Assen, day two: Top ten for Xavier

Saturday, 28 April 2007
Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Xavier Simeon qualified tenth for tomorrow’s Superstock 1000 FIM Cup race and knows he will have a lot of work to do if he is to finish with a good result. Xavier experienced almost a usual problem for him this season - an inability to put in a sure-fire quick lap in qualifying and so get a good grid position. In the race he laps consistently fast, but trying to fire in a quick lap in qualifying is eluding him at present. Claudio Corti (Yamaha) set the quickest lap of the day, with Didier Van Keymeulen (Yamaha) second and Michele Pirro (Yamaha) third.

XAVIER - 10th, 1: 43.953
"I am disappointed because I really wanted to qualify higher and not have to work my way through the field to chase a good result again. During the race, I seem to be fast enough and there are no big problems. But, in qualifying I have yet to set a superfast lap when I want to. Sometimes it has been down to traffic on the track and sometimes I think it’s just down to me. OK, I am still learning about this bike and maybe I need more time to understand it better, especially when I am trying to do a quick lap. It’s a little frustrating at the moment because I know I should be quite a bit better. Also, this championship is particularly strong this year, so any mistake is punished heavily. I am confident I can make a good result tomorrow as long as I can get a good start. That’s what I am hoping for and I will try my hardest - as usual."

Final qualifying
1 Corti (I-Yamaha) 1:42.773,
2 Van Keymeulen (B-Yamaha) 1:43.009,
3 Pirro (I-Yamaha) 1:43.096,
4 Badovini (I-MV) 1:43.192,
5 Baiocco (I-Yamaha) 1:43.208,
6 Roberts (Aus-Ducati) 1:43.463,
10 XAVIER SIMEON (B-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:43.953

Alstare