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WSB : Haga and Pitt move up in Germany
Round: 10 - Germany
Circuit: Lausitzring
Date: 11 September 2005
Crowd: 48500
Temp: 21ºC
Weather: Changeable
Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt moved themselves up the Superbike World Championship table after a productive day at round 10 at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany.
Haga extended his run of successive podium finishes to seven with second and third placings to move him up to third in the championship in the Yamaha YZF-R1's debut season at this level. The Japanese ace overcame a weekend of set-up problems throughout practice to push eventual winner Chris Vermeulen (Honda) all the way in the opener, although he was denied the opportunity to make a pass when rain brought the red flags out after 20 of the 24 scheduled laps. Haga was again in the thick of the action in race two, battling with Vermeulen and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) in a tough race that saw the Yamaha and Ducati touch on several occasions. Despite setting the fastest lap in both races, Haga was unable to make his tyres last race distance and slipped back to third in the second race.
Pitt continued his consistent form with a brace of sixth places to move him up two places in the championship to seventh overall in his rookie superbike campaign. The Australian struggled with front tyre wear in both races but put in a typically gritty performance to bring his R1 home for 20 points over the two races.
Yamaha Motor France rider Norick Abe put in a pair of solid performances on his EuroSpeedway debut. The former MotoGP rider enjoyed some good battles in his two races, finishing ninth and eighth. Team-mate Sebastien Gimbert scored two points for 14th in race two.
Troy Corser (Suzuki) maintained his championship lead despite a race two crash. He is now 60 points ahead of Vermeulen with two rounds remaining. Haga leads the battle for third with Pitt in seventh. Despite his top 10 finishes, Abe slips back to 12th. The penultimate round of the championship takes place at the Imola circuit in Italy on 2 October.
Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I tried so many different setting this weekend but I couldn't find one for the race. Even in warm-up I was trying to get one that worked, so the race one result was good and I am very happy with it. On the last five laps the tyres was already finished and it was difficult to turn the bike. I had a plan to catch up and pass Chris anyway, but then it started raining. Race two we had the same tyre problem but it was more difficult because we made the full race distance. Always I want to win but we really cannot complain with two podium finishes this weekend."
Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "In the first race I could not carry any corner speed. I had to brake hard into corners and that just lost me all my corner speed. If I ran in too fast the bike just bounced off the track. Our usual advantage on the Yamaha is the ability to carry corner speed but when you can't do that it limits the lap time. We used the same front tyre in race one that we had been using all weekend with no problems but it was destroyed in 12 laps. Maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that the temperature then was a lot lower in race one than it had been in qualifying."
Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "My first race at Lausitz was race one and my second was race two! We changed some parts between races and there was a lot less chatter at the beginning of race two. I felt good for that, but as the rear tyre grip came down the chatter returned so then I could not go faster. I made a good battle with Neukirchner, which I lost, because we were passing each other a lot, but it was still a fun race."
Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "Not such a good race for me. In the first race I had a problem that stopped the bike steering properly and in the second race I felt like I had no power and no grip from the rear. This is my first time in Lausitz and I do like the track, just not the results. Now I must focus on the important Bol d'or 24 hour race next weekend."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "I think we have had a good race day, especially after practice, when we had some trouble finding a good set-up. We did a good job, - Nori on the podium both times and Andrew in sixth twice. So not too bad really, especially as Haga is now in third place overall and Andrew seventh."
Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "Not so bad for Norick, just the last lap for Neukirchner catching him was a negative point. But the result is not so bad. For Gimbert we lost the first race because and air duct was broken and he could not turn. In the second race he took two points but it was not fantastic for him."
Race classification WSB
Round: 10 - Germany
Circuit: Lausitzring
Circuit Length: 4265
Lap Record: 1' 39.679 (Ruben Xaus, 2002)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 39.019 (Lorenzo Lanzi, 2005)
