BMW Motorrad Motorsport - WSBK - Magny-Cours - Qualifying Practice 1
Magny-Cours – Free Practice & Qualifying Practice 1.
Friday, 30th September 2011.
Weather conditions: Sunny.
Temperature: Air: 25 – 29 °C, Track: 38 – 43 °C
Number of riders participating: 18 from 12 teams
Fastest lap Free Practice: Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1:39.013 min
Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1:38.652 min
Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport is happy with the first day of the race weekend at Magny-Cours (FRA). The French track hosts the 12th and penultimate round of the 2011 FIM Superbike World Championship. In Free Practice in the morning factory riders, Troy Corser (AUS) and Leon Haslam (GBR), finished third and fourth respectively. In the first Qualifying Practice in the afternoon Leon qualified seventh and provisionally on the second row. Troy was ninth on his BMW S 1000 RR. Ayrton Badovini (ITA) and Xavi Fores (ESP) from the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team finished in 13th and 17th respectively.
Leon Haslam:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:39.252 min (P4)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:38.977 min (P7)
“This day was pretty good. We tried a few different options on the rear tyres for the race distance. It is not easy to find a good set-up for this circuit, so we worked on that. The lap times are not too bad at the moment. We are only three tenths off the quickest time, and I lose a lot of time in just one corner. Tomorrow if we can rectify the issue that we have in that one corner, then we should be somewhere close to the front.”
Troy Corser:
Fastest lap Free Practice: 1:39.241 min (P3)/Fastest lap Qualifying Practice 1: 1:39.025 min (P9)
“The position where we ended up does not show how we are doing. We made some good improvements. Regarding times on race tyres, I would probably be around third or fourth. The set-up of the RR is pretty close to what I am looking for. The chassis settings are working quite well, and we are also pretty consistent. I did quite a few laps on the tyres and the times were pretty good. Now we have a few things to look at, but generally I am pretty happy with the bike. On race tyres we are there. In the end we didn’t even put a new tyre on to safely qualify for Superpole, but saved it for tomorrow. This is where we should be.”
Rainer Bäumel (Head of Race Operations):
“I think we are pretty competitive, especially on longer runs. The guys in front of us all did their best times on one single quick lap. We were doing well in the first session with both riders finishing in the top four. This is a good base. Our aim for tomorrow is to get both riders into Superpole 3, and I think it is possible.”
