FIM Superbike World Championship Monza, Italy May 9, 2008 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Max NEUKIRCHNER (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:45.990 2. Troy BAYLISS (Duc 1098 F08), 1:46.359 3. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.371 4. Makoto TAMADA (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:46.404 5. Jakub SMRZ (Duc 1098 RS08), 1:46.604 6. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:46.750 7. Michel FABRIZIO (Duc 1098 F08), 1:46.814 8. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:46.854 9. Ruben XAUS (Duc 1098 RS08), 1:46.915 10. Gregorio LAVILLA (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:46.946 11. Fonsi NIETO (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.990 12. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1), 1:47.074 13. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:47.089 14. Carlos CHECA (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:47.135 15. Troy CORSER (Yam YZF-R1), 1:47.232 16. Ryuichi KIYONARI (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:47.246 17. Max BIAGGI (Duc 1098 RS08), 1:47.255 18. Ayrton BADOVINI (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:47.805 19. Shinichi NAKATOMI (Yam YZF-R1), 1:47.815 20. Sebastien GIMBERT (Yam YZF-R1), 1:48.276 21. Shuhei AOYAMA (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:48.496 22. Vittoro IANNUZZO (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:48.583 23. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 1098 RS08), 1:48.741 24. Luca MORELLI (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:49.036 25. Lorenzo MAURI (Duc 999 RS), 1:49.082 26. Giovanni BUSSEI (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:49.206 27. Russell HOLLAND (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:49.572 28. Luca NAPOLEONE (Yam YZF-R1), 1:51.441 29. Michael BECK (Yam YZF-R1), 1:51.869 More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: THE DUCATI XEROX TEAM MAKES A STRONG START TO THEIR QUEST FOR A HOME WIN AT MONZA Monza (Italy) Friday 9th May: the Ducati Xerox Team made a strong start to the weekend’s proceedings in the first qualifying session this afternoon at Monza, with Troy Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio attaining respectively the second and seventh fastest times. Bayliss and his factory squad were able to clock up some consistently fast laps during both this morning’s free practice and the afternoon’s qualifying while Fabrizio spent time learning how best to approach the track on board the Ducati 1098 F08. Troy Bayliss 1m46.3s “It’s gone pretty well today yes. We made a few changes for the qualifying session this afternoon. I did more than race distance on the front tyre this morning and nearly race distance on both tyres this afternoon, and times were very consistent which is good news. We’d like to improve further tomorrow, with a few different things to try out. Several people are going strong of course, just as we expected. Max (Neukirchner) is going well today but he didn’t do as many consistently fast laps as we did this afternoon. Anyway, we’re very happy for the time being and will see if we can go faster again tomorrow.” Michel Fabrizio 1m46.8s “I’m pretty content overall with the work we’ve done today. I of course know the track very well but riding the Ducati here is new for me and it seems like certain points of the circuit require a bit of a different approach. Today I had some problems for example at the Parabolica where I lost a few tenths. I’m feeling quite confident about the performance of the tyres and the bike set-up so it’s really just a matter of learning how to ride the F08 at this particular track. Physically I feel ok – my arm hurt a bit by the end of the afternoon session but that was to be expected – I’d say it’s all going ok for the moment.” TIMES: 1. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m45.9s; 2. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m46.3s; 3. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m46.3s; 4. Tamada (Kawasaki) 1m46.4s; 5. Smrz (Ducati) 1m46.6s; 6. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m46.7s; 7. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m46.8s More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Team Suzuki Press Office – May 9. Team Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner was in sensational form today at the Monza World Superbike fifth round in Italy, posting the day’s fastest lap in this afternoon’s qualifying session. The young German blitzed the 5.793 kilometre circuit in 1:45.990, breaking the lap record in the process. Over three tenths of a second behind was series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) with Suzuki Alstare rider Yukio Kagayama third. It was not such a good day for Suzuki Alstare rider Fonsi Nieto: He crashed in the qualifying session, fortunately without injury, and lost time when most of the riders were setting their quick lap times. Nieto ended 11th and he and the team know that a lot of good work will have to be done tomorrow to get a good grid position. Max Neukirchner – 1st, 1:45.990: “I’m happy with how things worked out today and happy because I think we have a pretty good bike set-up. We’ll make