Tom Sykes, Rizla Suzuki, P9: “That was a decent session and I’m quite happy with the set-up, we need to make a few little changes as the World Superbike tyres have different characteristic to the BSB tyres. I want to be able to use more of the potential grip on the rear. I’m only 0.5secs off so it isn’t the end of the world and I’m happy with our race tyres.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari, Ten Kate Honda, P1: "I think it’s so far, so good! The bike felt great in the first practice session this morning and that continued this afternoon and I was able to make some fast laps quite quickly. But it is completely different to the bike I was riding in British Superbikes last year – and my time today was faster, I think. It was also quite windy today and I was still making some mistakes, so there is plenty of room to improve tomorrow."

Troy Bayliss, Xerox Ducati, P12: "Although I’m not particularly happy with a twelfth place today, I’ve been struggling a little with a few things, mainly grip on entry into the curves and the fact that I wasn’t able to put the bike exactly where I wanted it to go. Then towards the end of the session I was feeling good on the bike but traffic meant that I couldn’t get a clean lap in and my times were not as fast as they could have been as you can see from my ideal time which is a half second quicker. Tomorrow we’ll make some changes and are confident of finding a good set-up. Times are already faster than last year which shows Pirelli are working well to give us tyres that perform very well on a track that has deteriorated somewhat since last year."

Michel Fabrizio, Xerox Ducati, P11: "It’s gone fairly well today all things considered, although my position doesn’t demonstrate this. Unfortunately during the afternoon’s qualifying we made a bad rear tyre choice in the final few minutes and so failed to record the times that we expected. Anyway, it’s not gone badly and I’m feeling pretty comfortable on the bike. I’m not a big fan of the first two curves but overall I like the track and haven’t had any real difficulties. I am confident that I’ll be able to improve on my times tomorrow."

Ruben Xaus, Sterilgarda Ducati, P13: “I have some fever and it influenced me a lot. We tried to fine-tune the bike but we took the wrong tyre; I picked for an hard one but it didn’t work fine and maybe it caused my two crashes."

Max Biaggi, Sterilgarda Ducati, P4: “I have some fever and it influenced me a lot. We tried to fine-tune the bike but we took the wrong tyre; I picked for an hard one but it didn’t work fine and maybe it caused my two crashes."
Yukio Kagayama, Alstare Suzuki, P3: "In this morning practice and at the start of this afternoon’s qualifying I did not have a good feeling with the bike and also suffered problems with the grip. But my mechanics and I made some changes to the balance of the bike and the chassis set-up and there was a big improvement straight away. I was able to put in some good laps and now I feel that we can improve further. The wind was very strong this afternoon, especially in the first and last turns and it was easy to get blown off line if you weren’t careful. I am a little sore from my crash at the Suzuka 8 hour race last weekend. I hit my left knee and it is not as flexible on the bike as it should be. The damaged ligaments in my left hand are getting better, but I know this is going to take quite some time. It is a little frustrating, but my job is to race so I just have to try and forget about it."

Fonsi Nieto, Alstare Suzuki, P10: "Today was not so bad and although I only finished 10th quickest my lap time was not so far away from the leader, so I’m pretty happy. I used my number one bike for the whole day, except at the end when there was a problem with the exhaust and I had to switch to my number two bike. I prefer my number one bike and that’s what we’ll work with tomorrow. We will carry on working on the traction and wheelie control because it is important to have this working well at this track."

Max Neukirchner, Alstare Suzuki, P14: "The first practice felt good and we had a good set-up and the lap times were not so bad. But when we started trying different tyres, the grip went down. Towards the end we used a front and rear combination that worked well and now we will look at Yukio’s data and see if we can use some of it and improve. The race line round here is OK, but when you get off-line the track feels dirty and slippery, so you have to keep your wits about you."

Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha Italia, P2: “Things have gone very well and we were checking out all the tyres we had available. I may have to check a bit more tomorrow because there are still some parts of the track the rear tyre doesn’t like so much, so we have to fix the suspension settings for that. I also did some crash testing, at the very fast first corner! But my old collarbone injury was perfect, so no problem. I have a good feeling from the front tyre here. After this session there are three Japanese riders in the front row - which looks OK to me! We will check more suspension settings tomorrow but it all depends on if it rains or not. It was also quite windy today and you could feel it on some corners.”

Troy Corser, Yamaha Italia, P7: “The first day back here after last year and the circuit feels pretty bumpy, especially compared to the last track we were at, Brno. The bike feels a little bit nervous at the moment, and that was a similar feeling to last year at this track. The set-up has been improved compared to this morning and we did go in the right direction with the set-up, just not far enough. So tomorrow we will go further in that direction and right now the tyres don’t seem to be causing any issue in terms of life, so the choice will probably depend on grip. Considering how I felt about the bumps, and given our decent lap times, we’re not a mile away.”
Carlos Checa, Ten Kate Honda, P16: "Obviously it is my first time here, and although I have been improving my times all day, I still need to find one second to be near the front. There are some uphill areas of the circuit where I need to carry more speed, so there are certainly places where I can improve tomorrow."

Kenan Sofuoglu, Ten Kate Honda, P20: "After winning the Supersport title here last year, it’s very different riding a superbike around Brands Hatch and the front wheel comes up very easily! The bike is feeling good though, and the times are quite close, so I’m quite confident that I can make some improvements tomorrow and find a better position."