World Superbike, Final Qualifying

Australian Steve Martin emerged from the lower ranks of the Superbike order to qualify third for the afternoon’s Superpole session. Martin, a former Australian Superbike championship racer, rides for the semi-factory DFX Racing team from Italy. He’s the type of rider who likes to push the front really hard and, until this weekend, Pirelli have struggled to find a tyre to match this very aggressive style. But now they’ve come up with the goods and Martin looks set to impress in Sunday’s race.

Above Martin in the order it’s business as usual with Corser qualifying on provisional pole in front of Troy Bayliss in second. Neil Hodgson, fresh from a win at Donington, lifted himself up the timesheet late in the session to take fourth. The qualifying was interrupted when Johann Wolfsteiner crashed his Remus Kawasaki heavily on the final corner. His bike flew into several parts and spread itself across the track, forcing the organisers to wave red flag. When the action resumed, defending champion Colin Edwards had obviously lost his concentration as he also lost the front end of his Honda and crashed – only two minutes after the restart.

Fuchs Kawasaki and All Japan Superbike competitor Hitoyasu Izutsu had a good day at the office, beating the two regular Kawasaki riders – and Colin Edwards, to qualify in provisional fifth place. Izutsu is only riding in a selection of the WSBK events, in between defending his All Japan Superbike title. His team mates, Gregorio Lavilla and Akira Yanagawa qualified in ninth and 13th respectively. With only just more than half a second between the top ten qualifiers Sunday’s race looks set to be a close one.