round 12 - Magny-Cours, France
Final qualifying - 8 October 2005

WINSTON'S VERMEULEN FINDS RECORD FLYER IN FRANCE

Chris Vermeulen will start tomorrow's two final World Superbike championship
races of 2005 at Magny-Cours, France from pole position after setting the
fastest qualifying time in today's one-lap Superpole shoot-out. The Australian
took his third pole of the season by lapping the 4.4km French track in a time of
1m39.836s, beating the 2003 best lap time of Neil Hodgson by almost second.

Vermeulen's Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate Karl Muggeridge will also start
from front of the grid for tomorrow's two 23-lap races after setting the fourth
fastest time in Superpole this afternoon.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"Having both riders on the front row for the final two races of the season is a
great tribute to the incredibly hard work that the whole team has put in during
the year to constantly improve the CBR1000RR. Having said that, I must pay
tribute to Chris for a magnificent lap and for breaking the old record by such a
margin. It really was an exceptional performance. And for Karl to achieve what
he did after a free practice crash wrecked his number one bike is impressive,
too. We'll work hard tonight to have the bike fixed for tomorrow morning. It's
maybe a shame that the fat lady sung in the rain of Imola last weekend but
there's no doubt tomorrow's races will be tough."

Chris Vermeulen - pole position, 1m39.836s

"I didn't expect that time, to be honest, but you can bet I'll take it! The
bike's just been getting better and better over the last few races and the team
has to take a lot of credit for working so hard to get it how it is now. Troy
(Corser) obviously had a bit of a problem in Superpole this afternoon but
everyone gets a bit of bad luck sometime. I think we had our fair share in the
early part of the season so it's nice to finish it with a flourish. Everyone is
pretty close on race tyres, though, so tomorrow's races are not going to be
easy. With Troy back in sixteenth place, I hope I can get away at the front but
there'll be some other guys with something to say about that."

Karl Muggeridge - fourth fastest, 1m40.536s

"There's a bit of repaired tarmac half way round the first right hander here and
I've been riding on the inside of it all weekend. With the qualifier in for
Superpole I tried to run a little wider but hit it and that put me on the wrong
trajectory. The rest of the lap wasn't too bad and, considering I broke the best
bike in the free practice crash, I'm happy to be on the front row. I don't know
what happened in the crash - the only thing different is that I was doing about
3kph more into the corner that normal. The race set-up is pretty good for
tomorrow but they're going to be tight races and it'll be hard to pass, so a
front row start is important."

World Superbike, Magny-Cours - final qualifying times:

 1 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1m39.836s
 2 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA (Ducati)                    1:40.349
 3 Noriyuki Haga JPN (Yamaha)                    1:40.510
 4 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1:40.536
 5 James Toseland GBR (Ducati)                   1:40.981
 6 Max Neukirchner GER (Honda)                   1:41.043
 7 Yukio Kagayama JPN (Suzuki)                   1:41.112
 8 Andrew Pitt AUS (Yamaha)                      1:41.241
 9 Chris Walker GBR (Kawasaki)                   1:41.264
10 Regis Laconi FRA (Ducati)                     1:41.398