Haga and Corser on front row

From Yamaha Racing

Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser put in their best performances of the weekend when it really counted to take a second and fourth place respectively in the one-lap Superpole qualifying session at Assen Saturday.

The Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team pairing have declared themselves ready to race after exhaustive tests of machine set-up throughout qualifying. Each also completed a successful long run to determine which tires to use for the two 22-lap races on Sunday.

Haga, who had been sixth fastest after regulation combined qualifying, set a 1:38.546 in Superpole and missed out on the 'win' by only 0.118 seconds.

"It's great to be on the front row because it is the first time that has happened this year," Haga said. "I am already happy with the bike settings and the tire choice for tomorrow, so I am really ready for the race. It's going to be tough and we can see that the lap times are very close, but I will try to ride aggressively from the front row and go for the best result possible."

Corser set a 1:38.761 to line up on the front row of the grid alongside pole winner Troy Bayliss, Haga and third placed rider Ruben Xaus.

David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) secured a Superpole start by finishing 13th in combined qualifying, and after Superpole he starts the race 14th, from the fourth row of the grid.

Team YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi was desperately unlucky not to qualify for Superpole, finishing one place out of a guaranteed start on the first four rows by only 0.069 seconds. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was 23rd fastest, 1.3 seconds from the pre-Superpole best, after experiencing technical issues in qualifying on a machine hastily rebuilt after the Le Mans 24-Hour race last weekend.

Superpole Results
1. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) AUS 1:38.428
2. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) JPN 1:38.546
3. Ruben Xaus (Ducati) ESP 1:38.587
4. Troy Corser (Yamaha) AUS 1:38.761
5. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) GER 1:38.840
6. Carlos Checa (Honda) ESP 1:38.864
7. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) JPN 1:39.029
8. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) CZE 1:39.058
9. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki) ESP 1:39.189
10. Makoto Tamada (Kawasaki) JPN 1:39.307
11. Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) FRA 1:39.613
12. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) ITA 1:39.859
13. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) JPN 1:40.000
14. David Checa (Yamaha) ESP 1:40.189
15. Gregorio Lavilla (Honda) ESP 1:40.377