Haslam in front of the two Ducati men after day one at Portimao

Day One

Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) made best use of a dry and steadily improving track surface to record the best qualifying time so far and take provisional pole with a 1’43.476. Late charger Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) was only 0.032 seconds back in second, with Phillip Island race winner Carlos Checa (Ducati Althea) third.

Aprilia Alitalia rider Max Biaggi was a competitive fourth quickest on his latest spec of machine, with Yamaha Sterilgarda rider and double WSBK World Champion James Toseland fifth, having been the first rider to get under the 1’44 barrier.

SBK rookie Cal Crutchlow (Sterilgarda Yamaha) was a fine sixth, and was one of seven riders to take their place at the top of the timesheets at some stage of the first qualifying session, before Haslam left his name on top.

Shane Byrne (Althea Ducati) held off Jakub Smrz (Pata B&G Racing Ducati) for seventh. Aprilia Alitalia rider Leon Camier pushed his machine to ninth place, and yet another British rider, Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was once again the top Honda runner, tenth. Jonathan had suffered a high speed crash in the first untimed practice session, but got going again in the afternoon.

Troy Corser took his BMW Motorrad Motorsport S1000RR to 12th, and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) posted a top Kawasaki ranking of 15th. His team-mate Chris Vermeulen elected not to ride in the qualifying session, to help his injured right knee heal up faster.

A total of 14 riders were covered by a second today, with an even closer level of competition expected in the next qualifying session, to be held tomorrow morning. The fastest 20 riders will then make it into Superpole, on Saturday afternoon, to fight for their ultimate grid positions.

Leon Haslam: “It is all feeling good here even though we are not as quick as we were at the winter test. We did a lot of laps on the same tyre to get ready for the race and it is pretty satisfying to be fast on the first day.”

Michel Fabrizio: “I only really got the chance to go for one quick lap time in the session but with a couple of more chances I think I could have gone faster. We worked well on the set-up today for the race and I am relaxed and confident that we will go even faster tomorrow.”

Carlos Checa: “We worked in the morning session to find a good set-up and as soon as we used the softer tyre in the afternoon session we were something like one second faster. We are only losing some time in the final split so we are now working on how to make that up.”

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Supersport World Championship

Laverty steps it up
Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) moved up to the provisional pole position at his team’s home race, setting a best of 1’45.797. His nearest competitor is Michele Pirro (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Michele’s team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu was third. Chaz Davies proved to be top Triumph ParkinGO BE1 rider – fourth – with the best Kawasaki under the control of Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) in fifth place.

Superstock 1000 FIM Cup

Ayrton Badovini topped the first official timed session on his BMW Motorrad Italia machine, followed by Sylvain barrier in the Garnier Junior racing BMW. The unofficial session leader Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Race Junior) was third when it came to the first qualifying session, and a straight run of three French riders was completed by former European 600 Superstock champion, Loris Baz (MRS Racing Yamaha).

Times: 1. Badovini A. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 1’46.566; 2. Barrier S. (FRA) BMW S1000 RR 1’47.215; 3. Berger M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’47.343; 4. Baz L. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’47.631; 5. Giugliano D. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 1’47.701; 6. Petrucci D. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’47.703; 7. Antonelli A. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’47.834; 8. Mähr R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’47.852

European Superstock 600 Championship

Florian Marino (Ten Kate Junior Honda) upped the ante in the 600 Superstock class, leading the time sheets in the first qualifying session of the new season. Norwegian Frederik Karlsen (MTM Racing Yamaha) was a close second; Gauthier Duwelz (MTM Racing Team Yamaha) joined his team-mate in the upper reaches, going third.

Times: 1. Marino F. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 1’49.452; 2. Karlsen F. (NOR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’49.731; 3. Duwelz G. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 1’49.985; 4. Lombardi B. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’50.185; 5. Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’50.243; 6. Lanusse R. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’50.447; 7. Calero Perez N. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R6 1’50.844; 8. Fanelli D. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1’50.918

—  Ducati Report

The second of thirteen World Superbike rounds (and the first European appointment) got underway this afternoon at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve, and Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio immediately made his mark, when he concluded the first qualifying session of the weekend in second position, sandwiched between Suzuki’s Haslam and Checa on Althea Racing’s privateer Ducati 1198.

Conditions at the Portuguese track were, as expected, significantly better than those faced here by the team during January’s testing sessions and with an air temperature of around 22°C, both Ducati Xerox riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio were able to get straight to work in the early afternoon’s first free practice session. Neither rider experienced problems and by the end of the 60-minute practice Michel was in eighth position and Noriyuki in eleventh, with many of the top ten riders having projected themselves to the top half of the timesheets by making a single flying lap in the final minutes of the session.

