Noriyuki Haga will start tomorrow's round of the World Superbike Championship in second place after an impressive Superpole performance today. Troy Corser will start from eighth position after sliding off during his Superpole lap, though he had been among the top three riders all weekend.

Dry weather today allowed Haga to make the most of his wild lines and focus on getting the right race set-up. Having qualified eighth this morning Haga went on to put in a hard to beat Superpole lap time. Only Troy Bayliss, the last man out, could better the Japanese rider's time, pushing him to second position. Haga goes into tomorrow's race with already 148 World Superbike race finishes in the points under his belt, dedicated to extending that number to 150 by the end of the day.

Troy Corser's fortunes were almost reversed to Noriyuki's during the day. He battled with Bayliss for the top spot throughout the practice and qualifying sessions only to crash out on the first corner of his Superpole lap due to a severe cross-wind. He will start tomorrow's race on the second row in eighth position. This is in accordance with the rules stating that if a rider starts Superpole in the top eight, he cannot drop lower than eighth position.

Shinichi Nakatomi had difficulties in finding the correct feeling, resulting in a disappointing qualifying session today. Tomi managed to improve only one position from yesterday's qualifying despite knocking almost four seconds off his best time. He will start in 22nd position, though with 50 laps completed is hopeful of a better end result.

Troy Corser (8th - 1'31.132 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"The wind kicked me out on the first corner and I just couldn't keep it up; it just means that I'll start from the second row. I'm feeling confident about the bike; it really feels like mine now. Since we lost time yesterday due to the weather we've still got a final rear tyre option for the race to test tomorrow morning during warm up."

 

 

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