Monza (Italy), Friday 10th April: the official Ducati Xerox squad concluded a two-day test session today at the historic Monza track. Yesterday, factory riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga registered respectively the quickest and second-quickest lap times of the day and once again today both were on the pace right from the start of the session. Under clear skies, both Noriyuki and Michel lapped relentlessly on their Ducati 1198 factory bikes, to clock up more than 70 laps each. Michel recorded a fast lap of 1m45.1s on a qualifying tyre (1m45.6s on a race tyre) while Noriyuki’s fastest lap time was a 1m45.5s on a race tyre; on that tyre only the American Spies on board his Yamaha R1 was able to lap faster than the two men in red. The Ducati Xerox team will be back at Monza in May for the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship but in the meantime the riders and their technicians turn their attentions to the upcoming round, to take place at Assen on Sunday 26th April. Noriyuki Haga “Basically my performance was similar to that of yesterday, no better, no worse. We tried yet another suspension setting but didn’t really find any improvement over what we had tried until now. However I am happy with my times, happy with my bike and happy with the tyres we have tried during these two days. So we hope that everything goes well for the race too but the problem is that the race is never the same as testing and many factors can change! Before we come back to Monza, we have Assen of course and I’m really looking forward to riding the 1198 there, it should be an interesting weekend.” Michel Fabrizio “These two days have been very useful. Today, like yesterday, we have worked hard and everything has gone very well. I completed somewhere around seventy laps and the times were fast; we have a good race pace and nearly all of the tyre solutions provided here by Pirelli allowed us to lap with quick times, I just hope that is the case for the race too in a few weeks time! With regard to Assen, I’m feeling fairly confident. This season it is hard to predict how each race weekend will go but we’re feeling prepared.” TIMES (unofficial): Spies (Yamaha) 1m45.3s; Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.5s; Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.6s; Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m45.8s; Sykes (Yamaha) 1m45.8s; Muggeridge (Suzuki) 1m46.0s; Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m46.3s; Xaus (BMW) 1m46.8s; Corser (BMW) 1m47.1s More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Spies sets the pace yet again in Monza debut test Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies again proved the quickest rider on the day in his debut Monza test for the team. Over the two days of testing the American rider was consistently fast, laying down at least ten consecutive laps under last year’s lap record whilst on race tyres. Team-mate Sykes was also setting a blistering pace, and one of only five riders to break under the 1’46″ mark. Ducati riders Haga and Fabrizio were second and third fastest respectively with times of 1’45.5 and 1’45.6 whilst Sykes was fifth fastest behind Last year’s race winner Neukirchener. Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1’45.3) “The test was good, it was really good to come back and reset myself after Valencia as I was feeling really frustrated. It was good to take a couple of days off, then come back fresh. We found a really good pace, and I loved Monza which is another new track for me. We also did half a race simulation, and got some really competitive times. I think we’ve got a good setup for the bike for when we come back here. Hopefully we’ll show up with a couple more tricks on the bike as well.” Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1’45.8) “As soon as I did my first lap I had a big smile, the track is amazing, and not what I’m used to at all, lots of fast straights and fantastic corners. It was a really good test for me, we’ve proved again we can be very fast and we can do the lap times over distance. Overall we’ve found a good set-up. It was a great opportunity for myself and my side of the garage to look at what changes we make and what it does to the character of the bike. We should be faster now which is good, considering the pace we have already. I’ve always wanted to ride Assen, unfortunately it’s not the old full circuit I’m but still looking forward to it.” Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager “Overall it’s been a really good test for us for both riders. We tested some chassis set ups and both the riders were quite happy with the developments. We got some good long runs in, especially for Ben so in the end we are quite satisfied. Last year the lap record was 1’45.8, Ben was running consistent laps below this time on race tyres, including a 1’45.3. Tom also proved to be consistently fast and we were happy to see him dipping under last year’s lap record.