Max Neukirchner gave Team Suzuki Alstare reasons to be cheerful by planting his GSX-R1000 K8 on the front row of the starting grid in Qatar, but team-mate
Fonsi Nieto found himself struck down by his usual ‘problem'.
Neukirchner produced a superb lap to seal fourth on the grid around the Losail International Circuit, improving considerably on his earlier practice and qualifying performances as he pulled out all the stops during the 16-rider shoot-out to claim the final front row starting spot.
“I'm very happy with my Superpole lap and getting on the front row of the grid,” the young German enthused afterwards. “Today my bike worked very well on the Superpole lap and whenever I tried a really soft tyre, but it didn't work so well when I tried to do a long run.
“Now we will look at all the data and telemetry, and see if we can adjust the bike so that it works as well in a race distance. I hope we can find out what to do so that I can run with the top guys throughout the race, but whatever happens, this has been a very good start and that makes me happy.”
The 24-year-old's team-mates
Yukio Kagayama and Fonsi Nieto wound up slightly further down the eventual timesheets in eighth and eleventh places, respectively three tenths and just under a second shy of Neukirchner's effort. Both are well aware that good starts in Saturday's two 18-lap races will be pivotal.
“My Superpole was a bit of mixture,” Kagayama reflected, “but it should have been so much better. On my ‘out' lap I felt some vibration in my rear tyre, and that made it a little difficult to concentrate fully on riding as fast as I wanted. It was a problem in many corners and then, to make matters worse, I made a bit of a mistake with the throttle exiting the last corner and lost some more time.
“The second row is not so bad though and, as long as I make a good start, I think I can get a good result here. My race set-up is pretty ok, though we may make a small adjustment to the electronics in the warm-up tomorrow morning to see if we can improve the bike.
