Max Neukirchner led the Alstare Suzuki challenge in first qualifying for the second round of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island to take a place on the provisional front row of the grid.
The German, fully recovered from the flu-like symptoms he suffered in Qatar last weekend, posted a best time of 1min 32.808secs during the opening session which saw him finish four-tenths of a second behind pole man
Troy Corser, leaving him happy with the weekend so far.
“Today was not so bad and I had no big problems at all,” he said. “We changed the characteristics of the engine-braking for the afternoon session and also the rear shock. We did that to get better grip. When the bike is on fresh tyres, I seem to be able to ride smoothly, without a problem. But when I try and push very hard I get many rear slides. Phillip Island is a great track, but it's a track where you have to be perfect everywhere if you want to set a really good lap time.
Team-mate
Fonsi Nieto had a steady day, finishing ninth fastest overall, but will be looking for an improvement tomorrow.
“I am happy because we've made a good start today, even though the set-up was not right,” he said. “Conditions today were very different to when we tested here in January, so we more or less had to start from scratch again. I spent most of the day working at trying to understand the tyres and how they perform. In the afternoon, the bike's set-up was better then the morning and this is a track where a good bike set-up is vital if you want to make a good lap.”