Later in the afternoon, and in similar conditions, the Superbikes were back on track for first qualifying and again positive progress was made by the Ducati Xerox squad. Michel improved his lap times throughout the session before making his fastest lap in the closing minutes, concluding today with a provisional place on the front row of the grid. Noriyuki meanwhile worked with his technicians to refine the set-up of his 1198, and he also completed a mini long-run of eleven laps in which durability of the chosen tyre solution was confirmed as being fairly good.

Michel Fabrizio 1m43.5s
“So today it’s Haslam, me and Checa at the top but the Yamahas of Toseland and Crutchlow seem very strong too, as I’ve said before we have a long season ahead of us! Anyway, I’m fairly happy and haven’t had any real problems today even though I only really made that one fast lap right at the end. We need to continue with the work tomorrow, the important thing is to find good race pace but I’m confident and after today we’re feeling positive I would say.”

Noriyuki Haga 1m44.0s
“We’ve got a lot done today and have found a good rear tyre solution, though tomorrow we’ll try a different front tyre and suspension setting. I think if we find better front feeling, that should provide me with better turning, which was the thing that was lacking today; a few of the tighter corners were giving me problems. I also tried a mini long-run and the tyre didn’t seem bad but I need to improve the lap-times, so we’ll be working towards that tomorrow.”

—  Althea Ducati

A month after Carlos Checa’s fantastic victory at the first round of Phillip Island, the Althea Racing team today returned to the track, this time in Portimao, for the first day of qualifying of this, the second round of the World Superbike season. Today’s two sessions took place in warm, dry conditions. In the early afternoon’s free practice, both Althea riders worked to refine the set-up of their 1198 machines. Checa recorded the twelfth fastest time (1m45.071s) and Byrne the fourteenth (1m45.128s). In the afternoon’s qualifying both Checa (1m43.645) and Byrne (1m43.881s) significantly improved on the times set earlier and recorded the third and seventh fastest times respectively, with performances that auger well for tomorrow’s qualifying and Superpole sessions.

Carlos Checa : “This morning I used both my bikes and built up confidence with both the 1198 and with the track. In the afternoon we tried a different tyre solution and I was able to improve by more than a second. We worked hard on the set-up of my Ducati and I am quite happy with the work we’ve got done, even though I hope to improve further in the third split where I’m still having a few problems.”

Shane Byrne : “I am very satisfied with how things went today. In the morning we worked a lot on the suspension and settings. It was important to do that this morning in free practice while we didn’t have the pressure of needing to do very fast times, and so were happy to get all that work out of the way so to speak. In the afternoon the bike performed much better thanks to our earlier work and with a softer tyre I registered some good lap times. I’m happy because compared to the practices in Australia, I am going much better and I’m feeling comfortable on the 1198. I hope to continue to do well for the rest of the weekend.”

Genesio Bevilacqua – General Manager : “I’m happy because Shakey has demonstrated that he is in strong physical shape and is not suffering any after effects from his crash in Phillip Island. He was able to work well with his team and the results are evident. I think that he is on the right track and he should be able to improve further tomorrow. Carlos needs to improve slightly in the third sector where he doesn’t yet have total confidence with the rear tyre. I am confident ahead of tomorrow and we hope to be up at the top of the timesheets.”

—  Yamaha Report

The hard work of the Yamaha Sterilgarda Team following the opening round last month in Phillip Island was clearly seen in today’s first Superbike sessions at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. Both James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow made the most of the ongoing set up developments to put in highly competitive times, improving on their Phillip Island performances.

The first free practice session of the day gave the riders the opportunity to test out new electronic settings on their R1s. As the session progressed the improvements were clear as Toseland moved steadily up the times, taking the top spot with a 1’44.3 as the clock hit zero. Team mate Crutchlow was just over half a second behind in ninth having tested out some different tyres to Toseland during the session.

The first qualifying session of the weekend saw both riders take turns at the top of the time sheet finding ever more speed as the grip levels increased. Intelligent tyre choices and a more effective electronics package saw both delivering consistently fast, competitive laps with the potential for more improvement in tomorrow’s second session and subsequent Superpole. The session drew to a close with Toseland in fifth, less than three tenths off provisional pole and team mate Crutchlow less than one tenth of a second behind in sixth.

