Saturday, May 10, 2008

Haga on Monza front row

From Yamaha Racing

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) rode superbly in Superpole to push himself onto the front row for Sunday's Superbike races at the classic Monza circuit.

The Japanese star was double winner at Monza last year and is now in the perfect starting place to go for more wins to add to his Valencia victory and his Assen second place. Haga shares row one with Troy Bayliss, Max Neukirchner and Carlos Checa.

"We have had problems with the general set up but we have been working hard to improve them through qualifying," Haga said. "Things feel a bit better now. We still need to find a little bit on the main straights. We need to have a bit more top end speed. For tomorrow, we need to make the most of our good starting position and get away with the front group."

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) is still trying to find the optimum set-up to match a Monza circuit that is proving to be bumpy and a real test this season. Corser was 12th in Superpole, 1.5 seconds from the winner Bayliss, who set a new track best of 1:44.931.

"The bike feels very nervous still, we shortened it a bit in free practice and tried a few other things," Corser said. "Our set-up is not very forgiving right now and the bike flicks you around a bit on the bumps. It's not too bad but we need to find a set-up to push for the whole race."

The weather conditions at Monza have been warm from the outset of first practice, but the 50-degree track temperatures have made the business of set-up complicated for all the teams.

Superpole qualification eluded the rest of Yamaha's main runners, with Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi 18th in regulation qualifying, Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) 20th and young American substitute rider Michael Beck (Yamaha GMT94) 29th, riding in place of the injured David Checa.

Superpole Results
1. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) AUS 1:44.931
2. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) GER 1:45.990
3. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) JPN 1:45.665
4. Carlos Checa (Honda) ESP 1:45.766
5. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) JPN 1:45.777
6. Ruben Xaus (Ducati) ESP 1:45.795
7. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki) ESP 1:45.942
8. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) JPN 1:45.975
9. Max Biaggi (Ducati) ITA 1:46.039
10. Karl Muggeridge (Honda) AUS 1:46.065
11. Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) FRA 1:46.216
12. Troy Corser (Yamaha) AUS 1:46.496
13. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) ITA 1:46.533
14. Makoto Tamada (Kawasaki) JPN 1:46.549
15. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) CZE 1:46.749

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