KYALAMI DEVELOPMENT TEAMS TYRE TEST 1O/11/12 DECEMBER SECOND DAY Kyalami, Thursday 11th December 2008 Fabrizio still leads the way in Kyalami testing Michel Fabrizio once again set the pace for Ducati Xerox on the second day of Pirelli tyre development tests at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa. The young Italian clocked a time of 1 minute 40.256 seconds, one second beneath his day 1 time and some way quicker than the circuit’s previous Superbike lap records which date back to 2002. “I’m not entirely satisfied today either because I made a small mistake on my good lap, otherwise I’m convinced I could have got below the 1’40″ mark” declared the 24 year-old from Rome. The battle for second place behind Fabrizio was fast and furious, and it eventually went to German Max Neukirchner on the 2009-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000K9. Ducati’s new signing Noriyuki Haga finally dialled into the leaders’ pace after three crashes yesterday to end up with third quickest time. On a day in which temperatures soared to a torrid 31°C and 47°C on track, fourth place went to the talented 23 year-old from Northern Ireland, Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), this year’s Supersport championship runner-up. After a stunning performance yesterday, the second day proved to be less fortunate for Ben Spies, Yamaha’s American rookie signing, who crashed out harmlessly at Turn 6: his R1 machine was severely damaged and the Texan finished the day early. Carlos Checa and Rea were two other riders who crashed out today. With the top nine riders in the space of eight-tenths of a second, Superbike is shaping up to be ultra-competitive. Aprilia are already in the leading group with their RSV4, Nakano currently lying sixth and Biaggi ninth, while development work is continuing on the BMW S1000RR machines of Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus on their first major testing appearance. Day 2 times: 1. Fabrizio (Ita-Ducati) 1’40″256 (44 laps); 2. Neukirchner (Ger-Suzuki) 1’40″688 (50); 3. Haga (Jpn-Ducati) 1’40″709 (53); 4. Rea (GB-Honda) 1’40″842 (40); 5. Kagayama (Jpn-Suzuki) 1’40″959 (52); 6. Nakano (Jpn-Aprilia) 1’40″968 (42); 7. Checa (Spa-Honda) 1’40″995 (31); 8. Spies (Usa-Yamaha) 1’41″049 (38); 9. Biaggi (Ita-Aprilia) 1’41″077 (56); 10. Kiyonari (Jpn-Honda) 1’41″412 (84); 11. Corser (Aus-Bmw) 1’41″986 (34); 12. Xaus (Spa-Bmw) 1’42″438 (40); 13. Sykes (GB-Yamaha) 1’42″933 (18). More, from a press release issued by Ducati Xerox: Thursday Dec 11 2008 Kyalami – Test THE DUCATI XEROX TEAM CONTINUES WITH WINTER TESTING AT KYALAMI, FABRIZIO STILL FASTEST Kyalami (South Africa): Thursday 11th December 2008: The Ducati Xerox Team has concluded day two of the three-day Pirelli tyre tests taking place at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa, a track the makes a return to the World Superbike calendar in May 2009 after an absence of six years. Michel Fabrizio, at the end of his first season with the Ducati Xerox squad and already looking forward to the beginning of the 2009 season, was the fastest rider on track yesterday, registering a best lap time of 1m41.2s, and has today improved on that time by a whole second while clocking up 70 laps. Experiencing no real problems with his Ducati F09, Michel’s best time of today, 1m40.2s, is the fastest lap registered yet by any rider at this track. New recruit Noriyuki Haga was on board the Ducati 1098 F09 for the first time yesterday and so far he and the team are very satisfied with the positive results achieved. The 33-year old Japanese rider has spent time working with the team to set the bike up according to his riding position and style. After the first day during which Nori fell three times, without causing injury to himself, Nori and his squad have today made good progress, the team working mainly on the front of the bike and Nori able to test a few different tyres. Fourth fastest yesterday, Nori’s improved on his time with a fastest lap today of 1m40.7s. All of the factory teams are present at the test, with the exception of Kawasaki Paul Bird Motorsport. Conditions are hot and