Biaggi and Aprilia on Valencia pole

From the World Superbike Championship

VALENCIA, SPAIN -- Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) was the man on form in Friday’s first World Superbike qualifying session at the Valencia circuit in Spain. The Italian, who was always amongst the pacesetters, set the quickest time of the day 10 minutes before the end of the session with a time of 1 minute 34.775 seconds.

Right behind Biaggi were the two race winners in the opening rounds of this year’s championship, Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox). Both men were the only riders to dip under the 1:35 mark, and were separated by one-thousandth of a second.

The provisional front row was completed by Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), who was up amongst the front-runners once again.

Britain’s Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike), who had a crash on his R1, was next up ahead of Jakub Smrz (Ducati Guandalini) and the Suzuki Alstare duo of Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama, just half a second off the polesitter’s pace.

The provisional third row of the grid saw Jonathan Rea of the Ten Kate Honda team precede his team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari, while Carlos Checa was unable to go any higher than 15th.

The first of the BMWs was the S1000RR of Troy Corser, 13th overall, while Broc Parkes went well for Kawasaki in 16th.

In his first Superbike qualifying session John Hopkins recorded 18th quickest time on the Stiggy Racing Honda, an encouraging performance and just over one second off the pace.

The Supersport riders took advantage of a ‘grippy’ track after the previous sessions to set some quick times. Fastest of the day in free practice was Spain’s Joan Lascorz, now on a Kawasaki. The 2008 race winner stopped the clocks in a time of 1:36.672, just a fraction slower than his own lap record from last year.

Lascorz was well over half-a-second quicker than Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) in second place, one of the men on form at the moment. Kawasaki’s successful day was completed with third place for Katsuaki Fujiwara, who was over one second down on his team-mate.

After dominating the first two rounds the Hondas were not on form on the opening day of action at Valencia, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) the quickest in fourth place, while points leader Andrew Pitt was down in 10th and Qatar winner Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar) in 14th.

In Superstock 1000, one of the title favourites, Claudio Corti, powered to the quickest time in Friday’s free practice session. The Italian, this year with Suzuki Alstare Brux, ended the day with a time of 1:38.428.

Danilo Petrucci (Yamaha Italia Trasimeno) dominated the Superstock 600 session with quickest time in the opening free practice session.

Superbike Times
1. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:34.775
2. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1:34.907
3. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1:34.908
4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1:35.243
5. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1:35.270
6. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1:35.278
7. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 1:35.285
8. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 1:35.316
9. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:35.328
10. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1:35.372
11. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:35.416
12. Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1:35.489
13. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1:35.516
14. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:35.535
15. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:35.541
16. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1:35.662