World Superbike
WSS: Yamaha Valencia Saturday notes
Curtain confirms his third place in qualifying Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes played it sensible today as wet weather made the track slippery and riding conditions difficult.As a result of the rain, today's lap times were slower than during the ...
Published: Apr 14, 2007, 9:13 PM
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Curtain confirms his third place in qualifying
Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes played it sensible today as wet weather made the track slippery and riding conditions difficult.As a result of the rain, today's lap times were slower than during the first qualifying session yesterday and therefore there were no changes from yesterday's provisional qualifying positions. Kevin will start tomorrow in third place on the grid, while Broc will start from 11th.
Data gathered during testing last month allowed both riders to be cautious and not push too much today. Not wanting to risk a crash on top of his collar bone injury, Curtain sat out this morning's free practice session. With conditions no better in the afternoon, he didn't take part in the weekend's second qualifying session either. Under championship regulations he is entitled to do this as he had already qualified within 107% of the fastest time set this weekend. And, with lap times almost 30 seconds slower than Friday, there was little risk of him being knocked off third spot.
With high chances of rain tomorrow, Parkes was keen to get a wet set-up though, so he participated in both practice and qualifying today. Athough knowing he would not be able to improve his best time from yesterday due to the weather conditions, he was keen to try and find a good set-up and get some confidence in the bike and track conditions.
Massimo Roccoli was unable to improve his qualifying position of 16th today, due to the worsening weather conditions. The Yamaha Italia rider made the most of the two sessions, though, to concentrate on improving his mental state and finding the best wet set-up.
With no change to the gird from yesterday's qualifying positions, Sofuoglu (Honda) will start in pole position and Japanese rider Fujiwara (Honda) will start in second. Curtain maintains his third start position for the race.
Kevin Curtain (3rd - 1'37.885 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)
"Sitting out of today's sessions was hard but it was the right thing for me to do. It has given me an extra day's recovery - and on such a short term every day counts. A broken collar bone isn't a simple injury - any kind of crash at this stage could cause a lot of problems and it just wasn't worth the risk today, especially as I got such a good qualifying position yesterday.
If it rains tomorrow I will have to go out in the morning though, as I need to check my rain set-up. Tomorrow is when we will take more risks than so far this weekend - race day is what counts."
Broc Parkes (11th - 1'38.681 - Yamaha World Supersport Team)
"It was like riding on ice out there and far too tough for us to find a good wet set-up. It was really difficult and risky with lots of people crashing - I'm just glad I wasn't one of them. I still haven't found the right race set-up though - what with the rain and my collar bone - so I will just have to go out tomorrow morning to find it out before the race."
Massimo Roccoli (16th - 1'39.016 - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)
"The fourth row is not a good position to start in - we tried to improve on this today but it was not possible with the weather conditions. I was very fast here at the Pirelli tyre test in March so I am hoping to be able to regain some of the mental and technical condition I had then for tomorrow's race. I just hope it is dry tomorrow!"
-credit: yrc
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