The first round of the 2011 World Superbike Championship officially got underway today at Phillip Island in perfect racing weather, where Carlos Checa easily dominated both free practice 1 and qualifying practice 1 which puts him in provisional pole position.
Tomorrow’s QP2 will be decisive on who’ll be allowed to progess to the Superpole qualification, as the latest format tweak will allow only sixteen riders get a chance to battle it out in the three stint session.
More rider quotes and photos after the jump.
Carlos Checa:“We worked really well today, concentrating mainly on the tyres.
We have a clearer idea of which race tyres to use and I’d say that we’re back in a position where we’re experiencing the same sensations as last year.
Unfortunately I fell this morning at the second corner.
I was having difficulty shifting down, meaning that I hit neutral and lost the front.
Anyway the problem was quickly solved by my always efficient technicians.
Today we worked more on tyres while tomorrow we have other things to try, but I admit that I’m feeling very confident for now.
” Max Biaggi:“We still have a lot of work to do.
There are problems with the engine brake which triggers a very marked chattering.
We tried different solutions, even changing bikes often, but we haven’t had any great advantages.
There is still work to be done just to understand what needs to be adjusted.
The pace isn’t bad, but when I try to push it the problems I’ve mentioned come into play.
I think that Checa has a pretty good advantage over us at the moment, but I need to look at my own pit and try to draw out the best from what is available to me.
For tomorrow I’d like to improve on the fast lap”.
Michel Fabrizio:I feel pretty happy with my seventh today, especially when you consider how close the lap times are.
Just three tenths faster and I would’ve finished second quickest today, so I know that we are in contention.
I would’ve felt even more happy, but I had a little crash towards the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session, when I lost the front going into turn two.
It happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to recover.
It’s a shame and I want to say sorry to my mechanics because it means that they’ve extra work to do tonight.
Fortunately I was unhurt in the crash and all I did was scrape my leathers.
Today we spent the two sessions getting a good set-up for the bike and we will continue to do that tomorrow, paying some more time to fine tune the suspension.
The bike is going pretty good around here and I am happy that it is more than holding its own against some of the newer bikes from this year.
Also, I am still learning about my bike and feel that there’s quite a bit more to come, so I am looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday.
Today was my first day on the Suzuki Alstare bike in a race weekend situation and I think the team and I have done well, all things considered.
Now we want to keep up our progress, qualify well and see what happens on Sunday.
Although the first turn is a fair distance away from the start line, it is a bit like a funnel when a big group of riders try and go through it.
Therefore it’s important to qualify on the first two rows of the grid, make a good start and not get tangled up in the pack going into the turn.
That’s going to be my aim, but first we’ve got tomorrow’s practice, qualifying and Superpole.
Jonathan Rea:I think the most important thing is that the Clinica Mobile guys have patched me up really well.
My back and neck are really sore today, but the heavy strapping on my left wrist seems to be fine on the bike.
This morning we worked through race distance on a potential race tyre and we continued that this afternoon.
But when we threw in the new bigger shape tyre, which was working really well on Tuesday, the track temperatures were too hot so it wasn’t any better.
So, rather than burn another tyre from our allocation and burn valuable energy at this point of the weekend, we sat out the session.
To be top ten after the first day and to have another 36 hrs to get stronger for Sunday makes me really optimistic.
The bike’s working great and is really fun to ride and I have no confidence issues after the crash on Tuesday.
When I was lying in hospital on Wednesday and the doctors were talking about keeping me in another night, I never even thought I’d be on a bike this weekend.
I’d like to say a really big thanks to everyone who’s got me to this position, and for me to be putting in good lap times on old tyres is really down to them.
Eugene Laverty:“I’m very satisfied with my position today, I didn’t expect to be that high up in the standings although my aim was to do a 1.
31 to get me through to Superpole tomorrow, so I was expecting the lap time but not the position.
We learnt a bit more today for our race set up but we still need to work on a bit of consistency.
Thankfully we can now focus tomorrow morning on race set up.
”Marco Melandri:“It was a very bad day for me today everything seemed to be going wrong.
