Despite a first qualifying session that was red flagged twice, and suffering a highside crash at the slow Priory corner, James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) scored the fifth fastest time of a disjointed first day. Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) slotted into eighth place on the grid, with all the times improving as the track dried out after a wet opening unofficial practice session.
Several riders fell during the single hour of qualifying, but Muggeridge kept his machine upright throughout, to qualify for Superpole with ease, should the final qualifying session on Saturday prove to be wet.

Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager
“I am quite happy about how the weekend has started for us on the Superbike side of things. James did very well all day; even in the wet this morning, he was up there. This afternoon we had a dry session, which started off really well, but then he hit some dirt or something on the track, which caused him to crash. We had to go to James’ second bike and we had to make some adjustments throughout the session to make the bike work the same as his number one machine. We are quite happy because in the first three sectors we are quite fast, but we have to focus a bit from now on the last sector. James was frequently up on the first splits only to lose his pole time in the final part. For Karl it is good to see him getting back up to fitness and getting on better with the bike. To have both riders in the positions they are in right now is good, but we know we have a lot of work to do to improve the bikes. I’m sure all the staff will work as hard as ever to make the bikes the best they can be.”

James Toseland – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(4th Position – 1’27.418)
“I fell on some oil or dirt on the track. Troy Bayliss and I fell at the same time, and I landed on my ankle and my knee, but I am OK. We have quite a few things to try tomorrow, because we are losing a lot of time in just one particular section. I’m having to do it in first gear at the moment but I want to do it in second, like I did last year.”

Karl Muggeridge – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(8th Position – 1’27.648)
“My back is a bit stiff right now but I will have a good rubdown and then I’ll be good for tomorrow. We are trying a lot of things on the bike at the moment, even which one to use as a number one bike. We are not really clear in that we need to achieve, so after this session it will become clearer when we sit down and work out what to do tomorrow. I’m not 100% satisfied right now and we basically need to improve the handling, so we can soak up the bumps and keep the line. We also need to get more traction and in different parts of the track we need to work on different things.”
 

Supersport

A dramatic first qualifying session in Supersport saw Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) take the fastest lap, while his team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu slid to a lowly 18th. The day had dawned wet and wild, and the track had not fully dried before the start of qualifying, which was red flagged twice and finally terminated with 45 seconds remaining on the clock. The slowly drying track conditions meant that Charpentier’s best lap of day one was not close to his own previous record best at the short 3.619km English circuit, despite being clearly the fastest man once more, with a 1’30.516. Sofuoglu toiled hard to improve his best time, but had to settle for a 1’33.274, having crashed in the wet morning session, and struggled to find perfect machine set-up in the times session.

Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager
“A bit up-and-down because in these conditions it will always be difficult for all the riders, with the climate changing all the time. Even during the session it changed and Sebastien kept his head cool and took provisional pole in a very mature way. For Kenan - I feel sorry for him because our new strategy is to start more slowly and make progress through all the weekend. But in these conditions that will push you down the order. The weather forecast is a bit better for tomorrow, and I hope that he can improve quite a bit. We have some issues with his bike to resolve, as this is not the easiest track in the world to set-up suspension. We still have some work to do overnight, and I hope that we can have a dry session again tomorrow.”

Sebastien Charpentier – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(1st Position – 1’30.516)
“Because of the changing conditions today it was important to try and go for a good lap at the correct time and managed to do that. This is a good opportunity because I am on ‘pole’ after the first day. In the wet session this morning I did not push to the maximum, but I got some feeling for the rainy conditions. I hope we have good weather tomorrow; for sure it was not possible to make a faster lap right at the end because another rider crashed. The set-up is not perfect yet, so we will try to find something even better.”

Kenan Sofuoglu – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(18th Position – 1’33.274)
“It was very difficult for me today because of the wet weather this morning and I had a crash in that session as well. In the qualifying session it was partly wet and partly dry out on the track and that made some problems for us. I did not know what to do about gearing, and when I was riding in the rain it was completely different from when I was riding in the dry. I also tried to find the best suspension set up. If it is dry tomorrow, I am sure we can improve, because 18th is not normal for me.”