Troy set the second quickest lap in first qualifying at Brno in blisteringly hot conditions today. In the afternoon, the air temperature reached a scorching 36 degrees centigrade, which meant that the actual track temperature was over 55 C! In this kind of heat, the tyre performance usually drops and that was exactly what happened today, leaving riders and teams trying to find tyres that will last a race distance and also give good grip. Troy’s team mate Noriyuki Haga posted the fastest time of the day, with a lap of 2:01.606, just a tenth of a second quicker then Troy. Third quickest is Max Biaggi (Suzuki), with series leader James Toseland (Honda) fourth.
Troy - 2nd
“I am reasonably happy with finishing the day second fastest, but not happy because we haven’t really found a good race setting. Also, I’m not getting enough grip and feedback from the tyres. At the moment, the tyre has grip for about five laps, then begins to slide, settles down for about another five laps, then the grip level goes down again. We think it’s because of the high track temperature here today and I’m sure others are having the same problems as us.”
“We began the day with the set-up from the test in Vallelunga, but that didn’t work so we went back to one we found when we tested here three weeks ago. The track feels quite different to when we tested here though; it feels faster, but the lap times are more or less similar! If the conditions stay more or less the same as today we are just going to have to find some compromise between tyre life and grip, but whatever happens the last five or six laps of the race are going to be every interesting for sure!”
| 
|