Superpole Showdown Sees Corser Start from Second
Corser will start from second on the grid in tomorrow's races, having been beaten by Bayliss at the last minute to the top slot by 0.126 seconds. His team mate Haga took fifth position in a day of set-up challenges and Superpole drama.This morning's qualifying session was an unremarkable affair with both riders focusing on finding the best set-up for the race. Corser started top of the leader board and remained there until towards the end of the session. Despite improving his own time by 0.009 seconds he was marginally beaten to the top slot by Bayliss and Xaus. Haga went eighth fastest in qualifying, concerning himself with his settings rather than grid position.
It was in Superpole that events got exciting. Haga was first of the Yamaha Motor Italia riders out of the box and he was the first rider in the session to set a 1'36 time, despite suffering with vision problems caused by his visor.He was later knocked off the top spot by Biaggi, who was then ousted himself by Haga's team mate. With only three riders left to go out Corser set a blistering 1'36.016 to take pole, only to be beaten by the slimmest of margins by Bayliss.
Team Yamaha YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi suffered some bike chattering problems during this morning's qualifying session, which prevented him from improving on his time from yesterday. He still managed to qualify in 13th, allowing him into the afternoon's Superpole session. In one of his best Superpole sessions of the season, Nakatomi went out and did his best lap time of the weekend to claim tenth starting place.
Bayliss and Corser are joined on the front row tomorrow by Xaus and Biaggi. Haga will be looking to reduce his 41-point gap up to Toseland, who starts in eighth following a crash in Superpole. With 73 WSB podium finishes in his career so far, Haga will show his usual determination to climb those podium steps in this penultimate round and join Edwards in fourth place of all-time podium finishes.
Troy Corser, from team Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team, 'That Superpole lap was the best I could do - it was 100% maximum! There was no risk of crashing; it was just a very smooth consistent lap. I thought it would be good for the front row but I was very pleased with the result. The first section was fast and good but I just lost a little bit of drive at the bottom of the hill in the second section. We've got a good race set-up for tomorrow. We'll just try and few small adjustments in the morning to make sure. The two bikes are set up a bit differently at the moment - one is better for the front, one is better for the rear - and I think we'll try and make them a bit closer together. But overall I've felt good on the bike in every session so far this weekend. I'm very happy with how this weekend has gone so far!'
