Ten Kate – Rest will do you good! | World SBK
- From: 'the Wire' | Published: September 4th, 2009 - 7:02 pm
Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea set the fastest time in today’s wet opening qualifying session for Sunday’s 11th-round World Superbike championship races at Nurburgring in Germany.
The 22-year-old spent most of the hour-long session – some of which was held in torrential rain – at the top of the timing sheets with a comfortable 1.5-second margin. The gap was reduced to half a second by Britain’s Tom Sykes right at the end of the session, but Rea remained comfortably the fastest rider today.
His team mate, Carlos Checa looked to be heading for a provisional front row slot with his final lap. He was slowed by another rider at the final chicane but remains comfortable in the progress made in today’s sessions.
Jonathan Rea – P1, 2’11.278s
I thought the guys in the team would have rested during the summer break but it seems they’ve been working right through, developing new things to try. We’ve been working on how the rear behaves on corner entry and the work they’ve done has helped a lot, especially in the wet today. We did a lot of laps to confirm things but I really think we’re just scratching the surface of the potential we have – it really is working. I’m feeling really at ease on the bike and with the whole way the team is working together. If I have a problem, I come in, we fix it, and I go faster again. It’s feeling really good.
Carlos Checa – P1, 2’13.550s
We worked on wet settings throughout today and the important thing is that the balance of the bike, the overall feeling on the brakes was all good. I didn’t want to risk too much in the conditions today but the last lap was OK until I got to the final chicane where another rider almost high-sided and crashed in front of me. I though I might get another lap in but the flag was down. I hope we can get some dry! track t ime tomorrow because the forecast for Sunday is for dry conditions.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
It was good to see both riders up to speed today. Jonathan was clearly on it from the very first moment with his bike and some new settings and he fully attacked Friday! Tomorrow may be a different ball game with some dry track time and Sunday is showing a fully dry forecast. It’s good to see that the progress we were making before the summer break is being maintained here and we look forward to some more tomorrow.
2009 World Superbike championship, round 11 – Nurburgring, Germany
Friday qualifying – results:
1 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 2’11.278s
2 Tom Sykes (GBR) Yamaha 2’11.781s
3 Troy Croser (AUS) BMW 2’12.086s
4 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati 2’12.354s
5 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati 2’12.635s
6 Shane Byrne (GBR) Ducati 2’12.819s
12 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 2’15.863s
Ten Kate Honda Racing’s Ryuichi Kiyonari earned himself a provisional top ten grid position for Sunday’s two 11th-round World Superbike championship races at Nurburgring by setting the ninth fastest time in today’s opening qualifying session.
Provisional pole position was taken by Kiyonari’s Ten Kate Honda team-mate Jonathan Rea but the Japanese ace worked steadily with his crew today to make improvements to his Honda Genuine Accessories backed CBR1000RR Fireblade.
The 5.13km Nurburgring circuit in Germany is the second circuit at which Kiyonari has used the team’s new Ohlins suspension and he and his crew declared themselves satisfied with the progress made today.
Ryuichi Kiyonari – P9, 2’13.215s
My lap timer stopped working towards the end of the qualifying session but I think my last lap was looking OK until I nearly highsided at the final chicane and I was lucky not to crash. We made some progress today and the feeling is definitely continuing to improve, step by step. The new suspension is still a challenge, especially in the conditions we had today, but we are making forward steps – maybe two steps forward and then one back. But it is in the right direction!
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Kiyonari-san is definitely showing that he is getting to grips with the new components a lot better now. During the summer break we spent a lot of time analysing data and creating new suspension settings. The work definitely paid off for Kiyo today and we’re looking for further improvements tomorrow.
WSS
Kenan Sofuoglu and Andrew Pitt were happy with the pace of their Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RRs at a wet Nurburgring in Germany today after the first practice session for Sunday’s 11th World Supersport championship round.
Pitt was eighth fastest at the rain-lashed 5.13km circuit, as series leader Cal Crutchlow edged Sofuoglu into second place on the leader board by just three tenths of a second.
The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team has been working through the recent summer break, including undertaking two recent tests at Assen and Nurburgring itself, the latter during a general track day.
The Ten Kate pairing have a further free practice session tomorrow morning before the afternoon qualifying session to determine the grid for Sunday’s 19-lap race.
Kenan Sofuoglu – P2, 2’13.480s
I am quite happy with the performance for our first day here. I had a crash early in the session at the slow second corner when I got on the gas a little too early. It was a sign of some rear grip problems that we had early on but we managed to make some steps towards solving that problem. I could have gone faster for sure, but I prefer to keep making small steps forward and save a quick lap for tomorrow’s qualifying. But wet or dry, I’m happy with where we are and very happy to be back on the bike.
Andrew Pitt – P8, 2’15.863s
I’ve actually got a smile on my face because the bike is working really well and the feeling is coming back. My last lap was going to push me up the leader board but it got a little messed up by a slower rider. Kenan tried a new engine mapping to improve acceleration, which is an! area wh ere we’ve been struggling. He seems really happy with it, so we’ll try that on our bike tomorrow and see how that goes. But the important thing is my confidence is growing with every lap and I’m enjoying riding the bike again.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
It’s a promising start to the weekend and it seems that we’re definitely making some good steps forward with our electronics and suspension set up. The recent tests have been very important for that. Both Kenan and Andrew are smiling again at the end of a session, which is a strong indicator of the amount of progress we have made.
