ALSTARE SUZUKI MEN LOOK TO IMPROVE AT QATAR

From Team Suzuki

The first day of practice and qualifying ended in a disappointment for Team Suzuki Alstare Brux riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama, but both are confident of significant improvement in tomorrow's final qualifying.

Both riders suffered rear grip problems in the afternoon qualifying session but both know which direction to take in the morning session tomorrow and believe that Superpole will hold no threats to their advancement up the grid.

American Ben Spies (Yamaha) set the day's fastest lap with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second and Carlos Checa (Honda) third.

Max Neukirchner - 13th, 2:00.345:

"This afternoon I had a big problem with lack of rear grip. The front felt stable but the back was not and I just couldn't push any harder. We had made some changes in the bike's balance from the morning and the track temperature was up a bit, but the way the bike worked was very different. I think we went in the wrong direction in the afternoon, but the good news is that we know what we did and we can go back to the set-up that worked in the morning without a problem. It's disappointing to be 13th but at least we know how to fix the problem and that's what we'll do tomorrow."

Yukio Kagayama - 15th, 2:00.398:

"The morning was not so bad and although we didn't change much on the bike - just the ride height - the bike didn't work so well in the afternoon. I don't think the change in track temperature was a problem, but whatever the reason, I had much less rear grip in the afternoon. So we will look at the telemetry, analyse the data and see what we must do to make the bike better tomorrow morning. My general feeling is that we will improve quite a bit, but tomorrow we'll know for sure."

Thursday qualifying:
1 Spies (USA-Yamaha) 1:58.886,
2 Rea (GB-Honda) 1:59.177,
3 Checa (E-Honda) 1:59.731,
4 Biaggi (I-Aprilia) 1:59.826,
5 Kiyonari (J-Honda) 1:59.937,
6 Byrne (GB-Ducati) 1:59.980,
7 Smrz (CZ-Ducati) 2:00.024,
8 Fabrizio (I-Ducati) 2:00.101,
9 Laconi (F-Ducati) 2:00.232,
10 Nakano (J-Aprilia),
13 Max Neukirchner (D-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 2:00.345,
15 Yukio Kagayama (J-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 2:00.398.