PITT LEADS THE YAMAHAS AT BRANDS
05 August 2005 - Yamaha Racing

Yamaha''s superbike riders enjoyed a good opening day for this weekend''s eighth round of the Superbike World Championship at the Brands Hatch circuit in the United Kingdom.

With the morning practice session affected by rain, Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga used the afternoon qualifying session to work on machine settings for Sunday''s two 25-lap races around the undulating English circuit. Despite being the team''s first visit to the circuit with the YZF-R1, both riders declared themselves happy with the base machine settings, setting the sixth and 12th fastest times despite opting to save their soft qualifying tyres for tomorrow''s final session.

Pitt rode strongly to end the day sixth with a best of 1:28.023, less than a second behind fastest man Troy Corser (Suzuki). The Australian run consistently fast in both the morning and afternoon sessions and expects to find further improvement tomorrow, as the team changes the gearbox settings on his YZF-R1.

Team-mate Haga, a double winner here last year and winner last time out at Brno, ended the day 12th, comfortable in the knowledge that he will have two qualifying tyres at his disposal tomorrow. Nitro Nori, the fans'' favourite at Brands, recorded a best time of 1:28.541 and is confident of improving tomorrow.

Fellow Japanese Norick Abe had an encouraging time on his first visit to Brands. The Yamaha Motor France rider ended the day in 18th place, ruing the lack of dry running in the morning session but encouraged by his performance on the tricky to learn circuit. Like his colleagues in the Yamaha Motor Italia team, Abe is confident that improved settings and added circuit knowledge can help improve his time and propel him into the top-16 superpole session, a position already occupied by his team-mate, Sebastien Gimbert, who ended today in 14th position.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
''It''s my first time here for three years and the circuit has changed a little bit, but I enjoy it here and I''m pretty happy with how it''s gone today. We''ve consistently been up the front and I''m happy with the way the bike''s feeling. It''s our first time here with the R1, so we had to guess a bit at the settings. We''ve got it pretty good but the gearbox (ratios) isn''t perfect so that''s something that we''ll change for tomorrow.''

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
''Always race settings is most important and as normal we worked on finding a good race set-up and, basically, it is ok. Of course, we will still make lots of changes for tomorrow and I am sure that we can improve some more in the morning.''

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France)
''This is my first time at Brands Hatch and I am quite happy with how it went today. This is a very special circuit with many difficult corners to learn. Normally when I go to a new course I am in position 20-something on the first day, so 18th is not so bad - especially as this morning''s session was wet and I could not try many things. Of course we will make changes to the bike overnight, especially to the gearbox settings, and I think that we can make big improvements tomorrow.''

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France)
''I''m feeling a lot fitter now than I did at Brno. My leg is now healed and I hope for a good result this weekend. I rode here with the R1 last year, so I know the circuit. Tomorrow we will make a few small changes and I hope that we can qualify for the superpole.''

Claudio Consonni (Racing Manager - Yamaha Motor Italia)
''The team is quite confident about this weekend. Both Andrew and Noriyuki have made consistent times and were able to do good lap times without using the qualifying tyre. Both riders have a good feeling from the bike and we will make some more changes tonight which we hope will improve the package even more.''

Round: 8 - Europe
Circuit: Brands Hatch
Circuit Length: 4221
Lap Record: 1'' 26.755 (Shane Byrne, 2003)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1'' 26.248 (Shane Byrne, 2003)
Date: 5 August 2005
Temp: 20ºC

Session 1 :
Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying
1 T. Corser Suzuki AUS 1'' 27.137
2 R. Laconi Ducati FRA 1'' 27.652
3 C. Walker Kawasaki GBR 1'' 27.656
4 K. Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'' 27.742
5 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'' 27.767
6 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 1'' 28.023
7 C. Vermeulen Honda AUS 1'' 28.056
8 J. Toseland Ducati GBR 1'' 28.072
9 P. Chili Honda ITA 1'' 28.205
10 M. Neukirchner Honda GER 1'' 28.271
11 S. Martin Petronas AUS 1'' 28.318
12 N. Haga Yamaha JPN 1'' 28.541
13 M. Borciani Ducati ITA 1'' 28.746
14 S. Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'' 28.750
15 B. Bostrom Honda USA 1'' 28.926
16 P. Riba Kawasaki ESP 1'' 28.932
17 G. Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'' 28.960
18 N. Abe Yamaha JPN 1'' 29.044
19 D. Hobbs Yamaha GBR 1'' 29.093
25 L. Alfonsi Yamaha ITA 1'' 29.880
26 J. Cardoso Yamaha ESP 1'' 30.656

WSS: Australians chase set-up at Brands Hatch

5/8/2005

Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes, Yamaha Motor Germany''s Australian duo, set the fifth and ninth fastest times in today''s first practice for Sunday''s round eight of the Supersport World Championship at Brands Hatch.

Despite heavy showers throughout the day the track remained dry, albeit with several damp patches off line, for the duration of the 45 minute session. With the morning practice session run in wet conditions, the supersport riders found themselves without any meaning set-up data for the afternoon qualifying session, meaning both men spent as much time trying to find a good machine set-up as they did setting fast lap times.

Championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was the fastest rider with a 1:29.174 lap time, but behind him things were close with just eight tenths of a second separating second placed Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) from Parkes in ninth.

Curtain spent most of the session looking for a good race set-up on his YZF-R6, posting a best time of 1:30.424 - good enough for fifth place and second row on the provisional grid. The 39-year-old was happy with his day''s work, confident his squad can make significant improvements ahead of tomorrow''s final session.

Parkes, fastest in the morning''s wet practice, also had to contend with set-up problems as a result of no previous dry running. The 23-year-old found the gearing on his YZF-R6 was not set-up correctly, causing his machine to rev out down the straights. Despite this, Parkes ended the session ninth with a best lap time of 1:30.838.

Final grid positions will be determined by the best time over today and tomorrow''s sessions. Final qualifying takes place tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.

Kevin Curtain
''With the rain this morning we''re a session behind, so we spent qualifying trying lots of things with the gearing and the set-up. The track was still a little damp around the Dingle Dell area but we still made some progress, although there are still a lot of corners where we''re neither here nor there with the set-up. The guys are looking at all the data now and I''m sure they''ll come up with a bunch of improvements for tomorrow.''

Broc Parkes
''I was hitting the rev-limiter everywhere and although we really needed to change the gearing we didn''t have enough time, as it would have meant changing both the front and rear sprocket. The gap between me and second is not much and we know that we can improve quite a lot by changing the gearing. So, if it stays dry tomorrow, we should be alright.''

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