Alstare Suzuki riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama finished the first day of qualifying at Valencia in first and second places as their hard work at the recent test paid off.
Neukirchner led the way with a best lap of 1min 34.806secs, placing him just 0.126secs clear of Kagayama.
"I am very happy today, not so much because I was the quickest but, because we found a good bike set-up," said Max. "We started with the set-up from when we tested here in March and then found a new way to make the bike more stable both in the front and the rear. It's been quite cool today and we know that we have more problems when the temperature rises, so I guess I am hoping that it stays much the same."
Kagayama was making his WSBK return after being forced to miss round two, at Phillip Island, due to injury.
"Today we carried on our work and I think everything is getting better," said the Japanese. "We began with the set-up from our last test and tried to find some small improvements. I didn't have any big problems today, just a little rear end problem in the afternoon. My physical condition is not 100%, but that's probably quite good because it means that I wasn't pushing too hard!"
But while two-thirds of the Alstare rider line-up was smiling, Fonsi Nieto - currently second to Troy Bayliss in the 2008 world championship standings - was left a disappointed 16th after a tough first day at his home event.
"I am not very happy today with the lack of rear grip and I couldn't go faster because of this mainly," explained the Qatar race winner. "But the good news is that we have some ideas what to do about the problem and that's what we'll be working on in the morning tomorrow. I didn't feel that the track conditions were good for me today, but I know I can make a big improvement tomorrow."
crash.net
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