World Superbike

Brno: Ten Kate Honda Friday notes

Superbike qualifying hots up in Brno The Automotodrom Brno in the Czech Republic hosted the first day of qualifying for round nine of the 2007 World Superbike Championship today. HANNspree Ten Kate Honda battled against the rising temperature ...

Edited: Jul 21, 2007, 2:15 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Superbike qualifying hots up in Brno

The Automotodrom Brno in the Czech Republic hosted the first day of qualifying for round nine of the 2007 World Superbike Championship today. HANNspree Ten Kate Honda battled against the rising temperature and slippery track surface to complete a successful first session. James Toseland ended the official qualifying with the fourth fastest time while team-mate Roberto Rolfo finished in sixth position.

Following a productive Pirelli test at the 5.403km circuit in June, the focus for today was on race distance and finding a good set-up and tyre choice for the hot conditions. Today's Superbike qualifying took place in 33C heat, with the track surface rising to an extremely high 50C.

Current series leader Toseland completed a full race distance and secured some impressive lap times in the process. He set the fourth fastest lap with a time of 2'02.200. Team-mate Rolfo also put in a strong performance, holding onto the third fastest time for much of the 45-minute session. He was forced down the table in the dying minutes and eventually finished in sixth with a time of 2'02.315.

Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager:

"This has been a very good day for us with both riders up at the front. The most important thing for us today was not to focus too much on a single fast lap, but on race distance. James has already done full distance where he was pretty fast. Tomorrow we will change the set-up and try some different tyres and see how the race distance goes there. All the work we did at the tests in Brno and Vallelunga has been really important for us. The team and the riders did a lot of hard work there so it's nice to see it paying off here. It's all good."

James Toseland:

"The conditions here are really testing for us all - it's about as hot as it can get in Europe. I'm really pleased because we have been able to find a good race set-up so early in the weekend. We also have the tyre to suit the conditions as long as the temperature cools down. We've got a few improvements to make overnight but we are almost ready to race."

Roberto Rolfo:

"I am happy. We worked really hard today. Unfortunately, the test results are not very relevant this weekend because the conditions are so different. The track is very hot compared to the test. During the second session I improved a lot and put in a good fast lap in the middle. Towards the end I tried to go faster again but I got stuck in traffic and it was not so easy. In any case I am looking ahead to tomorrow and hope to improve even further then."

-credit: htkh

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article WSS: Ten Kate Honda Brno Friday notes

Next article Brno: Friday practice times

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

F2 rebuffs suggestion its title race might be over because of the Iran war

FIA F2

F2 FIA F2 31 min

F2 rebuffs suggestion its title race might be over because of the Iran war

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 9 h

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

9 h

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

10 h

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts