FIM Superbike World Championship Phillip Island Melbourne, Victoria, Australia February 27, 2009 Qualifying Practice One Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Jakub Smrz (Duc 1098R), 1:32.312 2. Noriyuki Haga (Duc 1098 F09), 1:32.569 3. Leon Haslam (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:32.623 4. Max Neukirchner (Suz GSX-R1000K9), 1:32.673 5. Yukio Kagayama (Suz GSX-R1000K9), 1:32.704 6. Shinya Nakano (Apr RSV4), 1:32.928 7. Michel Fabrizio (Duc 1098R), 1:32.932 8. Ben Spies (Yam YZF-R1), 1:32.939 9. Tom Sykes (Yam YZF-R1), 1:32.971 10. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:32.991 11. Max Biaggi (Apr RSV4), 1:32.995 12. Regis Laconi (Duc 1098 RS09), 1:33.202 13. Roberto Rolfo (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.206 14. Carlos Checa (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.224 15. Shane Byrne (Duc 1098R), 1:33.317 16. Troy Corser (BMW S1000 RR), 1:33.377 17. Jonathan Rea (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:33.418 18. Makoto Tamada (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:33.709 19. Broc Parkes (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:33.911 20. Ruben Xaus (BMW S1000 RR), 1:34.080 21. Tommy Hill (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:34.123 22. David Salom (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:34.487 23. Brendan Roberts (Duc 1098R), 1:35.123 24. Karl Muggeridge (Suz GSX-R1000K9), 1:35.716 25. Luca Scassa (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:35.759 26. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:36.103 27. M. Baiocco (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:36.514 28. Ayrton Badovini (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:37.127 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Ten Kate Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari sits in the provisional top ten after today’s opening qualifying session in the first round of the 2009 World Superbike championship in Australia. Running in Honda Accessories colours for the 2009 season, the Japanese ace spent much of the hour-long session near the top of the timing sheets but concentrated on race set-up in the expectation of cooler weather over the rest of the weekend. In hot and breezy conditions, Kiyonari’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mates, Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea, ended the session in 14th and 17th positions respectively at the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit. Ryuichi Kiyonari P10, 1′ 32.991s I had a crash this morning after a silly mistake with my gear shift but a small change for this afternoon’s session improved the bike some. The temperature was much higher this afternoon and I found it quite hard to adapt my riding style to the different levels of grip. However, we have a pretty good base set-up for different conditions tomorrow. Carlos Checa P14, 1’33.224s My shoulder is quite uncomfortable after the crash last weekend but I took some anti-inflammatory medication and I was able to ride quite close to the limit this afternoon. The shoulder will be OK for Sunday, but we’re not sure about the conditions and race tyre. We know that the race will be quite hard to manage after six or seven laps and, last year, the two races were run at completely different paces, so it’s difficult to tell! Jonathan Rea P17, 1’33.418s We lost a bit of time with technical problems on both my bikes this morning and then, this afternoon, I found it difficult to get one clear lap for a good time. However, I did manage to put a full, 22-lap race simulation together, so we know where we are on that. We’ll give it another go tomorrow and should be able to get a bit higher. Ronald ten Kate team manager Well, it wasn’t a great start to the weekend in this morning’s free practice with Kiyo crashing, Jonathan having some technical issues and Carlos suffering from his sore shoulder. This afternoon, the problems reduced a little and, because we expect conditions for tomorrow’s qualifying to be quite different, we focused mainly on race set-ups, in which we are feeling quite confident. More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group/InFront Motor Sports: Smrz powers to the front in Phillip Island Friday qualifying Jakub Smrz powered to the top of the timesheets in first qualifying for the Australian Round of the 2009 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island. The 25 year-old Czech rider was quickest around the spectacular 4.445 km circuit with a time of 1 minute 32.312 seconds on a ‘customer’ Guandalini Ducati, a fraction ahead of Noriyuki Haga, replacement for world champion Troy Bayliss in the factory Ducati Xerox team. An excellent third place was notched up by Britain’s Leon Haslam on a private Stiggy Racing Honda, while the Suzuki Alstare pairing of Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama looked strong in fourth and fifth. “For me, Phillip Island is almost the best circuit in the world. It is easy for me to make a good lap here. The bike is a good bike and 95% similar to last year’s so I have been able to get on the pace very quickly. For sure, I have a lot of confidence with the tyre, even in these hot conditions,” said Smrz. The starting grid for Sunday’s two races will be assigned tomorrow with the new Superpole ‘knock-out’ formula for the top 20 qualified riders over three 12-minute sessions. The first day of the 2009 campaign, which will see 14 rounds held in 5 continents, took place in ideal weather conditions, with air/track temperatures of 33°/55°C at the start of Q1. In the cooler conditions of the morning’s free practice session (25°/35°C), the quickest time was set by Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) in 1’32″752. The afternoon session saw the Suzukis move to the front, while Spies finished in eighth place, behind Shinya Nakano, making his WSB debut for Aprilia, and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox). Max Biaggi’s eleventh place doesn’t reflect the true potential of the Italian rider as his time was set on used tyres to simulate a race distance. As well as the return of Aprilia after seven years, today saw the first day of true championship activity for BMW in its debut season in Superbike. The German manufacturer finished the day in sixteenth position with Troy Corser and in twentieth with Ruben Xaus, but with the Australian just over a second off the pace of the provisional polesitter, the result is encouraging. Today’s first qualifying session saw the top 14 riders separated by just under a second, with less than two between Smrz and Tommy Hill (Honda Althea), twenty-first on the provisional grid. The first fallers of the new season were David Salom (Kawasaki Pedercini) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda) in the morning session, with Luca Scassa (Kawasaki Pedercini), Corser and Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) all going down in qualifying, but without any serious consequences. Times: 1. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1’32.312; 2. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1’32.569; 3. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’32.623; 4. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’32.673; 5. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’32.704; 6. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 1’32.928; 7. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’32.932; 8. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’32.939; 9. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1’32.971; 10. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1’32.991; 11. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1’32.995; 12. Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098 RS 09 1’33.202; 13. Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’33.206; 14. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’33.224; 15. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1’33.317; 16. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’33.377; FIM Supersport World Championship The Supersport runners also got their 2009 campaign underway, with little change from the previous years as Hannspree Ten Kate Honda set the early pace. Quickest time of the day went to reigning champion Andrew Pitt, who powered to an impressive 1 minute 34.833 seconds; the other champion within the Dutch team’s ranks, Kenan Sofuoglu, was just 0.006 seconds behind. The provisional front row is completed by Frenchman Fabien Foret on the first Yamaha, and evergreen Australian Garry McCoy, who looked impressive on his home track with the three-cylinder Triumph. Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda), McCoy e Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Czech Honda) all had crashes today. Times: 1. Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’34.833; 2. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’34.895; 3. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’35.063; 4. McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 1’35.431; 5. Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’35.469; 6. Aitchison M. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.589; 7. West A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’35.641; 8. Nannelli G. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 1’35.644. More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsport: LAP TIMES CLOSE ON DAY ONE BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus ended the first day of qualifying at Phillip Island with the sixteenth and twentieth fastest times respectively. But lap times are very close and Troy was only a second slower then today’s quickest rider, Jakob Smrz (Ducati), with Ruben just seven tenths of a second further behind. Since the test last weekend, some new parts have arrived for the team to evaluate and the work carried out in this area meant that neither Troy nor Ruben were able to chase any lap times. Troy 1:33.377 Since the test last weekend we received some new parts to try out and today that’s what we did. The new parts affected the way the bike’s chassis worked, so we had to find out what was going, what we had to do and then try and do it. But, I think we