Haga snags pole in Germany

From the World Superbike Championship

Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) bounced back to his best form in Saturday’s World Superbike qualifying sessions at the Nurburgring as he took his first Superpole win of the year and his seventh overall.

At a circuit where he scored a brilliant double win last year, the championship leader made up for his recent difficult period with a commanding lap time of 1 minute 55.489 seconds, despite still not being at 100 per cent from his Donington injury.

Haga’s lap time came in the final minutes of the third Superpole run, but he was unable to improve on the lap record time of Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare), absent this year due to injury.

“It’s been good to get back into things yesterday and today, also I did my best lap in Superpole," Haga said. "The bike is really good for the feeling. I like this track but it’s my first time here with Ducati so this is a good result. I needed a result like this for the championship battle, tomorrow I will just try and do my best.”

Haga denied Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) of his maiden pole by just three-tenths of a second, the British rider lining up on the front row ahead of his fellow Honda man Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing), on the front row for the second time this season.

“I put a pretty good lap in at the start," Rea explained, "and thought it was enough so I rolled off a bit, but all credit to Nori, that was a really good lap. The bike’s working really well here, I’m glad the guys didn’t fall asleep on holiday during the summer break! We’ve come back with some development parts on the bike.”

Fourth place went to Italian Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), who pushed fellow title-chaser Ben Spies off the front row of the grid by just a whisker. The Texan, who has signed for Yamaha for the next two years, crashed in the afternoon session and didn’t look as incisive in Superpole as he had in previous races.

Troy Corser again notched up a row 2 position on his BMW S1000 RR machine, confirming the German manufacturer’s upward trend, while Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) completed the front two rows.

The first Kawasaki, the ZX-10R of Makoto Tamada was on row 3, while Yukio Kagayama placed his Suzuki Alstare BRUX GSX-R1000 on the fourth row.

Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) once again powered to the front in Supersport qualifying, this time at a circuit where he has never raced before.

The Coventry man utterly dominated the session to take his eighth pole of the year in 11 races with a time of 1:57.866, a full 1.3 seconds clear of the next runners. Second place went to Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), while the front row was completed by Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda), who had an engine blow-out in the morning run, and Garry McCoy on the improving Triumph 675.

A violent downpour marked qualifying for the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, but the rider who managed to get the best out of the conditions was Frenchman Loriz Baz (MRS Yamaha), who bolted on a rear slick in the drying conditions to notch up his first pole in the category.

Second was points leader Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox), quickest in the two free practice sessions.

Vincent Lonbois’ run of form in 600 Superstock continues as the MTM Yamaha man followed up his first pole position at Brno with the same result at the Nurburgring.

Superbike Qualifying Times
1. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1:55.489
2. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:55.749
3. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:55.776
4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1:55.927
5. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:55.938
6. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1:56.296
7. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:56.440
8. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:56.699
9. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:56.406
10. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1:56.663
11. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1:56.670
12. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:56.683
13. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9 1:56.901
14. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1:57.091
15. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:57.098
16. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1:57.293