BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Aragón - Qualifying Practice 1
Aragón – Free Practice & Qualifying Practice 1.
Friday, 17 June 2011.
Weather conditions: Sunny.
Temperature: Air: 24 – 32 °C, Track: 43 – 56 °C
Number of riders participating: 20 from 12 teams
Fastest lap Free Practice: Marco Melandri (Yamaha WSBK Team) 1:59.822 min
Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: Marco Melandri (Yamaha WSBK Team) 1:59.726 min
The first race weekend of the FIM Superbike World Championship at the new Motorland Aragón venue has started. The Spanish race track hosts the seventh round of the 2011 season. For Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport today was the first time it had been here in hot and sunny weather. When it tested here with works riders, Leon Haslam (GBR) and Troy Corser (AUS), in the winter it was pretty cool. Therefore the team used this Friday to test numerous things and to adapt the set-up of the BMW S 1000 RR to the circuit and the hot conditions. Troy finished the first Qualifying practice in 12th, while Leon qualified provisionally 14th.
Troy Corser:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 2:01.419 min (P16)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice: 2:00.798 min (P12)
“My back is still a little bit sore for sitting on the bike, but once I start riding I am not having any problems moving on the bike. We struggled a little bit to get some grip on the rear and had lots of spin. We tried a lot of different solutions to cure the problem. The track itself feels like it has grip, but at first we were not able to use it. Then we tried something at the very end of the session and that was definitely better. All in all I am not too worried, we will now compare the good setup from the test and the one from today, and will work out a setting for tomorrow.”
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 2:01.264 min (P14)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 2:01.047 min (P14)
“At the minute we are trying to work through a few issues, ones which have been affecting us over the last few races. Today we focused on trying to fine tune the setting we have, as the track temperature is extremely high in relation to the last time we tested here. Tomorrow is a new day, the team is working hard, as always, to incorporate my feedback and give me what I need from the bike. We will have to see what tomorrow brings. It is just a case of working hard to try and find the solution we are looking for.”
Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations):
“After both of our riders left the last race weekend in Misano injured, today our priority was to sort out and test some new strategies instead of pushing for quick lap times. The grip level was completely different to when we tested here, so we tried a lot of different ideas. We were able to collect a good amount of information that we will now analyse as we continue with our preparation for Sunday.”
