Yamaha Racing
The first session of free practice at Donington was a bittersweet affair for British rider Cal Crutchlow after a high side on the first lap saw him break a bone in his ankle. Undeterred he switched to his second bike and proceeded to lay down consistently fast laps for the duration of the session, ignoring his obvious discomfort to finish at the top of the time sheets, over 3/10ths of a second faster than second placed rider Lascorz.
Team-mate Fabien Foret had an equally impressive start to the race weekend. Having missed last year’s World Supersport race here through injury and never having ridden here on the R6 before, he made short work of the session, lapping consistently quickly and finishing the day in fourth and still looking to make some set up improvements in advance of tomorrow’s qualifying.
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st, 1’33.323)
“it was hard session for us today. It was good enough and we still came out on top. We tried something with the bike and the gearbox which didn’t work so we went back to our usual setting which worked fine. Once I managed to get out of the medical centre I was all guns blazing. I’m very sore in both arms and hand, and my ankle is broken but I’ll rest tonight and we’ll have a good go tomorrow.”
Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (4th, 1’33.928)
“ It was actually a pretty good session for me, I was quite relaxed. I didn’t race here last year so I tried to improve a little bit in different places and in the end it wasn’t so bad. The bike is working ok but there are still some changes I want to make. Let’s see what the weather will be like tomorrow, I hope it will be a bit more dry. A good start anyway!”
Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager
“mixed feelings I have to say! We were fastest in the free practice on the first day but a big crash in the first lap from Cal. He’s bruised everywhere but I think on adrenalin he was able to finish the practice, and his lap time was good. I’m afraid tomorrow he’s going to feel some pain. These guys always want to try hard at their home track and I think he was just a bit hot too early, hopefully it won’t hold him back tomorrow. Fabien is quite happy, he changed his approach to the first session a bit and he feels really well. He was not completely pleased with the setup but still he finished fourth so let’s see what tomorrow brings as he’s feeling good so we’re pretty confident.
Free Practice Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1'33.323 2 Joan Lascorz Kawasaki ESP 1'33.650 3 Eugene Laverty Honda GBR 1'33.871 4 Fabien Foret Yamaha FRA 1'33.928 5 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'34.175 6 Katsuaki Fujiwara Kawasaki JPN 1'34.219 7 Mark Aitchison Honda AUS 1'34.578 8 Garry McCoy Triumph AUS 1'34.986 9 Anthony West Honda AUS 1'35.015 10 Barry Veneman Honda NED 1'35.061 11 Miguel Praia Honda POR 1'35.141 12 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 1'35.209 13 James Westmorland Triumph GBR 1'35.248 14 Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 1'35.253 15 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'35.267 21 Hudson Kennaugh Yamaha RSA 1'36.261 27 Yannick Guerra Yamaha ESP 1'37.704
