Fabrizio dominates opening day at Monza

From the World Superbike Championship

Ducati Xerox's Michel Fabrizio dominated the opening day of World Superbike qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on Friday.

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.

Points leader Cal Crutchlow was quickest in Friday's World Supersport free practice session with a time of 1:50.594. 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.

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 went to Domenico Colucci (Barni Racing), the wild-card rider and winner of the Italian championship round here at Monza last Sunday.

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.

Superbike Qualifying 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-R1000 1:45.962
6. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 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