some small adjustments tomorrow to see if we can improve the bike, but it will not be anything major. Tomorrow we’ll do some work on the electronics and maybe the engine-braking to try and get the best possible set-up. I want to say thank you to Yukio for helping me do my fast lap today. At Monza you need help if you want to set a really good time and Yukio was great.” Yukio Kagayama – 3rd, 1:46.371: “My feeling today is good. We started the day with the settings from Assen and they worked pretty well really. I had some small problems braking, but that was because of front fork settings, not the brakes themselves. The team made some changes and the bike improved. Towards the end of this afternoon’s qualifying, I was using a hard tyre – for a test – but I’m sure I could’ve gone faster if I had used a softer tyre. Maybe I could’ve been second or even first! Although slipstreaming is very important here, I would prefer to be on my own because then I can push much harder. I think Monza might be good for us and that is what I am hoping for.” Fonsi Nieto – 11th, 1:46.990: “I am not so happy today because I had a small crash, lost some time in the qualifying session and that meant I missed the chance to go for a quick lap time. The crash happened at the Parabolica when I went into the gravel. The tyre wall was approaching, so I had no choice but to lay the bike down. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself or do any further damage to my left knee. It is a bit sore when I’m on the bike, but it will not affect me in the race.” Friday WSB qualifying: 1 Max Neukirchner (D-Alstare Suzuki) 1:45.990, 2 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:46.359, 3 Yukio Kagayama (J-Suzuki Alstare) 1:46.371, 4 Tamada (J-Kawasaki) 1:46.404, 5 Smrz (CZ-Ducati) 1:46.604, 6 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:46.750. 11 Fonsi Nieto (E-Suzuki Alstare) 1:46.990. More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Team Announcement It is with great sadness that the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda Team must announce that Kenan Sofuoglu’s brother, Sinan, has been involved in a fatal accident while racing in his native Turkey. Kenan has withdrawn from the Monza event and has returned to Turkey to be with his family at this difficult time. We would respectfully ask that the media not make any requests for further information at this sensitive moment. We wish to send our condolences to Kenan and all his family and they can be assured that our thoughts are with them. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Haga and Corser chase set-up at Monza Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) was the fastest Yamaha rider on show on the first day at Monza, posting a time of 1’47.074 to go 12th fastest overall. He was just over one second from provisional pole, at this long 5.793km circuit. Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) was only three places behind Haga on day one, looking for greater top speed and general set-up to get back into contention at the fastest track on the WSB calendar. Qualifying was conducted in warm and sunny conditions, a great contrast with the deluge of rain that cursed the team’s attempt to test at their home circuit of Monza last month. Team YZF Yamaha rider Shinichi Nakatomi went 19th in qualifying, with Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) one place and 0.461 seconds behind him. David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) was unable to ride at Monza because of his recently dislocated hip his place was taken by American rider Michael Beck. He took 29th place on the provisional grid in his first ever ride outside the USA. Final qualifying and then Superpole for the top 16 riders takes place on Saturday, with two SBK races taking place on Sunday 11th. Noriyuki Haga (12th – 1’47.074 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “OK I guess, but we have had some issues with the rear traction but that, I think, is coming from the tyre. We have three different tyres and we have to make suspension settings for them all. I tried a few things this morning and this afternoon but we haven’t found a good feeling yet. Tonight we change and we see what happens tomorrow. The front tyre choice has been made. Some of the other bikes seem very fast here.” Troy Corser (15th – 1’47.232 – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “The bike is not fast enough at the top end of the scale. The chassis we are finding some improvements with, we’re not a long way away with it but we are still losing maybe half a second in straightline speed. Having it rain during our test here last month was not so good but we are just not accelerating onto the straights the way we want to so far.