These just in from the WSBK paddock :

Team Sterilgarda has reached its objective for day 1 of qualifying in Doha, Qatar. Shakey Byrne finished sixth at only two tenths of a second from Carlos Checa who took third place. It is a morale-boosting result for tomorrow's second qualifying session where both team and rider are confident they can do much better hoping for a less unlucky Superpole.

SHANE BYRNE | Ducati 1098R | 6th in 1'59.980: "I like the track. I'm still working on bike setup though, but I'm almost done. I've made some small mistakes today that on this track affects time on the next two or three corners as well. I gave it my all at the end of the session and had a good series of fast laps but I know I can do better. I hope to do just that tomorrow in the Superpole, I like the new formula although I'm not a one lap shootout kind of rider. I prefer building up my time lap after lap".

MARCO BORCIANI - team manager: "We've had the proof of what the real gap between the riders really is, if there is one. This time the other riders didn't have any advantage as they didn't do any testing in Doha as opposed to Phillip Island. Shane felt comfortable on this track where he had replaced Troy Bayliss for team Camel Ducati in 2005. We've set the best time among the Ducatis and we're really close to the first row. The only one who seems to be faster than everyone is Spies, but I'm positive that both tomorrow and in race day we'll be fighting for top position".

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A LESS THAN EASY FIRST DAY FOR THE DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT LOSAIL

Losail (Qatar), Thursday 12th February: the Ducati Xerox Team faced hot and humid conditions today at the International Circuit of Losail with track temperatures in the high thirties during the afternoon's first qualifying session.

This meant that Ducati Xerox man Noriyuki Haga, riding high on the back of his win at Phillip Island two weeks ago, and team-mate Michel Fabrizio both experienced a lack of grip, especially at the rear, which has meant that they have been working with their teams to find the best compromise regarding the set-up. Before the end of today Michel had registered the eighth fastest time and Noriyuki the eleventh fastest lap.

With the exception of two very fast times registered this afternoon by Yamaha rider Ben Spies and Honda's Jonathan Rea, lap times were extremely close with seventeen riders lapping within a second of each other. Temperatures are set to rise even higher during the next two days, making for exciting racing on Saturday.

Michel Fabrizio 2m00.1s
"It feels like we lost his morning's session as we completed very few laps so have had to make up for that this afternoon during qualifying, and haven't had time to make the progress we hoped for. If we had gone straight out this morning without problems we would surely have done better than we did this afternoon. I have had some problems with grip and we need to see which tyres can last race distance but all in all,  I'm reasonably confident for now and we know what we need to try tomorrow in second qualifying."

Noriyuki Haga 2m00.2s
"Today was a strange day for me. We tried a different rear suspension setting to that used in Australia but the grip did not improve as we expected it to. Anyway the feeling I have with the 1198 is good and tomorrow we really just need to resolve the fact that I'm lacking rear grip. I will speak with my technicians again to decide how we will proceed tomorrow, we need to find a new way forward. There were some fast times recorded today so I need to pick up my pace tomorrow."

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SBK: FIRST ROUND OF OFFICIAL TRIALS AT LOSAIL

It's back to the track in Qatar for the second round of the SBK 2009 season. Unlike the other GP cousins, the production-derived bikes will race on the Losail circuit by day. In fact, the races will be held on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time (Qatar is two hours ahead of Central Europe). The track, which is covered in dust and sand, created some difficulties for the drivers, especially during the free practice, but later the grip gradually improved resulting in more interesting race times. During the first round of the official trials, Ben Spies achieved the best time with 1:58:886 on his Yamaha Factory. Max Biaggi held on to fourth position with a time of 1:59:826, just 0:940 behind the American driver. The Roman put a great deal of effort into collecting as much data as possible about this completely new track for the RSV4, concentrating mainly on the suspension. Instead, Nakano came in tenth, stopping the clock at 2:00:238, finishing 1:352 behind Spies. Shinya is continuing his apprenticeship in this new category with his RSV4.

"These practices were not easy," declared Biaggi. "We started off without any data or parameters from previous years with which to work and this put us at a disadvantage with respect to the others since we debuted in this category with the RSV4. There was some improvement in the official afternoon trials and the bike became more manageable, but we're still losing a few tenths of a second per lap with respect to the others because we're missing stability, especially in the fast curves. Now, with help from the technicians, we're trying to find some solutions to become more efficient, but there's not much time to work with and so we're mostly concentrating on the suspension."

"It's not easy to arrange the work we have to do here because we don't have any data to analyse," said Nakano, "but it didn't go too badly today, in any case. Compared to Phillip Island, we managed to resolve a few problems. We have less chattering and this has allowed me to concentrate more on my driving. The track was quite slippery this morning, but the grip improved during the afternoon and we were able to work much better on the suspension. The engine is fine but the erogation is still far too aggressive."

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Ten Kate riders in the desert hunt

Ten Kate Honda's three riders all finished in the top five after today's opening qualifying session for round two of the World Superbike championship in Qatar. Provisional pole position went to America's Ben Spies, who was closely followed by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Jonathan Rea.

