Lanzi tops day one at Magny-Cours; Tardozzi & BMW part ways…

The two Ducati Xerox riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga were protagonists during the first day of Superbike action on the French circuit of Magny-Cours, closing first qualifying in second and sixth position respectively. There is an important element of the team missing this weekend, as technical director Marco Lozej unfortunately suffered an ankle injury after an enduro accident the day before departure. The role of race engineer for Michel is covered on this occasion by Ernesto Marinelli.

In the early afternoon’s free practice session, both factory riders began their campaigns in convincing fashion, especially Michel who, having made constant progress during the 60 minutes available, was the fastest on track by the close of the session. His final lap of 1m39.1 placed him at the top of the timesheets, three tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Noriyuki who closed in fifth.

Later, in the first qualifying session, the Ducati Xerox pair continued in a similar vein. Roman rider Michel clocked up some impressive lap times, maintaining constant pace with a run of times in the low 1m39s and a best lap of 1m38.9 which put him in second position overall. Fabrizio is looking for podium finishes this weekend; his best result in France until now was a fourth place finish in race 1 last season.

Japanese rider Noriyuki has had a great deal of success at the French track in recent years and today’s performance bodes well for Sunday’s races. Fast from the start, he dominated the first half of the hour-long session, before a crash caused him to lose valuable time. Taking more than ten minutes to return to the garage after losing the front of his 1198 at turn 8, Noriyuki went straight back out on track on his second bike but unfortunately ran out of time, unable to improve on his best time set earlier. He therefore concluded the session in sixth position, less than one tenth of a second slower than Michel. Close competition saw the first sixteen Superbike riders close first qualifying within seven tenths of a second of each other.

Michel Fabrizio 1m38.9
“We’ve made a good start. We still have some work to do Tomorrow, to see if we can further improve traction and the feeling I have with the front but I’m happy with what we’ve got done and with the progress I’ve made. I’d like to finish top three on Sunday – I’ve never been on the podium here and I’m feeling fairly confident for now.”

Noriyuki Haga 1m39.0
“It’s just a pity I feel because I lost a lot of time in getting back to the garage and then there were only a few minutes left. I’m feeling pretty confident though; this is a track that I like a lot and where I’ve done well in the past. I’d say that, despite the crash, we have worked well, starting from last year’s base. If we can improve the level of traction a little, I think we can run two strong races on Sunday.”

—  Yamaha Report

Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike riders Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland wrapped up an eventful first qualifying session at Magny Cours today in fifth and 12th respectively. Both riders crashed during the session, Crutchlow at the first hairpin and Toseland at the last chicane. Both were uninjured and continued on second bikes, Crutchlow ending the session in fifth just three tenths off pole, Toseland in 12th, just half a second off the top of the time sheet. The top 15 riders of the first qualifying session were all within 0.6 of a second, promising close action in tomorrow’s Superpole heats.

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (5th, 1’39.058)
“An eventful afternoon’s qualifying session, I had a stupid crash which was my own fault at the start of the session, I ran the softer tyre which I didn’t really like and ran into the corner too hot at the hairpin and lost the front. We had a couple of issues to sort then I went back out and went faster and faster every lap to get fifth at the end. I’m confident for the weekend, I think podiums are on the cards. I really want to get a win this weekend before the season is out.”

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (12th, 1’39.360)
“It’s been a pretty good day in the end. I had a crash at the last chicane which put us back because we had a different set up on the bikes and we didn’t have time to change the other set up for the spare bike so it wasn’t working as well as the number one bike on this circuit. To say we’re only half a second off considering this is pretty good. I think once we’ve got the bike fixed and made a few changes I’m pretty confident we’re going to be up at the front.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“The two crashes we had today have obviously compromised the qualifying session a bit, fortunately both riders were uninjured and able to carry on. We had a couple of technical issues as well to solve, but for both riders to be within half a second of provisional pole on the first day is ok. We have one more day to improve the bike set up and we will do our best tonight to be better for the morning and ready for Superpole.”

—  BMW Report

With the end to a long and eventful season in the FIM Superbike World Championship close, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport started the final race weekend in Magny-Cours (FRA) well: While Ruben Xaus (ESP) was able to post consistently good lap times from Friday’s first practice session onwards, Troy Corser (AUS) eventually finished the first qualifying session
seventh.

Troy Corser: “We tried some quite different settings in the first session today. We had already struggled with the side grip in Imola and wanted to get this issue sorted here. The grip in the corner entry and apex is not too good, and at the exit we still have a lot of wheel spin. The bike’s reaction improved after changing a couple of settings in the qualifying session, and I was faster. But I still feel we have to find out what it is that is making me ride on the limit all the time.”

Ruben Xaus: “I am quite happy today. My rhythm was good from the beginning, and I was able to post very consistent lap times. Nevertheless, I still have too much wheel spin at the exit of the slow corners. In the last corner, I have to be careful not to touch the kerbs with the engine cover. We did many laps today, and I feel well-prepared for tomorrow.”

Rainer Bäumel (Technical Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport): “Today Ruben posted very solid lap times from the first outing onwards. Although not having finished in the top positions, I am not worried as his lap times were consistently good. On Troy’s side of the garage we worked hard on the chassis set-up. It seems as if we found something substantial at the end of the day. We are confident for tomorrow. ”

BMW Motorrad Motorsport and Davide Tardozzi have agreed to part company by mutual consent with immediate effect. BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director, Berthold Hauser, says: “With his wealth of experience Davide has been a great help to us this season in his role as Team Manager. However, he and the team had different ideas regarding the structure of the team. We would like to thank Davide for his contribution to a good partnership and wish him all the best for the future.”