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “Both riders are looking for more grip exiting the corners to let them hit full speed at the end of the straight and we are working for an overall better bike set-up. We lost some testing time last month but there was nothing we could do about that. Tomorrow we will make some improvements and we will try our best as always.” Michael Beck (29th – 1’51.869 – Yamaha GMT94) “This is the first time I have been out of the USA and this has been a great experience already. I always wondered what it was like racing over here in Europe and I finally got to experience it here. There are one or two tracks like this in America, but this place has a lot of straightaways and fast corners, and the Parabolica corner is pretty amazing.” More, from a press release issued by Team Sterilgarda Go Eleven: On the first day of qualifying at Monza, Sterilgarda Go Eleven’s riders worked on the bike race set-up in order to get everything ready for Sunday and so trying to get an excellent result in front of their supporters. Both Xaus and Biaggi spent the day testing several settings. The Spanish rider tried a rigid and long trim for his bike, in order to be able to get vital instants when braking and have more stability in the middle of the corners. As well Max worked on the basic set-up as he usually does on Friday. In Stock1000 Alex Polita got the 7th provisional best time. He lost some position due to a slip when he was recording the pole time. RUBEN XAUS | Ducati 1098 RS | 9th provisional time in 1’46.915: “We have done a good job today and I was pretty quick even with the bike in race trim despite the traffic on the track. The set-up tested today allows me to lap on a constant race pace and it shows its power lap by lap. My goal is the podium and I will be able to bang on it if I can lap constantly between 1’46 and 1’47″. MAX BIAGGI | Ducati 1098 RS | 17th provisional time in 1’47.255: “After Assen we have had to reset and start again. We tested several setting in order to reduce the gap of power that we meet on this track. We have spent the day working on the race trim because we want to go back on the podium, especially in front of our supporters. Tomorrow, at the end of the work day, we will know which kind of goal we will be able to aim for”. ALEX POLITA | Ducati 1098R | 7th provisional time in 1’50.027: “I slid while I was attempting to cut my time, when I was recording the pole position after the two first splits. Anyway I was lucky, I didn’t get any injury and I will try again tomorrow in order to get the front line”. More, from a press release issued by Team Pedercini: Team Pedercini finish the first day of qualifying at Monza not totally satisfied about its results. Ayrton Badovini recorded Superpole times during the morning free practice. Unfortunately the Italian slid at the third timed lap, thwarting all the good things done at that moment. Vittorio Iannuzzo sets the 22nd provisional time despite the pain at the hand, finishing just one second far from the Superpole, hence he feels pretty confident for tomorrow. Some improvements for the Superstock too. The solutions developed after Assen seem to be a good base on which working tomorrow also thanks to the data collected today which will be helpful to fine-tune the bikes. VITTORIO IANNUZZO | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 22nd time in 1’48.583: “I can’t say to be fast but I’m on the right way. The pain at the hand influences my performance especially at the first corner and at the Ascari, where the flip-flop requires efforts on the wrist. Nevertheless the gap from the Superpole is thin and I feel confident to have what it takes to get a good results tomorrow. I still have some doubt on my race endurance because I have no markers for the brakes. Tomorrow I will work on it”. AYRTON BADOVINI | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 18th time in 1’47.805: “We have immediately found a good setting and I could heavy push after just few laps. Unfortunately I slid, without physical consequences. I rode the spare machine but I could not be forceful enough. I feel confident, I really would like to run the Superpole on the circuit which I consider my home-track. I will face the tomorrow qualifying with that goal, focusing the fine-tune for the race on the afternoon”. More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: CHASING SET-UP, NOT LAP TIMES. Troy spent the first day at Monza concentrating on finding a good bike set-up instead of chasing fast lap times and so was not concerned about being fifteenth quickest in the timed qualifying this afternoon. Also, the team were keeping fresher engines for tomorrow and raceday, which explained why Troy’s bike’s top speed was well down on the top runners. Fastest today is German Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) who was over three tenths of a second faster than his nearest rival, Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Third is Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), with Makoto Tamada (Kawasaki) fourth. Troy – 15th, 1:47.232 Basically we spent the day trying to get a good set-up and didn’t bother chasing fast times. Also, we used race tyres and we were quite pleased with their performance after 18 laps or so. I’m sure most of the other guys used softer tyres to get their fast times, but we decided to go down a different route today. My bike didn’t feel so fast, but I think that’s because we were using old engines today, so we should be in better shape when we put in the fresher engines. I had some small problems today with braking and also with the set-up being a bit too soft in the rear. The telemetry showed that and we’ll make the changes for tomorrow and I think there’ll be a considerable improvement.