Aprilia Notes and Quotes From Assen

In the second half of the free practice this morning, rain almoststopped play completely, but this afternoon the track was wet only in afew areas outside the lines used by the riders. This led to a new trackrecord being broken by Ducati's Xaus just five minutes from the end. A recordwhich robbed Troy Corser of his leadership in the qualifying sessions...

The Australian Aprilia rider thus came in second and earned himself aplace in the front row, having been out in front of the entire pack forthe final quarter of an hour. The weather is uncertain. And worse is tocome. Today's times might therefore be carried through to the Superpoleat 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Temperatures: Morning, air 16°C / ground 18°C. Track wet in the secondhalf of the free practice - Afternoon 16°C / 19°C. Track dry.

"We worked on the set-up of the bike, getting closer and closer toperfection", said Troy Corser. "We also tried out the race tires: theresults are excellent and the bike goes really fast. With the weatherforecasts they're giving us, our task today was to go flat out and get agood time for tomorrow. For this weekend, we're going to have to beabsolutely ready for either dry configuration or wet."

"There are some patches of water on the track, but they're off ournormal trajectories," said Regis Laconi. "You have to watch out whenovertaking to make sure you don't go into them. Otherwise, I found a bitof traffic in some of the best parts and my provisional 5th place endedup as 10th at the end of the session. Everyone was pushing hard to makesure they have a good rating for the Superpole in case it rains, and thefinal stages of the sessions were really frantic. The bike's extremelyfast, and I just need to work on the set-up to improve the grip at therear."