Monza: Supersport: Ten Kate Friday notes

CHARPENTIER SHINES IN MONZA SUN

Sébastien Charpentier maintained his recent stunning form by setting the fastest time in this afternoon's opening qualifying practice session for round four of the World Supersport championship at Monza in Italy. The Frenchman shrugged off the effects of a crash in free practice this morning to set a provision pole time of 1m51.971s around the 5.8km Monza circuit - almost a second inside the existing lap record.

His Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Katsuaki Fujiwara, set the second fastest time of the scheduled 45-minute session, which was stopped for 20 minutes after oil had been deposited on the entry to the Parabolica curve at the historic circuit near Milan.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:
"Well, we have another one-two after the first qualifying session but I can tell you that everyone is working very hard to keep these two riders at the top of the time sheets. One of the problems is that the traffic at Monza is almost as bad as the traffic going into Milan each morning, with lots of riders waiting for a tow. We have been concentrating on getting the CBR600RR into race trim and playing with different tyre combinations. We're very pleased with the new exhaust system from Arrow which was developed especially for Monza. We can get more top speed without sacrificing drive out of the chicanes here."

Sébastien Charpentier - fastest, 1m51.971s
"For me, the only problem here is so many riders trying to follow me to catch the slipstream. The crash this morning was not too bad - just one of those things losing the front, but I think we know why it happened. It was a strange session this afternoon because of the oil stoppage but the Parabolica was not too bad when we were finally allowed back out on the circuit. The bike is almost perfect but tomorrow is another important day when we will make some more fine tuning to the set-up, a race simulation and a final decision on tyres."

Katsuaki Fujiwara - second fastest, 1m52.985s
"There is plenty more to come, for sure. We tried a lot of different things this afternoon, mainly trying to get the CBR more stable under the heavy braking that we have to do at Monza. Like Sébastien, I am getting used to being on a Ten Kate CBR which means everybody wants to follow you! I came in to change a tyre near the end of the session but I didn't have enough time left so I just made a practice start. I know from Qatar that I still need to practice those!"

World Supersport, Monza - provisional qualifying times: 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m51.971s, 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:52.985, 3 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) 1:53.092, 4 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 1:53.606, 5 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati) 1:53.607, 6 Simone Sanna ITA (Honda) 1:54.026, 7 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha) 1:54.218, 8 Alessandro Corradi ITA (Ducati) 1:54.269, 9 Alessandro Antonello ITA (Kawasaki) 1:54.767, 10 Sébastien Le Grelle FRA (Honda) 1:55.250.

-tkh-