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: TROY OK DESPITE CRASH Troy survived a highside during the second day of the Monza tests, and was lucky to walk away with just a bruised finger. The fall happened in the morning and Troy was forced to miss the afternoon session as his left hand was too sore to control the handlebars properly. Troy’s absence in the afternoon meant that his team mate Ruben had to shoulder the burden of trying all the various things out, together with test rider Steve Martin. Troy (best lap 1:46.3) That was a tough one and a half days because we had so many different things to try out and many ideas to consider. Because of that we weren’t chasing lap times at all, so to get so close to the top guys was really good. I’m not sure what happened when I highsided at the first chicane, but it happened so quickly that I didn’t have a chance. I went a long way in the air and ended hands down first and that’s when I banged my hand. I went and saw the doctor and he advised me not to ride anymore that day and give the hand a chance to rest up. I don’ think anything is broken but I’ve had this kind of injury before and there’s a possibility that I might have cracked a bone. It’s no big deal though and I’m sure it’ll be fine for Assen. I did try and get back on the bike back in the garage, but I found that I couldn’t really pull and push the bars properly and that’s when we decided not to go out again in the afternoon. It was a shame because we had lots to test and I couldn’t help the team get through it all. But fortunately Steve Martin helped out and Ruben of course. The work carries on and there is a lot of it! Every time out, we learn a bit more and give our technicians something to think about and work on. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating, but we’re all happy to do the work because we haven’t seen the full potential of the bike yet and that’s what we’re all after. We’re getting closer for sure, but sometimes you run into new problems and have to get though them to progress. The team are great and everybody is working for each other, so I’m sure we’ll keep on improving. More, from a press release issued by Ben Spies’ publicist: MONZA TEST A SUCCESS FOR SPIES American Leaves Historic Italian Circuit with Fastest Time MONZA, Italy (April 11, 2009) Ben Spies turned his first laps ever on the historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, during two days of World Superbike testing. On Friday, the final day of the test, Spies powered his factory Yamaha R1 to a lap of one minute, 45.3 seconds on ultra-fast 5.8 kilometer (3.6 miles), 13-turn circuit in Northern Italy. It proved to be the top time of the test. Monza will become a home track of sorts for Spies since his residence in Italy is only about 30 minutes for the track. He left impressed by Monza and its speed. The track, one of the best known in the world, is said to have riders at full throttle a higher percentage of the time than any other circuit. “It was fast,” Spies said with an unusual amount of enthusiasm in his voice. “It was everything I thought it would be. You’re leaned over in fourth and fifth gear with a wall to your inside shoulder, you go in and out of the woods. It’s nothing dangerous, but you definitely feel your speed there. It’s an intense track to ride and it has so much history behind it. It was a great feeling to get to test there and I’m sure when we come back in May for the race and the place is packed with fans it’s going to be that much more exciting.” Spies, currently second-ranked in the World Superbike standings after six of 28 races, is coming off a tough weekend in Valencia, Spain, where he suffered his first crash of his World Superbike career resulting in a DNF. He came back strong to finish runner-up to series leader Nori Haga in the second race and the Monza test shows the Texan is fully capable of bouncing back quickly after a tough outing. “We had some bike problems last week and I made some mistakes,” Spies admitted of Valencia. “Those kinds of things happen. I didn’t feel like I necessarily had anything to prove in this test, but it did feel good to get back up to speed and have such a strong test.” Spies went on to say the team found some valuable information at Monza that could improve the R1 even more in the upcoming rounds. “We had some new set-ups to try and we did a little over a half-a-race stint and the lap times were all under the best race laps turned in the race last year, so we left with a real positive feeling.” Spies also mentioned his thoughts were with the families of Italy’s Abruzzo earthquake victims. “I was still in Spain when the earthquake hit,” Spies said. “The quake was in central Italy, near Rome, and it didn’t reach up here to the northern regions of the country where I live. It’s tough to see people go through something like that. I wish them the best and hope they can make a good recovery.” Spies returns to action at the next World Superbike race in Assen, The Netherlands, on April 26.