Donington Park: Team Alstare Suzuki Friday report

Conditions during the first day of the third round of this year's Superbike World Championship were difficult so Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and Max Biaggi started cautiously. The morning session was cold and wet and, ...

Conditions during the first day of the third round of this year's Superbike World Championship were difficult so Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Yukio Kagayama and Max Biaggi started cautiously. The morning session was cold and wet and, although conditions improved marginally in the afternoon, the track still had several damp patches. It was one of these that Yukio hit towards the end of the qualifying session and which caused him to suffer a heavy fall, knocking him out for a few minutes He was taken to the Medical Centre for a check up and X-rays, but luckily suffered no broken bones or any other injuries apart from a sore back. His team mate Max Biaggi took today very carefully, using the two sessions to find a good base set-up for his GSX-R1000 K7, before beginning to push hard.

Troy Bayliss (Ducati) posted the day's fastest lap, over a second under the lap record. Second is Troy Corser Yamaha), with Ruben Xaus (Ducati) third and series leader James Toseland (Honda) fourth.

YUKIO - 7th, 1:34.549

The conditions today were not easy and then I crashed! It happened at Craner Curves, when I hit a small damp patch on the track and lost control. I hit my head and knocked myself out for a little while, but there were no other injuries. My back is very sore, but I'm sure it'll be OK after a good sleep. I would like to race this weekend, but it is not up to me. We shall see what happens in the morning.

MAX - 9th, 1:34.593

Today was not so easy and I used the time to try and find a good base set-up for my bike. We had no data from here, so we had to start at the beginning and work our way through quite a few things. In these conditions it is difficult to try and choose tyres for the race because conditions could be very different tomorrow or Sunday. This afternoon, when the track was half wet and half dry was tricky and I didn't want to push too hard and crash. A few times today I made small mistakes breaking too hard and having to run a bit wide. That was probably because we had some clutch problems and that was probably why I couldn't go any faster at the end of the qualifying session.