Friday, 5th October 2007

Noriyuki Haga ended a rain interrupted opening day at the Magny-Cours WSBK season finale as the quickest of the three title contenders, having taken third position in first qualifying.

The Yamaha star, who needs to overturn a 33 point deficit to Ten Kate Honda's James Toseland to lift his first world crown, lapped 0.44secs slower than pace setter Lorenzo Lanzi, while Toseland was seventh.

"I couldn't get some of my settings sorted today because of the rain, which forced us to sit in the pit box for almost 40 minutes. I'm feeling good anyway," declared the 'Nitro Nori'. "We made some good progress this morning and I've got a good feeling for the bike. We just need to make some engine adjustments and I will decide on my tyre tomorrow; we tried two tyres today and tomorrow I'll confirm which is the best. Other than that it's business as usual. All the times are close so I need to focus on finding the best set-up possible in order to make a 1min 40secs lap time and be up the top."

Max Biaggi, who will start Sunday's races four points ahead of Haga, was just 14th quickest in first qualifying.

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