dry, with air temperatures of around 32°C and track temperatures of over 50°C. Michel Fabrizio “I have enjoyed being back on the bike after some weeks off and the test has gone really well so far, I’m very happy. I hadn’t seen this track before of course and I really like it, it’s fun to ride. We haven’t yet tried any qualifiers and I think I may be able to go a touch faster with those tyres but we’ll see tomorrow, with this heat it’s hard to go extremely fast. I’d like to improve even further tomorrow, I’ll see what I can do.” Davide Tardozzi Ducati Xerox Team Manager “We are satisfied with the progress Nori is making, after a difficult day like yesterday. I have been very impressed with Nori’s attitude and results so far this week. Today we tried many different settings and in the last hour we found a route that we will follow tomorrow and in the next tests. Third place today is a valuable result, changing manufacturer and being immediately competitive makes things easier, his winning mentality works well with our mental attitude.” Day 1: Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m41.2s; Spies (Yamaha) 1m41.5s; Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m41.7s; Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m41.7s; Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m41.7s; Nakano (Aprilia) 1m41.8s; Biaggi (Aprilia) 1m42.4s; Kiyonari (Honda) 1m42.7s; Corser (BMW) 1m42.9s; Xaus (BMW) 1m43.2s Day 2: Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m40.2s; Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m40.6s; Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m40.7s; Checa (Honda) 1m40.6s; Rea (Honda) 1m40.8s; Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m40.9s; Nakano (Aprilia) 1m40.9s; Biaggi (Aprilia) 1m41.0s; Kiyonari (Honda) 1m41.4s; Corser (BMW) 1m41.9s; Xaus (BMW) 1m42.4s; Spies (Yamaha) 1m42.9s More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Team Suzuki Alstare riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama finished the second day of the Pirelli Development tyres test in Kyalami, South Africa, with the second and fifth-quickest times respectively. The final day was even hotter than the first and by early afternoon the track temperature had risen to over 50 C which caused grip problems. Most of today’s fastest times were done either early in the day or right at the end of the session, when the track cooled off. Italian Michel Fabrizio set the day’s quickest lap with a time of 1:40.256 ahead of Neukirchner and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha). Max Neukirchner: “Today was good because we’ve done a lot of good work and made good progress. This track is quite bumpy so we spent a lot of time making the bike ride as smoothly as possible. We started with the set-up from the last test in Phillip Island and just carried on from there. We tried quite a few different tyres and worked a lot on the chassis and, if I had not made a couple of small mistakes when I was using soft tyres, maybe I could’ve ended the quickest today.” Yukio Kagayama: “We began with our Phillip Island set-up and then tried to improve the bike to work better on this bumpy track. I had a good feeling with the bike on race tyres, but when I tried a qualifier the feeling was not so good. The high altitude really affects the performance of the bike and it feels slow compared to Phillip Island and difficult to do a wheelie. It wasn’t hard getting down to the 1:41s today, but it was hard getting into the 1:40s. We shall have to see what tomorrow brings, but if everything goes well, maybe we could get into the 1:39s.” Day 2 lap times (from FG Sport): 1. Fabrizio (Ita-Ducati) 1’40″256 (44 laps); 2. Neukirchner (Ger-Suzuki) 1’40″688 (50); 3. Haga (Jpn-Ducati) 1’40″709 (53); 4. Rea (GB-Honda) 1’40″842 (40); 5. Kagayama (Jpn-Suzuki) 1’40″959 (52); 6. Nakano (Jpn-Aprilia) 1’40″968 (42); 7. Checa (Spa-Honda) 1’40″995 (31); 8. Spies (USA-Yamaha) 1’41″049 (38); 9. Biaggi (Ita-Aprilia) 1’41″077 (56); 10. Kiyonari (Jpn-Honda) 1’41″412 (84); 11. Corser (Aus-BMW) 1’41″986 (34); 12. Xaus (Spa-BMW) 1’42″438 (40); 13. Sykes (GB-Yamaha) 1’42″933 (18).