Heavy rain dashed Team Alstare Suzuki’s chance of good grid positions during the first day of qualifying for Sunday’s 11th-round World Superbike event at Donington Park in the UK.
Fonsi Nieto, Yukio Kagayama and Max Neukirchner took things cautiously, finishing 16th, 19th and 23rd, mainly due to problems with lack of rear grip.
Series leader Troy Bayliss splashed his way round the 4.023 kilometre track and recorded the day’s best time of 1:44.377. Second quickest is Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) with Cal Crutchlow (Honda) third and Tom Sykes (Suzuki) fourth.
Fonsi Nieto - 16th, 1:47.344:
“Today was very difficult for all of us and most of us had problems with grip, particularly in the rear. The track felt very slippery and it was difficult to get any feeling for what was happening with the tyres. The afternoon qualifying session was a bit better and I was able to go a bit faster. I had a small crash in the afternoon when I lost the rear in the first corner, but I wasn’t injured at all.
Yukio Kagayama - 19th, 1:47.934:
“I did not like the conditions today and I wasn’t so happy because I could not get any rear grip. We changed some settings for the afternoon and it was a little better but then the rain became heavier. We will analyse the data, make some changes and hopefully we will have more grip tomorrow. “
Max Neukirchner - 23rd, 1:48.724:
“For me, it was not possible to go any faster then I did. The set up of my bike wasn’t right in the morning but we managed to make some changes and improve it for qualifying in the afternoon. Then we made some changes for the last five laps and I think we went in the wrong direction. I feel we have a lot of information about what to do know. I crashed in the slippery conditions this afternoon and hurt my bum a bit. But it’s not going to cause me any problems tomorrow and I am positive we can make some big improvements to the bike and my lap times…
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