Rea's team-mate, Carlos Checa, set the third fastest time in today's hour-long session after concentrating on race set-up in the morning practice session.

Meanwhile, Ryuichi Kiyonari, who was the first rider to break the two-minute barrier today, was fifth fastest to head the provisional second row for Saturday's two 18-lappers around the 5.38km Losail circuit just outside Qatar's capital, Doha.

Jonathan Rea - P2, 1'59.177s
That was a good start to the weekend. I've been really looking forward to coming here and feel that our package works better here. The CBR1000RR felt really good today and we managed good consistency of lap times when we did a little run. The crew has worked really hard and we've got some new parts working really well. It'll be fun to see how the pace hots up tomorrow, because I think there's some more to come.

Carlos Checa - P3, 1'59.731s
We worked with a harder tyre this morning and had to test both bikes to compare some new parts that we were trying out. We were expecting about a second out of the softer tyre and that came this afternoon. It gave a good feeling of consistency and the important thing is that we're on the pace here. Johnny and Ben Spies seem to have a little extra at the moment but we don't have the chatter here that we had at Phillip Island, so we'll push harder again tomorrow. The package is good and we have a couple of options for race tyres, which we'll test tomorrow.

Ryuichi Kiyonari - P5, 1'59.937s
It was not so bad today, and I think I can say I like the track a little better. The track is very tough on the bike and the tyres and the rider, but the bike was perfect today for maintaining good lap times. So a lot depends on rider performance tomorrow! I have already gone a lot better than after the first day last year, but everyone else is faster, too!

Ronald ten Kate - team manager
That was a good start to our weekend here in Qatar, with all three riders in the top five. It's especially satisfying after our frustrating race day at Phillip Island, but we didn't panic; we kept out heads together and came here with some small modifications, which seem to be working OK. But it's still just the first day - we know how much work there is still to do in order to be ready for Saturday's races.
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BMW Motorrad Motorsport news
2009 Superbike World Championship
Round 2, Doha, Qatar
Losail circuit: 5.380 kms. Conditions: Dry, sunny/cloudy 26 C.

HARD GRAFT IN THE DESERT.

BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus completed a hard day's graft at the dusty Losail circuit today, finishing in 16th and 17th places respectively. Although neither were happy with their first qualifying positions, both were more than happy to have given their engineers and technicians lots to think about ahead of tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions. With no previous data available, Troy and Ruben had to start from scratch and work their way through as many different things as possible to find a good set-up for their bikes. American Ben Spies (Yamaha) set the day's fastest lap, with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second and Carlos Checa (Honda) third.

Troy - 16th, 2:00.455
Nothing special was wrong today, except that I thought that my bike felt slow. Checking the speed trap figures proved this but, at the moment, we are not sure why. It certainly felt pretty good in the turns, but it just lacked top end speed. We used just one bike today, because we wanted to do as much work as possible on it and keep things progressing. In retrospect that might not have been a good idea, but as we have no reference points for this bike here we just have to work as hard as we can and keep going forward, so it was better to work with the one bike.

Ruben - 17th, 2:00.610
We did the usual stuff today and just kept on working, working, working. I'm happy with the top speed of my bike and I don't think my lap times are so bad. We didn't make any big, big changes today, but worked on improving our understanding of the bike and trying to keep going forward. Here it's all about staring from a real base (because we have no data from before), putting in a lot of work and giving our engineers lots to think about and work on. Tomorrow I'll try a softer tyre and see if it gives me better grip, which should mean a reduction in my lap times.

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Team Suzuki Alstare Brux news
2009 Superbike World Championship
Round 2, Doha, Qatar
Losail circuit: 5.380 kms. Conditions: Dry, sunny/cloudy 26 C.

DISAPPOINTING START FOR MAX AND YUKIO IN QATAR
The first day of practice and qualifying ended in a disappointing fashion for Team Suzuki Alstare Brux riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama but both are confident of significant improvement in tomorrow's final qualifying. Max and Yukio suffered rear grip problems in the afternoon qualifying session but both know which direction to take in the morning session tomorrow and believe that Superpole will hold no threats to their advancement up the grid. American Ben Spies (Yamaha) set the day's fastest lap, with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second and Carlos Checa (Honda) third.

Max - 13th, 2:00.345
This afternoon, I had a big problem with lack of rear grip. The front felt stable, but the back was not and I just couldn't push any harder. We had made some changes (in the bike's balance) from the morning and the track temperature was up a bit (but not enough to have any drastic effects), but the way the bike worked was very different. I think we went in the wrong direction in the afternoon, but the good news is that we know what we did and we can go back to the set-up that worked in the morning without a problem. It's disappointing to be 13th, but at least we know how to fix the problem and that's what we'll do tomorrow.

Yukio - 15th, 2:00.398
The morning was not so bad and although we didn't change much on the bike (just the ride height) the bike didn't work so well in the afternoon. I don't think the change in track temperature was a problem, but whatever the reason, I had much less rear grip in the afternoon. So we will look at the telemetry, analyse the data and see what we must do to make the bike better tomorrow morning. My general feeling is that we will improve quite a bit, but tomorrow we'll know for sure.

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