Having missed the official FGSport tests in March the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team had to work particularly hard on the first day of the Valencia race weekend to set times just inside the top ten.
Troy Corser's best time was 0.618secs from provisional pole sitter Max Neukirchner and put him ninth in a session where the top 15 riders qualified within a second of provisional pole.
"The engine feels not so bad even on the first day and we just need to get the chassis settings right," said the Australian. "We haven't got it quite there yet, but that is to be expected after only two sessions. The grip from the track is about normal for Valencia on the first day of practice and I think it will get better as the weekend goes on. We are really starting from day one and some other people are further along. I'm not worried, because I know the track and I know what to do, so we just need to get it right tomorrow."
Team-mate
Noriyuki Haga was tenth, 0.124 seconds from Corser.
"We have found it a little bit more difficult than we expected to find a set-up right away because in some parts of the circuit we have a little bit less grip than others. We should have had more grip in the timed session than we did in the morning session but right now we don't. That is because of the combination of the setting and the tyres. We have to check suspension settings one more time tonight to let us move on tomorrow."
Both Corser and Haga are past race winners at the challenging stadium-style circuit and team manager Massimo Meregalli expects the pair to march forward during day two.
"For me, all we are missing is the two day test," he declared. "Because of that the gap between our two riders and the rest is what we could expect. I am not worried about it and I know there is enough left in the bike and set-up changes for us to catch up tomorrow. Troy and Nori are close on times and we are not so far from the leading rider."
Ducati Xerox was the only other factory team to miss the recent Valencia test.
