Corser and Haga make up ground

From Yamaha Racing

VALENCIA, SPAIN -- Having missed the official FGSport tests in March the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team had to work particularly hard on the first day of the Valencia race weekend to set times just inside the top 10 of the 30 riders who entered this third round of the 2008 season.

Troy Corser's best time on Friday was only 0.618 seconds from fastest man Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) and put him ninth in a session where the top 15 riders qualified within a second of provisional pole.

Noriyuki Haga was 10th, only 0.124 seconds from Corser, as each attempted to match their machine's settings and initial tire choices against the unpredictable Valencia track surface.

"The engine feels not so bad even on the first day and we just need to get the chassis settings right," Corser said. "We haven't got it quite there yet, but that is to be expected after only two sessions. The grip from the track is about normal for Valencia on the first day of practice and I think it will get better as the weekend goes on. We are really starting from day one and some other people are further along. I'm not worried, because I know the track and I know what to do, so we just need to get it right tomorrow."

The GMT94 team had received new parts in time for the Valencia race allowing them to run four kilo's lighter compared to previous race and therefore closer to a Superbike spec than the Endurance machines they have been running up to now. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) finished 15th in the first timed session and his teammate David Checa was only 1.260 seconds from pole but finished the opening day 19th.

In a remarkably close opening qualifying session, run on race tires throughout, Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi finished 21st fastest, but only 1.282 seconds from provisional pole.