World Superbike Brands Hatch: Corser 1 & 2 and extends lead, Haga & Yamaha 2 & 1

"I just got another bad start in race two and it’s so difficult to pass the other guys because they are fast around here,” said Vermeulen, after his eighth podium finish of the year. “I was a little bit quicker than them but by the time I eventually got past the first two guys were gone. Although I could match their lap times, I couldn’t catch them. I eased up a little towards the end because there is no point crashing out. We changed the rear spring for race two and this definitely felt a little better.”

One of the most disappointed riders of the weekend was james toseland who saw his last mathematical possibility of defending his 2004 title disappear. “I’m a bit devastated really” declared Toseland. “We qualified well, had the problem with the bike in first race and then on the warm-up lap the bike had a few vibrations so we changed it on the grid just to be sure. For the first three laps I thought I was pretty comfortable but then I couldn’t get the grip down and Troy and Nori just edged away. I was hoping for a mistake because I wasn’t stronger than them in any place. I chose the 200 mm tyre, which no one else had gone for, and in hindsight I should’ve chosen the 190 like the other guys but I felt pretty good with it even though we didn’t get the chance to do a full race distance. When the rear tyre starts to go down you’ve got no traction at the rear entering the corners, that makes the front push even more and you’ve got to brake earlier. If you do that you get overtaken and that’s what happened in race 2. A DNF and a seventh, same results as last year, Brands is frustrating. All these people wanted was to see was a Brit on the podium and they didn’t get that today.”

“I needed more grip to try and follow these guys from the beginning to the finish of race 1 but they were too fast and so I settled for third” declared Laconi. “We changed a few things on the bike for the second race but it didn’t make much improvement and so I just tried to do my best. I didn’t make a good start again and it was difficult to pass, everyone was just fighting like it was the last lap! I tried to pass James for third but put the wrong gear in and there was no engine braking and I went wide. After I tried one more time to gain some places but there was not much I could do. All weekend we used a different 190 tyre to everyone, the hardest one, and it was a surprise that we were unable to push harder. We had to try something to improve in race 2 but it just wasn’t enough.”

One of the early title leaders in the championship was Corser’s team-mate Yukio Kagayama. Kagayama defied doctor’s advice and the pain barrier to finish with a superb pair of hard-fought ninth places. The Japanese rider was competing with badly bruised ribs, but somehow managed to bring his GSX-R1000 Suzuki home in both races. In a few races, Kagayama has slipped from a serious contender to a distant fourth, with a point score of 172 points, exactly half that of his friend and fellow Suzuki rider. “I am very happy and relieved that today is over because that was more then hard work. I had more checks in the Clinica Mobile this morning and I was happy that they told me I had not broken any ribs. My ribs were still very sore and I had much pain today, but at least I was able to get on the bike, ride and get some points. Today I removed the strapping and instead I had two soft sponges, to act as cushions, under my leathers. Both races felt very, very long, but at least I finished them. Now I am going for a long sleep and a lot of rest.”

Andrew Pitt, Yamaha Motor Italia: “I enjoy the circuit and we just hardly touched it at all weekend as it felt good from the first session. After two bad races in Misano and Brno it’s been good to be running consistently at the front this weekend. Now I need to improve my consistency a little bit. I can do the same lap times as Noriyuki but he is able to do them throughout the race, while my times are not as consistent. I’m also still learning more about the Pirelli tyres but I’m glad to have got a good weekend here and look forward to Assen – a track which holds good memories for me.”

Norick Abe, Yamaha Motor France: "This track is very difficult and this year I have so many new circuits and I not so good at the new ones. Our race lap times were much better than our practice times so we worked well, but it was still not enough to get to the front. In race two I had bad luck with Martin. He ran wide, so I went inside, but he came back in and we fell."

Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha Motor France: "In race two we had more grip and rear traction so we made better times. I am happier about race two, scored some points, but we took a long time to make a good setting."

Massimo Meregalli, Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia: "Our bike is going up in performance and we are really happy with the development. Already this week we will be testing something different, some parts that were ready for this race but unfortunately arrived too late. It was good to see Andrew back with a smile on his face and he rode aggressively and did not make any mistakes this weekend. After the first race Noriyuki said that he wanted to win the second race, and that he would have to change the set-up if he was to beat Corser. So we changed the final drive ratio and front springs. These were not small changes but Nori is always seeing things to change and normally they prove correct decisions.”

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