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (5th, 1’43.735)
“We’ve made some really good progress with our testing last week in Misano, we’ve gone in the direction we wanted to with the engine and electronics. We had a lot to try today, and we’ve gone in a really positive direction for the race set up with tyre life and things like that. We’ve got a little bit more to do but I’m really pleased with the work Frankie and the team have done since Australia to here so a massive thank you to the team and hopefully we can keep it going in the top five now.”

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (6th, 1’43.769)
“I’m a lot happier today. We have definitely made improvements from Australia and we’ve also come back to a track with lots of grip. As the grip levels of the track improved over the sessions so have we. We still need to work on our bike to improve on really slippery track conditions and optimize our settings and performance. Tyre life is looking better, and there was no chatter here so that’s that problem cured. We intend to keep working on our electronics and progress even further tomorrow.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“it seems that the work we’ve done since Australia is working well. To see where both riders are is very encouraging. This gives us real satisfaction. I think we’ve worked very well with our tyre choice and we’re pretty happy with how they are working. Tomorrow we’ll work again on the set up to see which will tyres we’ll choose for the distance. For today we are satisfied.”
Circuit Length: 4692

—  BMW Report

After an extensive and successful test in Jerez (ESP) on Monday and Tuesday, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport today started the second race weekend of the 2010 FIM Superbike World Championship. During Free Practice, the team worked on the track-specific set-up of the two BMW
S 1000 RRs of Troy Corser (AUS) and Ruben Xaus (ESP). While Troy only used Pirelli’s hard tyre compound during Free Practice, Ruben tested the softer tyre compound. In today’s Qualifying Practice Troy finished 12th, while Ruben ended up 19th.

Troy Corser:
Bike: BMW S 1000 RR
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:45.086 min (13th) / Fastest lap Qualifying 1: 1:44.203 min (12th)
“Overall we can be happy with today’s performance. This morning the track was quite dirty and we lacked grip with the hard tyre. After the Free Practice we made a gearing change, as we were just too short in the morning session. The bike was revving a lot but not really going fast enough. During the afternoon we changed the front fork, which on the one hand improved the braking but on the other made the bike a little more unstable. In the end we didn’t have time to improve any more. We will now analyse the data and see what we can do to make the bike easier to ride. At this track it is really difficult to put a perfect lap together. It is easy to lose time but hard to make it up.”

Ruben Xaus:
Bike: BMW S 1000 RR
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:45.448 min (16th) / Fastest lap Qualifying 1: 1:45.406 min (19th)
“After Phillip Island the team told me not to push too hard today. But as a rider you always want to gain as much as possible in the limited time you have. We have already discovered a couple of things and made some steps during the Jerez test. However, Portimão is a different story. I still don’t feel completely satisfied with the bike’s set-up here. But I believe in myself and in my crew.”

Davide Tardozzi (BMW Motorrad Motorsport Team Manager):
“After the test in Jerez today was another big improvement – especially for Troy. With Ruben the situation is a little different. We should not read too much into the result as we reminded him today not to push too hard. For him it is of major importance to get confidence back in himself and the bike. We need him back 100 per cent fit in the future. We will now look into the data and see where we can improve.”

—  Reitwagen BMW

Team Reitwagen BMW riders Andrew Pitt and Makoto Tamada ended the first day of practice and qualifying at Portimao with the 17th and 20th fastest laps, but were happy with the progress made throughout the day.

Unlike all the other WSBK teams, who tested here in January Team Reitwagen BMW had no previous data to work with, so they had to start from scratch. So for Pitt to finish just over a second or so down on today’s fastest rider – Leon Haslam – was not so bad. Series leader Haslam posted a lap of 1:43. 476, with Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) second and Carlos Checa (Ducati) third.

Andrew Pitt – 17th, 1:44.852: “I think it’s been a pretty reasonable day really and I’m particularly happy with my improvement in the afternoon. After following a couple of riders around I realised that maybe I was riding the bike as if it was a 600 Supersport bike. So, I modified my riding style and immediately began to go quicker! We started with our set-up from our recent Jerez tests and made some changes and I think we would’ve gone quicker if the grip level had been better. The track needs more rubber down, after all the recent rains, and the grip will improve as more rubber goes down. We didn’t really test any tyres today, so I feel positive we’ll make good improvements tomorrow.”

Makoto Tamada – 20th, 1:45.522: “Not so bad today and I’m happy because after practice and qualifying I feel fit – just like I used to when I was racing last season. We tried many different suspension settings today, made improvements and carried on in the right direction, but I’m sure that there’s more to come.We started with our set-up from Jerez, but soon found out that we needed to make many changes for this track. Of course, not having tested here like the other teams means that we started today with a disadvantage, but hopefully we will do a lot of good work tomorrow and catch them up.”

