World Superbike Monza: Friday (updated regularly)

May 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under 2010 Race Calendar

World SBK

Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio dominated the opening day of World Superbike qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. After setting the quickest time in the morning’s free practice, the Italian then did the same in the afternoon qualifying session to record a time of 1 minute 45.447 seconds. Fabrizio strung together a series of quick laps at the end of the session, clearly staking an early claim for the wins on Sunday. Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike) put in a quick lap at the end of the session to prevent a Ducati 1-2, the British rider heading the points leader Noriyuki Haga by just three-hundredths of a second. The provisional front row was completed by another British rider, Jonathan Rea, who took his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda to fourth place.

Fifth and sixth slots on the second row of the grid went to the competitive Suzuki pairing of Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama, the only other riders under the 1’46” mark. Once again Superbike qualifying proved to be a hard-fought affair, with 13 riders separated by less than a second. Seventh quickest time went to Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike),who finished ahead of Max Biaggi on the Aprilia. BMW once again placed its two riders in the top 15, with Ruben Xaus two-hundredths of a second ahead of his team-mate Troy Corser. Shinya Nakano’s difficult moment continued for Aprilia with the Japanese rider crashing out in the afternoon.

Times: 1. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1′45.447; 2. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1′45.758; 3. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1′45.790; 4. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′45.919; 5. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′45.962; 6. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′45.985; 7. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1′46.013; 8. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′46.054; 9. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1′46.140; 10. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1′46.164; 11. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1′46.171; 12. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′46.208; 13. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1′46.363; 14. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1′46.545; 15. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1′46.565; 16. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′46.566

World Supersport
Points leader Cal Crutchlow was quickest in today’s free practice session with a time of 1 minute 50.594 seconds. The Yamaha World Supersport man was pushed hard all the way by a trio of riders made up of Spanish talent Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Provec), Australian Mark Aitchison (Honda Althea) and Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport) of France, all four split by three-tenths. Matthieu Lagrive (Honda Althea) was in fifth place, but half-a-second off the pace, with the rest over one second off the pole time. A surprising sixth place went to top Italian Danilo Dell’Omo (Kuja Racing Honda), with Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Provec) next up and Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s champion pairing Andrew Pitt and Kenan Sofuoglu in eighth and ninth. Winner of two races this year Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) fared even worse, the Irishman finishing just outside the top 10.

Times: 1. Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1′50.594; 2. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1′50.605; 3. Aitchison M. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1′50.749; 4. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′50.934; 5. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 1′51.474; 6. Dell’Omo D. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1′51.783; 7. Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1′51.860; 8. Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1′51.920

Superstock 1000
Two Ducati 1098 machines took the top two places in Superstock 1000 free practice. Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox) was the only rider to dip under the 1’50” mark with 1 minute 49.522 seconds, the Belgian firing in his quickest time a few minutes before the end of the session. Second place today went to Domenico Colucci (Barni Racing), the wild-card rider and winner of the Italian championship round here at Monza last Sunday. The provisional front row was made up of emerging French youngster Loris Baz (MRS Yamaha) and Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare). Fifth place went to another Frenchman Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda), who won the last round at Assen. Javi Fores (Pedercini Kawasaki), Rene Mahr (TKR Suzuki) and Ismael Ortega (Pedercini Kawasaki) completed the second row.

Times: 1. Simeon X. (BEL) Ducati 1098R 1′49.522; 2. Colucci D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1′50.127; 3. Baz L. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 1′50.128; 4. Corti C. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′50.136; 5. Berger M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1′50.311; 6. Fores J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′50.400; 7. Mähr R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′50.536; 8. Ortega I. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′50.982

Superstock 600
Italians totally dominated the first session of Superstock 600 free practice, with race favourites and Yamaha Trasimeno team-mates Danilo Petrucci and Marco Bussolotti powering to the top two slots. Last weekend’s CIV winner Ferruccio Lamborghini (Media Action Yamaha) was third, ahead of Eddi La Marra (Lorini Honda) and Fabio Massei (M2 Yamaha), another wild-card. The first non-Italian on the provisional grid was Frenchman Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Yamaha) in sixth while Britain’s Gino Rea (Ten Kate Honda) could only manage ninth, more than two seconds off the pace of Petrucci.

