Brands Hatch: Team Alstare Suzuki Friday notes

STEADY START FOR TEAM ALSTARE ON DAY ONE.

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and Max Biaggi made a steady start on the first day of qualifying at Brands Hatch today. Yukio finished eighth quickest and Max ended the day fourteenth, but both are confident of significant improvement tomorrow. Yukio spent the day getting used to his Alstare Suzuki again after his Suzuka 8 hour success on a very different GSX-R1000 and took things steadily as a result. Max has never raced at Brands Hatch before, so used the time today learning one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar. Series leader James Toseland (Honda) topped the standings today - much to the delight of his home fans - with Troy Bayliss (Ducati) second, Ruben Xaus (Ducati) third and Troy Corser (Yamaha) fourth.

Yukio - 8th, 1:27.544

Last weekend I rode a Yoshimura Suzuki in the Suzuka 8 hour race and that bike is very different to my Alstare Suzuki. So, today it was necessary for me to get used to the Alstare bike again after many, many hours on the other one. I have been to Brands Hatch many times before, so today I just tried to find a good set-up for my bike. This track is a fun track to ride when you have a good set-up and good feeling on the bike. If you do not have a good set-up, then it is a difficult track to go fast.

Max - 14th, 1:28.215

The track is quite short and there are not so many fast corners here. There are many tricky corners, and some blind approaches, and if you do not know what you are doing it is easy to lose time. It is definitely a track where you need good knowledge to go fast and as I have not raced here, I need to learn the track first. This is what today was about for me. We'll make some gearbox changes for tomorrow and explore what the bike can do more deeply. To go fast round here, you have to have a good set-up and feel comfortable and that's what we'll go after tomorrow.

-credit: tas