07.05.10 | Monza Practice
Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike rider Cal Crutchlow made an impressive start to the Monza race weekend, fastest in both the first free practice session and then the first qualifying session of the weekend that followed. Team mate James Toseland made a slower start, finishing fifth in the free practice and then taking ninth in the first qualifying as he and the team tested a number of set up options.
The afternoons qualifying was complicated by weather, rain before the session meant the superbike riders had to contend with an initially wet but drying track, gradually changing from intermediate to slick tyres as the session went on. The nature of the Monza circuit with its tree lined track meant some areas including chicanes remained greasy and damp throughout.
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (1st, 144.577)
It was nice to top the time sheets in both sessions today. Were still looking for better grip a bit on the bike and also need to improve when pushing going into the corners, I think we can work on that. We tried a couple of things today which is good and Im looking forward to tomorrow. Its great that its the teams home race and well have lots of fans here and Yamaha guests so its nice to be on top today for them.
James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (9th, 146.019)
It was one of those sessions today where it starts wet then just dries up continually over the heat. We were trying a few different suspension settings over the session but obviously the track was never fully dry, a couple of corners were still quite damp at the end and really quite greasy. With the trees around here in the park it doesnt dry out too well. All in all weve tried some interesting things, and were pretty quick in the free practice, coming in fifth in the dry. Weve got some work to do tonight, some big things to improve on which is encouraging so Im optimistic that the changes were going to make later which were too long to do today will bring the next step. Fingers crossed again for the weather tomorrow.
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
A good start for us today. The weather gave us some trouble but in the end we finished the day in good shape. Hopefully tomorrow will be dry to finalise the set up and tyre choice ahead of Superpole and Sundays races.
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