Definitely a no meaning day, I will start fresh tomorrow! I lost the front when I was trying a harder front tyre, I had no feeling in it and suddenly it was just gone.
Tomorrow we will go for a different tyre and a set up we know so we should be much better, I am confident we will be up there.
”Ruben Xaus: I planned not to use so many tyres this afternoon but my last run was quite difficult.
I spent most of today working on race distances with old tyres and then when we moved to the bigger tyre we expected to go better.
I couldn’t even get close to the times I was doing on the smaller tyre.
Instead the rear started to jump quite badly and it was very difficult to hold the line without that grip.
I just couldn’t use it and I think with the smaller tyre I was already having some problems absorbing the bumps, so this just made it worse.
We’re still making changes to the bike and it’s really beginning to feel like it’s mine – I can have some fun with it now – and the team is working really.
I need to improve some things myself and try again tomorrow.
Noriyuki Haga: “I still can’t give my best on this condition.
After the last practices, things seemed got better but because of a warmer tar the issue came back.
We still got some different solutions to try within sight of tomorrow, during which day the starting grid will be determined, but overall we’ll end the setting work on sight of the two rounds on Sunday.
Leon Haslam:“We are happy with how today went, and definitely made a step forward from the test.
We foundhalf a second in warmer conditions, which is not too bad.
Carlos Checa is still the man to beat, but Iam pretty close to the other guys, and that’s the main thing.
We now have to fine-tune somesmaller remaining issues, but we are pretty much on the race pace now.
As usual, we are pushingas hard as we can for tomorrow and Sunday.
”Jakub Smrz :“In the morning we had to choose settings, with which we will go on and from which we build.
In the afternoon we focused on lap times on used tires and at the end, we put on new tires.
Although I picked up, but I know on my part I can do better, I even had a bit of luck with a lot of riders on the track.
Anyway, we are in front, which is essential in proceeding according to plan and prepare for race.
“Troy Corser:“We have definitely made improvements with the bike.
My bike’s set-up is now pretty much thesame as Leon’s, and my lap times dropped down to the same as his in the morning.
Obviously wehave moved on, but still we are not where we want to be.
Again, this afternoon, we tried somethings but did not improve any further.
After this morning’s session, we should be happy with thequalifying result.
We will now look into the data and see where we can make further improvements.
”Leon Camier:“Unfortunately my performance is effected by the ailment.
I’m struggling to breathe and in general I’m not able to concentrate on my riding.
This hinders me from understanding best what needs to be done for the bike setup, above all because I can’t take my RSV4 to the limit.
Now I’m just thinking about resting.
We have a lot of work to do tomorrow so I need to recover… at least a bit”.
Roberto Rolfo: “I’m disappointed by the results of today’s qualifying session.
This morning I worked with my team to find quite a good set up but during the afternoon qualifying session it was more difficult for me because I changed bikes, so I lost a lot of time as well as my former race pace.
Tomorrow morning I want to push hard right from the start.
I think we still have a bit of work to do to find the best bike balance, but we are not that far from obtaining the best motorcycle setting that will help me to lower my lap time.
”Bryan Staring: “Today we tried many different things during both the morning and afternoon sessions.
During qualifying we made some useful improvements on the bike.
The problem we have right now is that the faster I go, the more problems we seem to find.
It’s normal in racing I guess and we have to work hard to have a better bike.
My Kawasaki is now going better than it was during testing and we just need to make a few changes to make it faster.
I’m working very well with my team and so I’m confident for tomorrow’s qualifying session.
I’ll do my best to get into Superpole.
”Mark Aitchison: “Today we started our day very well, adjusting the front fork setting which meant that midway through qualifying I had a much better feeling with the bike.
We made this change to make me more comfortable on the bike, so I hope to reconfirm this feeling tomorrow morning.
I’m happy because I’m starting to change my riding style for the Superbike, which is very important.
Unfortunately toward the end of the qualifying session we had some problems with the front brakes, which stopped me from improving on my overall lap time.
In any case we’ll work hard tomorrow to make me as comfortable as possible ahead of the races on Sunday.
”