Times: 1. Petrucci D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′54.500; 2. Bussolotti M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′54.659; 3. Lamborghini F. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′55.179; 4. La Marra E. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 1′55.330; 5. Massei F. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′55.888; 6. Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′55.926; 7. Chmielewski A. (POL) Yamaha YZF R6 1′56.113; 8. Gregorini G. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1′56.295

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Suzuki Alstare Brux

Team Suzuki Alstare Brux riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama ended the first day of World Superbike qualifying at Monza in Italy with the fifth and sixth quickest laps and are well placed for the charge in qualifying and Superpole tomorrow.

Neither Neukirchner nor Kagayama were completely happy after the first qualifying, but both are confident of big improvements tomorrow.

Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) set the day’s fastest time with a lap of 1:45.44, over a second inside the lap record. Second today was Tom Sykes (Yamaha) with Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) third and Jonathan Rea (Honda) fourth.

Max Neukirchner - 5th, 1:45.962:
“I think many people forget that our bike is a completely new bike this year, but every time we go out, we improve it a little. The track grip level seemed better when we tested than today, but that also might be because there was a lot of rain here on Wednesday. At the moment we’re not so far away from a good set-up, though of course we are always looking for the best. Today I could not get on the gas exiting the turns as fast as I wanted to, so we will try and improve that tomorrow. Here, it’s important to be on the first two rows of the grid and that is what I will be chasing in qualifying and Superpole.

Yukio Kagayama – 6th, 1:45.985:
My race weekend Fridays are usually not so bad, but what is important is what happens on Saturdays and Sundays! I began today with the set-up we found when we tested here a month ago and it was not so bad, except that today I had more problems with rear grip. Also, we need to improve the braking to make sure that I can brake hard and then get on the gas quickly. Monza is a fast track and I like this kind of a circuit, so I will be going very hard for good results on Sunday.

Friday WSB qualifying: 1 Fabrizio (I-Ducati) 1:45.447, 2 Sykes (GB-Yamaha) 1:45.758, 3 Haga (J-Ducati) 1:45.790, 4 Rea (GB-Honda) 1:45.919, 5 Max Neukirchner (D-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 1:45.962, 6 Yukio Kagayama (J-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 1:45.985.

SUPERSTOCK 1000:
Team Suzuki Alstare Brux rider Claudio Corti ended the first day’s practice at Monza with the fourth quickest time despite not pushing hard.

Xavi Simeon (Ducati) finished the session with the quickest lap, with Dominico Colucci (Ducati) second and Loris Baz (Yamaha) third.

Claudio Corti - 4th, 1:50.136:
“I think today was quite a good day and fourth fastest is perfectly OK considering that I felt that the track was a bit dirty so I didn’t push very hard. We tried some new suspension today but I didn’t feel the bike was any better, so I think that we’ll go back to the older stuff tomorrow. Monza is a track where it is important to have a fast bike and where slipstreaming can play a vital part. But my intention on Sunday is to be out in front and not have to worry about slipstreaming at all. Hopefully my plans will work out.

Friday Superstock 1000 results: 1 Simeon (B-Ducati) 1:49.522, 2 Colucci (I-Ducati) 1:50.127, 3 Baz (F-Yamaha) 1:50.128, 4 Claudio Corti (I-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 1:50.136, 5 Berger (F-Honda) 1:50.311, 6 Fores (E-Kawasaki) 1:50.400.

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Yamaha World Superbike

Yamaha World Superbike rider Tom Sykes gave a tantalizing glimpse of his race pace today in the first qualifying session at the historic Monza circuit. The British rider put in strong consistent fats laps for the duration of the session, ending it in second place, just over 0.3 seconds behind leader Michele Fabrizio. Sykes had been fast all day and had spent the morning and the qualifying session fine tuning the set up for the weekend’s racing. He finished the morning ’s free practice session in third place, just behind his team-mate.