—  Suzuki Report

Team Suzuki Alstare riders Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli know that there’s more to be done after they ended the first day of World Superbike qualifying at the final Magny-Cours round in France with the 10th and 14th quickest lap times.

Haslam’s 10th place was just over three-tenths-of-a-second off pole and Guintoli is half-a-second adrift on a day that saw the top 16 riders separated by less than a second.

Italian Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) set the day’s quickest lap in qualifying with a time of 1:38.856, with Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) second and Max Biaggi (Aprilia) third.

Leon Haslam – 10th, 1:39.238: “It was just one of those close lap times days and really there’s all to play for tomorrow. Basically though, today was not so bad and I am happy with the changes the team made from practice to qualifying. We made some adjustments to the gearing and now we need to work on some grip issues because that’s where we were suffering. We need some more time on softer tyres so that we can work out which tyres we’ll use for the races and we need to get the right set-up. The times are close and really there’s only one split where I’m losing time and that could even be just one corner! So, if we can improve, we’re going to be in the hunt for sure.”

Sylvain Guintoli – 14th, 1:39.431: “Today was quite good for a Friday for me! Often my Fridays are not so good and I spend the rest of the weekend playing catch-up, but today was better than usual. I’m only half a second down on pole, but 14th on the grid, so you can see that the times are very close – just like they have been all year! I’ve got some issues with rear grip, but sometimes that’s to do with the track being a bit ‘green’ on the opening day. All season we’ve been having some problems with grip when the track is ‘green’ and hasn’t got much rubber down. Tomorrow, we’ll try a few different things on both bikes and see if we can find some more rear grip and what works best.”

—  Ten Kate

Jonathan Rea was cleared fit to ride in the final World Superbike championship round of 2010 here at Magny-Cours today and, despite injuries to his wrist and shoulder posted a qualifying time only 0.5s off the provisional pole time of Lorenzo Lanzi.

The 23-year-old Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider crashed during last weekend’s round at Imola in Italy and flew home to the UK for a diagnosis on his injuries. Rea is booked in for an operation on his wrist on Tuesday, but was determined to take part in the final race of the season.

Despite setting the 15th fastest time today, Rea and his crew are confident that changes to his Honda CBR1000RR will allow him to improve both his lap time and position in tomorrow’s qualifying and Superpole sessions.

Rea’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Max Neukirchner, set the 17th fastest time today after difficulties in setting up his machine for the 4.411km Magny-Cours circuit, but is determined to improve tomorrow.

Jonathan Rea – P15 1’35.454s
Well, I’m happy that I’m riding because the medical staff here were a little unsure about passing me fit this morning. I didn’t have a great day and ended up 15th but the times are so close – like half a second between me and pole – and we arrived here with a bike that was a lot different from last year. So we’re going to try and find something halfway between where we are now and where we were last year. Tomorrow, for sure, we’ll cure the change of direction problem that is quite difficult with my shoulder and wrist at the moment. The bike’s a lot longer and we’ve got some changes that’ll make it easier to ride the bike. There are a lot of people I have to thank for getting me out there today – it’s good to finish the season at the last round rather than one race early. I’ll give it a big bunch of heart tomorrow and go out to see what we can do.

Max Neukirchner – P17 1’40.704s
I did a longer run this afternoon but my lap time is not so good. When we put in new tyres to try and improve the time, the front tyre was too soft and I was not able to push hard enough. We’ll change a few things tomorrow morning and hope that allows us improves things. I also need to work on my lines through one or two corners where I am spending too long with the bike leant over and not opening the throttle soon enough. So, although 17th looks quite bad, I am positive about improving the position tomorrow.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Well, it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster since Jonathan’s injury last weekend at Imola and when we arrived here, we weren’t even sure he would be able to ride. However, he was declared fit and even though we’re a long way off in position, we’re not that far off with the lap times, so I’ve got to take my hat off to him for that performance in his current condition. We’ll give him a better bike tomorrow for sure and hope that he can go even better. Max seems to be suffering from similar problems, so we’ll look again at the data and see if there are any areas that we can improve things for him, too.

— Althea Ducati

The first two sessions of the final round of the 2010 World Superbike Championship took place today at the French circuit of Magny-Cours. After last weekend’s fantastic results in front of home crowds at Imola, Team Althea Racing will aim to replicate that performance, this time on French soil.

Carlos Checa, having dominated Imola’s event to achieve two spectacular race wins, registered the eighth fastest time today (1m39.138) and secured a provisional place on the second row of Sunday’s grid. Competition was extremely close, with sixteen riders all within eight tenths of a second of each other, meaning that Sunday’s two races are sure to be both hard-fought and entertaining, in true Superbike style. Tomorrow, Spanish rider Carlos will continue to refine his Ducati ahead of race day and, weather permitting, will aim to improve his grid position. “We are all very close today in terms of times”, said Carlos. “I really like the track even though I’ve struggled a bit through the fast chicanes and slow corners, particularly exiting the corners. Tomorrow we’ll try to improve the situation and I’m feeling very confident, because we’ll already on the right path as far as tyres are concerned. I just hope it won’t rain because that would force us to reassess.”

Shane Byrne also put in a promising performance. The Althea Racing rider registered the thirteenth fastest time, just half a second behind leader Lanzi and in the afternoon, thanks also to his technicians’ hard work, he bounced back from a difficult situation. “Normally I push hard for two or three laps as soon as I get on track and, if I can get into the top three, it means I can then relax a little and work calmly for the rest of the session. That didn’t work this morning and it conditioned my session. In the afternoon I wasn’t able to make that early clean lap either and so I chose to come back to the garage and recharge the batteries. This worked in my favour because, when I went back out, I was able to make some great lap times. I’m really happy because we’ve worked really well and I’m sure we can improve tomorrow too. The team has been fantastic once again.”