—  Suzuki Report

Team Suzuki Alstare rider Leon Haslam led the way during first qualifying for the second round of the Superbike World Championship today at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portimao.

The Briton posted a lap of 1:43.476, to finish ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Ducati), Carlos Checa (Ducati) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia), while team-mate Sylvain Guintoli ended the day in 14th, but is confident of significant improvement tomorrow

Leon Haslam – 1st, 1:43.476:
“It’s always good to be the fastest in qualifying, but it’s more important what we do in Superpole and on Sunday. We were successful during our tests here back in January and it’s good that we have done well again today. The track did not feel so grippy today – especially in first practice – but once everybody has put in more laps, that will improve and the times will come down. No big dramas today, just trying to find a good set-up for the bike and be in good shape when Superpole starts tomorrow.”

Sylvain Guintoli – 14th, 1:44.423:
“Even though the result doesn’t show it, for me today was a good first day of practice. We started off with one of my bikes using a set-up from the last race in Phillip Island and the other one with the set-up we used here during the tests in January. The Phillip Island set-up actually worked better here today, so that’s the one we will start working with tomorrow and improve. The grip level was not great today, but that’s probably because there’s not enough rubber down on the track after all the rain over the winter. I’m sure the lap times will fall as more rubber is laid down.”

—  Ten Kate

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea and Max Neukirchner found it tough going in today’s opening qualifying session for round two of the 2010 World Superbike championship at Portimao in Portugal.

For Rea, in particular, the day brought its own ups and downs in the form of a fast crash at Portimao’s final turn during the morning’s opening free practice session. Rea, 23, was seventh fastest at the end of that session but slipped to tenth in this afternoon’s timed practice.

After disappointing results from the opening round in Australia a month ago, Max Neukirchner was happy to finish free practice with the third fastest time. However, changes to his rear shock did not result in fast enough times this afternoon, and the 26-year-old German slipped to a provisional 13th fastest.

Jonathan Rea – P10 1’44.042s
We’ve been through the data in a lot of detail and I now know why the crash happened this morning. It was unusual, but I was probably riding within my own comfort zone this afternoon as a result. I need to get back on the top of that wave I was riding here in the test in January so I’ll come back tomorrow morning more aggressive and ready to go again. I’m only 0.5s off and I’m back in tenth and I know that our pace is OK on the race tyre. I just need to work on that one lap to get a good qualifying position.

Max Neukirchner – P13 1’44.272s
We used a tyre for a long time this afternoon to try to understand the changes that we’ve made to the bike since the test here. Towards the end of the session, we changed the rear shock for one with a softer spring and some different internal settings but I wasn’t able to hold a line through the corners. We need to look at the data later on to find out exactly what was the problem, but generally, I’m feeling good on the bike and quite comfortable. I’m confident that better times will come tomorrow.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
While today’s provisional qualifying results don’t look so good on the timing screens or on paper, Jonathan is not so far off and we are confident that he will bounce back tomorrow with his characteristic aggression and self-confidence. With Max we are also definitely moving in the right direction so we’ll work hard tonight to make sure that both riders are in a position to close the relatively small gap to the front.

Michele Pirro set the second fastest time in today’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s second round 2010 World Supersport championship race at Portimao in Portugal.

The fastest time was set by Honda’s Eugene Laverty this afternoon, while Pirro’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Kenan Sofuoglu, was third fastest.

In cooler conditions at the 4.592km circuit on Portugal’s Algarve, both riders complained of lower grips levels than during a pre-season test in January, which Sofuoglu missed due to injury but at which Pirro set the fastest time.

Michele Pirro – P2 1’46.027s
The grip levels were not so high this afternoon but I am happy enough with the time and the position we achieved today. We tried some different settings with the rear shock this afternoon but the CBR600RR feels pretty good already. I feel comfortable, too, and I look forward to improving the setting and going faster tomorrow.

Kenan Sofuoglu – P3 1’46.116s
I made some mistakes and got mixed up with slower riders when I was on the good tyre and my ideal time is 0.5s better than my real time. Grip levels were also not that good so I think that, when we can combine everything tomorrow, things will be better. We haven’t really changed the set up very much today but we might change things a little tomorrow when we have to push a little bit harder.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Well, to have both riders on the provisional front row is a good way to start the weekend. We’re quite happy so far and there’s not much to add to that. We’ll work away tonight and tomorrow and try to improve things even more.