26.144 1'26.592

6 Yukio Kagayama JPN 1'26.156 1'26.657

7 Max Biaggi ITA 1'26.166 1'26.366

8 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'26.753 1'26.218

9 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'26.582 1'26.231

10 Tom Sykes GBR 1'26.572 1'26.279

11 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'26.290 1'27.167

12 Gregorio Lavilla ESP 1'26.441 1'26.651

13 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 1'27.219 1'26.466

14 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'26.565 1'26.776

15 Carlos Checa ESP 1'27.020 1'26.577

18 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'27.306 1'26.725

20 David Checa ESP 1'28.230 1'27.100

29 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'29.302 n/a  

- Yamaha Racing -