From the World Superbike Championship
One of the most exciting World Superbike Superpoles of the season saw Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio power to his first ever career success at the Imola circuit in Italy.
The man from Rome clinched the pole on Saturday with a time of 1 minute 47.735 seconds on the final lap of the session, taking it out of the hands of Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike), quickest until then, by just 0.043 of a second.
“I’m really happy," Fabrizio said. "I wanted this Superpole at all costs, and it’s even more satisfying to get it at home. Maybe I should only do the Italian championship as I got my first win at Monza and my first pole here. In any case tomorrow it’ll be a great battle between us young guys, because our race pace is pretty similar, so I feel sure we’ll have some fun tomorrow.”
“It was a good session for us but I kind of blew it in the last section," Spies admitted, "making a big mistake and that cost us. But I’m on the front row which is where we need to be. All the top guys are on the front row, which is how it should be, none of us will be hanging around so let’s hope we have some fun tomorrow.”
The first row was completed by two of the other championship front-runners, Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), with the gap between the four (0.150 secs) one of the smallest in WSB history.
“The pace there in the afternoon was fast and we just missed out a little," Rea said. "In the last session and the last qualifier made a big mistake and didn’t quite resurrect that so there wasn’t enough time left. Anyway we’ve got a good race set-up tomorrow, I’m really happy, the guys have done a marvelous job, we’ve got so many new things to try and every week the package is getting better and better.”
The second row sees Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati) in fifth, followed by Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing), while Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) was in seventh ahead of Marco Simoncelli (Aprilia Racing), the Italian taking his RSV4 machine to a brilliant eighth place on his WSB debut.
Troy Corser (BMW) will start from row 3 in ninth after being eliminated from Superpole 2 by a fraction. Lorenzo Lanzi (DFX Ducati) looked promising on the third row, while Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) could only manage 13th.
It was a negative day for Suzuki Alstare Brux with both riders Yukio Kagayama and Karl Muggeridge starting from row 5.
Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) continues to dominate Supersport qualifying, the Coventry man taking his ninth pole of the season. The championship leader was one of the only riders to lap under 1:51, and he put in his quickest lap three minutes from the end of qualifying.
Crutchlow, who was also the only rider to crash in the session, was more than half a second quicker than second placed Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), while the other two front row men, Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) and Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Czech Honda) were third and fourth but over one second off the pace.
Garry McCoy (Triumph 675) again went well for the ParkinGo BE1 team, the Australian qualifying fifth quickest ahead of two of the other championship front-runners, Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) and Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport).
Britain’s Chaz Davies put the second Triumph BE1 machine on row 3, in 11th place, on his debut.
Pole position in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup went to wild-card entry Ayrton Badovini (Aprilia), the erstwhile Superbike rider obtaining the satisfaction of finishing ahead of two championship contenders, leader Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox) and Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare), who were separated by half a second. The third title contender Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda) qualified on row 2.
Five Italians line up in the first five positions in qualifying for the European Superstock 600 race, with points leader Danilo Petrucci (Yamaha Trasimeno) starting from pole.
Superbike Qualifying Times
1. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1:47.735
2. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:47.778
3. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR100RR 1:47.834
4. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1:47.885
5. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1:48.156
6. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:48.665
7. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1:49.092
8. Simoncelli M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:49.338
9. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1:48.971
10. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:48.992
11. Lanzi L. (ITA)Ducati 1098R 1:49.060
12. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1:49.105
13. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.168
14. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.340
15. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.641
16. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:49.681
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