WSBK: Nieto edges out Suzuki teammate Kagayama in Italy
Suzuki Racing:
Team Suzuki Alstare Brux riders Yukio Kagayama and Fonsi Nieto endured a day of changing conditions and have qualified on the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s pair of 24-lap World Superbike races at Misano.
Final qualifying was blighted by rain showers, but the afternoon untimed session and Superpole took place in the dry. Nieto continued his understanding of the GSX-R1000 K9 by finishing 11th fastest in Superpole, with Kagayama 13th despite his injured foot.
Jakub Smrz (Ducati) took Superpole with a time of 1:35.435 with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second, Ben Spies (Yamaha) third and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) fourth.
Fonsi Nieto – 11th, 1:36.510:
“After a long time off the bike, I am getting more and more comfortable every time I go out and feel that I am also improving my understanding of it. I am happy to be 11th, but not happy because I lost two or three-tenths-of-a-second in the last split and maybe I could’ve qualified on the second row. I am also happy to be 11th at this stage because the championship is much more competitive than last year. All in all, I don’t think I’m doing so badly. The bike has good balance and I am hoping for dry conditions tomorrow as this place is very slippery in the wet.”
Yukio Kagayama- 13th, 1:36.916:
“Today the conditions were very mixed and we had to adjust the bike a lot to overcome over-steering on the wet track this morning. I was losing the rear a lot and it was not easy to ride the bike. My first qualifying tyre worked OK for two laps, but my second one was finished after one lap and I don’t know why. I am not happy with my grid place, but I want to thank my team for giving me a good, new chassis setting and I am sure that my feeling with the bike will improve next time out.”
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