Monza: Supersport: Ten Kate Saturday notes

WINSTON SUPERSPORT PAIR HEADS MONZA FIELD

Sébastien Charpentier and Katsuaki Fujiwara will start tomorrow's fourth round World Supersport championship race from first and second places on the grid respectively after setting the fastest times in this afternoon's final qualifying session at Monza in Italy.

In warm sunshine and hotter temperatures than yesterday, the Winston Ten Kate Honda duo struggled at times to circulate alone on the 5.8km Monza circuit, with many riders seeking to maximise the benefit from the slipstreams created by their Honda CBR600RRs

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:
"Sébastien and Katsuaki both suffered with other riders trying to follow them and match their lap times. I'm surprised that some of them clearly don't want to win and a lot are local riders so you'd think they would know their way round Monza by know. It's a shame because it seems to diminish the fantastic job that both the riders and the team have been doing. It may look easy from the time sheets but I can assure you it's all very hard work. I am very proud of everybody - especially the composure shown by both riders this afternoon."

Sébastien Charpentier - fastest, 1m51.730s
"Sometimes it was very difficult for me to concentrate out there this afternoon. I know Monza is a high speed circuit with a strong tow, but every time I left the pit box and looked behind me there are a surprising number of riders leaving their pit box too! They seemed to attach themselves to Katsuaki later on so I was able to get the track to myself and improve yesterday's time. The gearing is perfect, the bike feels fantastic and I made many good laps on race tyre tyres. I'm in good physical shape so I think you can say I'm ready for tomorrow's race which is very important for the championship."

Katsuaki Fujiwara - second fastest, 1m52.126s
"The track temperature was higher for today's qualifying and the bike was sliding around a lot more than yesterday. But it's OK for me and the CBR is feeling very strong and stable. Towards the end of the session, I found it very difficult to get away from other riders. At one point I looked behind me and saw about 12 of them - the rest of the track must have been nearly empty! I had to wait and wait to go by myself and did my fastest lap right at the end. It's important to get a good start tomorrow - for sure, Sébastien is strong again but I will be trying very hard for another win here."

World Supersport, Monza - final qualifying times: 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m51.730s, 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:52.126, 3 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati) 1:52.364, 4 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 1:52.700, 5 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) 1:53.322, 6 Alessandro Corradi ITA (Ducati) 1:53.539, 7 Simone Sanna ITA (Honda) 1:53.542, 8 Barry Veneman NED (Suzuki) 1:53.843, 9 Stephane Chambon FRA (Honda) 1:54.007, 10 Javier Fores ESP (Suzuki) 1:54.313.

-tkh-