Ben Spies was in equally reliable form in the Italian sunshine, focusing on tyre wear and race pace he ran consistent laps all day, finishing the afternoon’s qualifying session in seventh position, less than 0.3 of a second off Sykes. The American rider spent the entire qualifying session on a single set of tyres to test the wear rate on the warm circuit. The morning’s free practice session saw Spies predictably fast on a circuit he’s coming to know well through testing, he finished the session second, less than 0.3 seconds behind the leader.

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (2nd, 1′45.758)
“A fairly decent day to day to be honest, we came here with a big change from the test we had here which has taken a fair bit of balancing but I think we’ve done it. Overall I’m very happy with my race tyres, we’re doing consistent fast laps over race distance so I’m confident in the team’s ability and tomorrow I think we’ll come out even stronger. I’m going to have a good sleep tonight and come back tomorrow with a fresh head and be even better!”

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (7th, 1′46.013)
“It was a really good session for us. We pretty much found our race tyres , we only ran one set for the whole session and put in some really good lap times. We weren’t really worried about fast lap times today, we just wanted to get consistent laps so we should be good for Sunday. It’s an 18 lap race and our fastest lap today was the 22nd one so it’s looking good. The bike’s working really well so we’ll step it up tomorrow and see what happens.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
“A good session for us, we were working to find the best set up for the race I think we’re pretty ready. We’ve made no major changes from the previous test here, just some small changes to improve and fine tune. The race pace was good so we’re satisfied, I think we are 90% there for Sunday.”

Circuit Length: 5792
Lap Record: 1′47.434 (Troy Bayliss, 01/01/2002)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1′44.931 (Troy Bayliss, 11/05/2008)
Last Years Winner: Noriyuki Haga

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Stiggy Racing Honda (WSS)

The fast track of Monza is re-known for its high speed battles and slip-streaming action, but proved hard work for the Stiggy Racing Honda squad in the opening Free Practice today.

The team keep continuing their search for corner speed, as accelerating out of the fast corners is hugely important in order to make the connection with the front runners. The fast track demands corner exit speed, but both Stiggy Racing Honda bikes had a tough session to deliver just that.

Anthony West – desperate to make his way to the top of the sheets – struggled to match the pace of the competition on the short straights, and lost valuable seconds exiting the fast corners. West returned to the box for an outing on his second bike with an altogether different setup, and pushed hard throughout the session for the much desired improvement.

West found himself languishing at the back of the field in a disappointing 21st position, and set his best time today at 1′53.753s – 3 seconds off the pace ran by front man Crutchlow – who posted the fastest time of 1′50.594s.

Team mate Gianluca Vizziello finished his first session in 15th position, with a best time of 1′52.383s.

Gianluca Vizziello, WSS:
” I had some difficulties with the set up of my bike today, and found it hard to find good form. I struggle to open the throttle in the corners as quickly as I would like to and find it hard to run the pace of the competition. I am confident we can solve the issues and improve our lap times in tomorrow’s sessions “.

Anthony West, WSS:
” I had a difficult session today. We tested totally different settings on both bikes today, but found it hard to find a good feeling on any of them. We are missing the balance in the bike, that is definitely something we will have to focus on. We tested both tyres that we have for the rear, but found it hard to lower the lap times. My crew will be analysing the data tonight and see where we can make the improvements for tomorrow”.

Johan Stigefelt, Teammanager:
” We knew we would be struggling on this fast track before we came here. Both riders have worked hard throughout the session, but we lack the acceleration to run the pace of our competitors at the moment, and are finding ourselves in a disappointing position. We will have to work hard on finding the improvements needed to bring both riders in a competitive position for the race on Sunday “.

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Stiggy Racing Honda (SBK)

The first of the three Italian rounds in the World Superbike Championship took off at the Monza Park circuit today. The famously fast track – dubbed the Temple of Speed because of its long straights, wide curves and fast chicanes that provide the perfect scene for slip-streaming battles and full throttle action – enjoyed a competitive first day of qualifying.

