WSS: Yamaha Kyalami Friday notes

Yamaha Supersport in the top five for free practice

Yamaha World Superspordt riders Cal Crutchlow and Fabien Foret took advantage of two free practice session in Kyalami today to test out some tyre choices for race weekend and work on their set-ups with the team. Crutchlow got straight onto the pace and was quick again on a new circuit for the British rider, ending the second session in third position just .25 of a second behind leader Sofuoglu.

Team-mate Foret took longer to get up to speed today, having been upset by the morning crash of good friend and fellow French rider Regis Laconi who fell in the Superbike free practice. Foret went on to pick up his pace in the second session and ended the day fifth quickest, a second off the pace leader.

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team, (3rd, 1'41.969)

"It was good to get started learning the circuit and I'm really pleased that we're still up there in the time sheets. We need to work on the settings for tomorrow so we can look to improve on the times. I managed to go quicker on the same tyres over the session so hoping for a couple steps better tomorrow as a result."

Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (5th, 1'42.597)

"Today was a really tough day for me. It was very sad to see my good friend crash this morning, and it also reminded me of my crash last year in Brno. I managed to clear my head and found a good rhythm on the track. I need to come back tomorrow and pick up the pace again for the qualifying session."

Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team

"For Kyalami we have used more or less the set up from Monza. It looks that we still have a good base set up which adapts very quickly which is great. Cal seems to have found the pace straight away. Sofuoglu is currently faster but I think on fresh tyres, so we are happy with the first day's progress. Tomorrow we have some new things to try and see if we can up the pace a bit. Today was difficult for Fabien, this morning was marred by his good friend Laconi crashing. In the second session he picked up and was a lot faster with his pace so it wasn't so bad in the end and there's more to come tomorrow I think."

-credit: yamaha