BMW Motorrad Motorsport – Superbike World Championship – Magny-Cours, France – Qualifying.

Munich. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport rider Troy Corser took a superb top
sixth place in first qualifying at Magny-Cours today. The Australian posted a lap of 1:39.435, to finish just six tenths of a second behind today’s fastest rider - Michel Fabrizio (Ducati).The three stop/go parts of the circuit caused Troy’s team mate Ruben Xaus some problems with his right hip and although the Spaniard only recorded the nineteenth quickest time, he is less than half a second off a top ten place. Second fastest this afternoon was Jonathan Rea (Honda), with Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) third  and Ben Spies (Yamaha) fourth.

Troy - 6th, 1:39.435
Well, it’s gone pretty well today and I’m generally pleased with our progress. We didn’t have any problems with the brakes today, so hopefully last weekend’s issues have been sorted out. Today we spent most of the time working on the chassis and how it behaves on the bumps and on braking at this track. At the moment, tyre life seems OK and I am still happy with the connection with the bike. Tomorrow we’ll do some more work to try and manage the bumps better and some more stuff on the wheelie control.

Ruben - 19th, 1:40.375
Unbelievably, although I have raced here many times (and have had some good results), I have never been here on a four cylinder bike! So I am having to re-learn the track and adjusting my style to it. It’s obvious that I am not fully fit and there are at least three places on the track that are very stop and go and that’s where I am feeling pain and discomfort in my right hip and top of the leg. Tomorrow my guys are going to try some settings that will make it a bit more easy for me to ride the bike and hopefully I will be able to go faster then. Although my position today doesn’t look good, I am only half a second or so away from the top ten and that shows how competitive this series is.

Berti Hauser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director)
It’s a bit early to talk about the competition, but Troy once again showed that he can challenge the leaders and his sixth place today gives us a lot of hope. That’s a good base, so now we must see if we can improve on it tomorrow. Ruben has done very well, considering the pain he must be in, and hopefully he will be in less discomfort after some massages and treatment from our doctor. Magny-Cours is not an easy circuit for our bike, but we have to manage it as best we can and do our very best.

Friday qualifying
1 Fabrizio (ITA-Ducati) 1:38.770, 2 Rea (GBR-Honda) 1:38.821, 3 Haga (JPN-Ducati) 1:38.877, 4 Spies (USA-Yamaha) 1:38.939, 5 C Checa (ESP-Honda) 1:39.379, 6 Troy Corser (AUS-BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1:39.435, 19 Ruben Xaus (ESP-BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1:40.375