Yamaha World Superbike riders, Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty didn’t delay in getting straight down to business today at the Nurburgring and shaking off the dust after the long five week summer break from racing. Melandri encountered the track for the first time in his career while team-mate Laverty was familiar with “the Ring” but enjoyed experiencing the demanding track on his YZF R1 Superbike machine.

Melandri spent the morning’s free practice session getting acquainted with the historic German circuit and getting back into the swing of things. The wet weather did not damper his spirits despite losing some valuable time in the initial stages of the Free practice session. A gradually drying track provided more ideal conditions and the Italian was able to make constant progress and proceed to complete the afternoon’s first qualifying session in third place. Laverty was also on impressive form throughout the day. After completing just two laps on a set of wet tyres in the morning’s free practice session, the Northern Irish rider swapped over to a set of slicks for the rapidly drying track. Due to a slight lack of grip, Laverty made some minor modifications to his chassis set up prior to the afternoon’s qualifying session where he put in a series of consistent lap times to finish up in fifth place.

Marco Melandri -Yamaha World Superbike Team , 3rd - 1'55.819

"It was a good first day today. I was a bit concerned this morning as it’s a difficult and technical track and time to learn the lines is valuable. I lost some time during the free practice session due to the wet conditions. As it was drying off, I improved and gained more confidence. The team and I worked hard and made progress and this afternoon’s qualifying session went much better. There are a few areas of the track where I am not totally confident but hopefully tomorrow will be another dry day and we can work towards improving further ahead of Sunday’s race."

Eugene Laverty - Yamaha World Superbike Team - 5th -1'56.197

"Today was a good first day to the weekend. I wasn’t worried about the position in the morning’s free practice, I was just getting a feel of the bike. I expected some areas to be very tough but in the end I found them less difficult on the Superbike than on the Supersport machine. The Yamahas are up there and can be strong on Sunday. A top five finish on a Friday is a very positive result. I am aiming for a front row tomorrow and a race win on Sunday."

Andrea Dosoli - Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager

"The weekend got off to a good start today for both riders. Marco learned the track really fast even if he did lose some time this morning due to the wet track conditions. He made progress and improved his lines this in the afternoon’s session. He is struggling a little with the first and fourth sectors and still has to discover some of the tricks of "the Ring". Eugene did very well also. He struggled with grip in the morning’s free practice but changed tyre compound and resolved the issue by the first qualifying session. He also experienced some difficulty in the first sector of the track. Overall both riders did very well today but need to be more consistent to be as competitive as their competitors, Checa and Biaggi."



Yamaha ParkinGO team riders Chaz Davies and Luca Scassa were back on form today at the Nurburgring where they completed the first qualifying session in second and 11th places respectively. The Yamaha R6s have been untouched since the last round in Silverstone so the Yamaha ParkinGo team made the most of the first day to make initial changes to the set up on both machines in preparation for Sunday’s race on the technically demanding Nurburgring circuit.

Chaz Davies encountered some technical issues in the morning’s free practice session which hampered his progress in search of a suitable chassis set up. The Welshman made up for lost time in the afternoon’s qualifying session making constant progress, improving times and producing a flying lap towards the end of the session that took him into second place on the time sheets. Team-mate Luca Scassa also got straight to work on his R6. The Italian struggled to find a good feeling with the rear of his machine but is confident that the progress made today will enable him to further improve in tomorrow’s practice session.

Chaz Davies - Yamaha ParkinGO Team , 2nd - 2'00.305

"I expected to encounter a more difficult track today. However I had a good feeling with the bike from the first few laps. I made constant progress with the set up and put in improved times by the end of the session. I think I have found a good base set up ahead of the race and I’ll work on some fine tuning tomorrow to secure a front row start on Sunday".

Luca Scassa - Yamaha ParkinGO Team, 11th - 2'01.236

"I am satisfied with the work done today. I found a good base set up and am happy with the feeling on the front of my machine. We still need to make some improvements with the rear where I am struggling a little. We are losing time on the uphill inclines and there are quite a few at the Nurburgring. We still have two sessions tomorrow where we can work hard and hopefully find a more ideal set up. I’m aiming for a front row start on Sunday and hopefully I can achieve that tomorrow."



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