After dominating the first Free Practice session, Italian rider Michel Fabrizio shot to the top of the sheets once again in the Qualifying Practice, closely followed by Yamaha rider Tom Sykes in second, and Ducati team mate Noriyuki Haga in third.

Stiggy Racing Honda’s Leon Haslam opened his first session on the fast track in a best time of 1′47.268s, and managed to take another second off in the Qualifying session. He remained 0.7s off the pace ran by Fabrizio, and finished the first day of qualifying in 12th position in a best time of 1′46.208s.

American Formula Extreme Champion Jake Zemke made his first appearance aboard the Stiggy Racing Honda in the Superbike series today, and focused on getting used to the behaviour of his new bike and the Pirelli tyres before setting out for a fast lap. Zemke opened things up in his second outing and managed to lower his time by almost 2 seconds in the qualifying session to a best of 1′47.751s, which currently puts him in 22nd position.

Leon Haslam, WSBK:
” We made some progress today. We have been persevering with a different front end this weekend and did some back-to-back testing, which has put us in a good direction. We should be able to improve in the next session, although we are not a million miles away. I am running good lap times, and managed to set my fastest time in the tenth lap I did on my race tyre. I am pretty happy with the progression we have been able to make so far. There’s a few areas we want to improve on, we want to work on the suspension a bit more, but other then that I am comfortably looking forward to tomorrow’s qualifying.

Jake Zemke, WSBK:
” I am satisfied with today’s progress. We could have been better, but I am starting to feel comfortable on the bike and understand it, which is the main thing at the moment. We are working in that direction, and definitely got better in the last laps. I was actually a little upset with myself as I thought we had to qualify for Superpole today, but fortunately, we have another chance tomorrow. There’s definitely more in store, so the lap times will have to come down tomorrow, and I will hopefully be able to qualify for a competitive position on the grid”.

Johan Stigefelt, Teammanager:
” It’s been a satisfying day for us. Jake is making his first appearance here with the team, and so far everything is been going well. It is not an easy track to start your first race, but it looks promising and I’m convinced he will improve tomorrow. Leon has been running a competitive pace here. The crew will make some further changes to his bike and test some different parts, but we are heading in the right direction and hopefully will bring both riders in a good position for the Superpole qualifying tomorrow”.

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Ducati Xerox

The Ducati Xerox Team is pumped up and ready for action, completing today the first qualifying session of the fifth World Superbike round of the season under the Monza sunshine. Factory rider Michel Fabrizio was on the pace from the first practice session of the day, finishing said session in first place before heading out onto a track that reached temperatures of 47°C for the afternoon qualifying session, in which he again pushed his 1198 machine to the limit, to conclude first qualifying three tenths of a second faster than any other rider on track.

Noriyuki also made an extremely positive start to the weekend and took the third fastest time of the day in the afternoon qualifying. Today’s results bode well for the weekend and both Noriyuki and Michel hope that the dry sunny weather is set to continue until the all important race day.

Michel Fabrizio 1m45.4s
“Fastest in both the free practice and first qualifying, yes I’d say it’s all going well so far. This weekend will be hard and Nori and Spies are on the pace but I’d really love to score my first win here at Monza and think that I can do a good job this weekend. In these last two weeks I have really thought hard about what’s needed and what’s needed is a win, to relieve some pressure, to boost by confidence and help take me to that next level. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions.”

Noriyuki Haga 1m45.7s
“It’s gone very well today yes. Unfortunately the track conditions are not as good as they were during testing here a couple of weeks ago but finally we got under the 1m45 barrier and feeling has improved throughout the day even if I hope to find more improvements tomorrow by changing a few things. We’re still not sure about the tyres but it will be interesting to see how we go tomorrow morning. So far, so good I think.”

TIMES: 1. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.4s; 2. Sykes (Yamaha) 1m45.7s; 3. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.7s; 4. Rea (Honda) 1m45.9s; 5. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m45.9s; 6. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m45.9s; 7. Spies (Yamaha) 1m46.0s; 8. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1m46.0s