World Superbike

WSS: Yamaha Teams Assen Friday notes

Parkes fastest despite first day fall Yamaha World Supersport Team rider Broc Parkes secured provisional pole at the fast and flowing Assen circuit, despite a heavy high-speed fall in the free practice session earlier in the day, at the double ...

Published: Apr 26, 2008, 2:30 PM

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Parkes fastest despite first day fall

Yamaha World Supersport Team rider Broc Parkes secured provisional pole at the fast and flowing Assen circuit, despite a heavy high-speed fall in the free practice session earlier in the day, at the double right corner before the final high speed section of the 4.555km circuit. The 26-year-old Australian rider secured a time of 1'41.416, 0.352 seconds ahead of Gianluca Nannelli, using settings the team had arrived at after a two-day test at Assen last week.

Fabien Foret worked hard in the two opening practice sessions but never quite found the same level of competitiveness as he did in testing, finishing up ninth fastest, largely due to a significant increase in track and air temperatures since the test. The former World Champion and Assen race winner is confident that he can find his missing speed when he reverts to more conventional machine settings on day two.

Relatively warm spring weather bathed the majority of the afternoon session after overnight rains had dried in time for serious track action, with the notorious Assen weather also set to be fair on the second day of competition.

Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) scored a fine sixth best time on his R6, despite not having found an optimum machine set-up so far. Yamaha Spain riders David Salom and Angel Rodriguez had very different experiences at Assen on day one, with Rodriguez going fifth quickest in his stand-in role for team regular David De Gea, while Salom was only 19th.

Broc Parkes (1st - 1'41.416 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)

"A really good result considering that I only did three laps in the morning, after I highsided when I looked over my shoulder with one hand on the handlebar. I don't think anything too serious has happened but my left hand is very swollen right at the point of pressure where I push the handlebar. I was struggling a little bit on the bike so I was surprised to see where we finished. The bike is working very well but I am not using it to its full strength at the moment, because of my hand. The recent test we did really helped us with setting up the bike for qualifying today. If we hadn't tested I'm not sure I could have done the lap time. I have hurt my throttle hand before so it's a lot better to have hurt my left hand, especially with all the fast changes of direction here. You are always pushing on the handlebars at Assen."

Fabien Foret (9th - 1m 42.258 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)

"I think I took the wrong way trying to set-up my bike. What we used last week in the test was OK, but the weather was much cooler then. As soon as I want to push hard things didn't work out the way I expected, so we have gone back to a setting I would normally have used in the past. Tomorrow we have a chance to improve. We missed this session a bit but no drama, and we should be OK for the race, as always."

Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team)

"For Broc we are basically running the same settings we had in our recent test, and to try anything new now is not a good idea, because he is a little injured. But he is still happy with the bike even if the track conditions have changed a bit. It affects Broc less because his style is quite fluid. With the track now warmer the test settings don't work so well for Fabien, so we go back now to the settings we had before. He still has a good feeling with the bike, and his slides are very controllable, but for him to do 1'41 lap times he needs to have the bike a bit more rigid."

Angel Rodriguez: (5th - 1'41.992 seconds - Yamaha Spain)

"I'm very happy with team, with the bike and with the job we made. This is my first race with team and they worked hard for us during the day. This motorcycle is a little different from mine, I've got another riding style, and I need to change it. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

Massimo Roccoli (6th - 1'42.033 seconds - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)

"We experienced a lot of problems with traffic trying to set our fastest laps but I think that happened to a lot of riders. We also need to get the gearing sorted out better, especially between second and third gears."

David Salom: (19th - 1'43.161 seconds - Yamaha Spain)

"We had some issues with the traffic today and when I tried to push hard another rider put me off line. But mainly we have to sort out the engine set-up to make it better under acceleration. Top power is OK. This is my preferred circuit, but things have been not as we expect. The most important thing is that I know that I can have a good rhythm."

-credit: yamaha-racing.com

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