Sykes and Vermeulen Work Hard in Qualifying

2010-06-27 11:28
Tom Sykes and his team-mate Chris Vermeulen worked with new settings and electronics packages in qualifying at a hot and humid Misano but were not able to reach the grid spots they were aiming for.

The riders and the team simply needed more time to get the best out of the latest technical developments, and will now try out revised race setting in the 20-minute warm-up session on Sunday morning before making a final choice on machine set-up for each 24-lap race.

Weather conditions at the 4.226km circuit have been hot and humid so far, and the races are expected to be carried out in similar conditions.

Tom went 18th on the grid after Superpole 1 and starts from row five, while Chris was 21st, just missing out on a start in Superpole, and he now begins his races from row six.

Tom Sykes: “We have made steady progress, but unlike many others were could not test here recently. We have a different nominated test track, not Misano, so nothing we could do about it. We wouldn’t choose to start the race from where we are but there are a few riders around us who are not normally in that position either, so it has been a bit of a peculiar weekend so far. Our times are good, under the lap record pace on race tyres, but everybody else has lifted their game too. Tomorrow is another day and we will make a bit of a set-up change for morning warm-up up. We will treat the races just like any others, give it our best and see how far up we can finish.”

Chris Vermeulen: “We had some new parts to try this weekend, some worked well and we have found some positive points. But the new settings also make the bike harder to use in other ways right now. We still have some work to do so we will try something new in warm-up tomorrow morning to see if we can find even more improvements. We didn’t get into Superpole because we did not use the qualifying period to the best of our abilities. It’s not the easiest place to pass other riders here, but it is a long old race at Misano, lots of laps. If we can come away with some points from our starting position I will be happy. This is Superbike racing, anything can happen, and we will give it our full effort to take the best finishes we can.”


Source: Kawasaki Racing Team

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