did a lot of good work today and definitely got some info and ideas that we can work on tomorrow. Considering what we were doing today, I think that it’s pretty good to be only one second off the pace. All day, I was just working on evaluating the new stuff, improving the bike and not chasing any lap times. I had a little tip-off this afternoon when I lost the front end in Honda corner, but it was a very slow speed crash and I didn’t hurt myself at all. Ruben 1: 34.080 It’s going good here and we were able to solve some problems we didn’t get round to solving last week. This morning was not so easy, but we made some changes to the bike and the afternoon was better. We are trying to get both my bikes set up well for the race, but one bike is working better than the other one and so we have some work to do. I know that this is the first day of a race weekend and there is a lot to do, but I know that we are improving every time out and as long as we do that, I think we are all happy. Rainer Baeumel (Team manager) In some ways today was a little frustrating because we had some new parts to try out and I guess it was necessary to go a bit backwards before going forwards again. The riders had to work with a lot of new stuff, but I’m happy because they did this very well and gave the team lots of information. I am sure that we will improve and improve. We have some ideas about what to do and now we are all eagerly waiting in anticipation to see how it all goes tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: The opening day of the first round of this year’s Superbike World Championship showed that the season ahead is going to be probably the most competitive in its 22-year history. Just one second separated the top 15 riders at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session and Team Suzuki Alstare riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama were well on the pace, finishing with the fourth and fifth fastest lap times respectively. Jakob Smrz (Ducati) finished on the top of the standings today, with a lap of 1:32.312. Second is Noriyuki Haga (Ducati), with Leon Haslam (Honda) third. Max Neukirchner – 1:32.673: “My general feeling is that the afternoon went much better than the morning. We worked hard in the morning, but we didn’t seem to make much improvement. In the afternoon we made some changes to the rear suspension and the bike improved. For me the grip level was better last weekend, but I am sure it will get better over the next two days.” Yukio Kagayama – 1:32.704: “This afternoon it was not so good for me because I felt that the grip level was down compared to the morning, but that was probably because the track temperature was much higher. We started off with the settings from the test last weekend and just tried to fine tune the bike for the race on Sunday. We had some small gearbox problems this morning but solved them in the afternoon session. I think that the track temperature may have a significant effect on how the bikes behave and for me, it would be better if it would not be so hot on Sunday as it was this afternoon.” More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: PROVISIONAL PLACES ON THE FRONT ROWS FOR NORIYUKI HAGA AND MICHEL FABRIZIO (DUCATI XEROX) Phillip Island (Australia), Friday 27th February: the World Superbike riders completed the first qualifying session of the 2009 season this afternoon at Phillip Island in hot and humid conditions, with track temperatures in the low forties. Both Ducati Xerox factory riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio registered consistently fast laps on their Ducati 1198 machines throughout the day, to conclude today’s proceedings in second and seventh place respectively. The only really difficulty faced by the riders in red was tyre-wear due to the elevated temperatures in the afternoon. As expected there were many fast riders on track today with the first eleven lapping in under 1m33s, despite the conditions. The Ducati Xerox squad declared that a very positive start has been made here today although Noriyuki, Michel and their teams hope for slightly cooler temperatures for the second qualifying session of tomorrow morning and for Sunday’s races too. Noriyuki Haga 1m32.5s “This morning we checked that everything was still ok after the tests and we modified one bike slightly, with good results. This afternoon I completed a long run of about fifteen laps but the tyres were a problem as they began to wear after a while because of course it was very hot. Having said that, the feeling I have with the bike is very good and so far I’m happy with my performance and with the bike’s setting. We hope it will be cooler tomorrow and on Sunday and I should be able to improve on my qualifying times but I think that on Sunday everything will depend on the temperature, the weather and on the tyres”¦” Michel Fabrizio 1m32.9s “We tried the race tyre and set-up today and I would say that we are up to race pace. I went quite well on the same tyre that Nori was using and didn’t have too much difficulty but, having said that, I didn’t complete a long-run as he did and so I can’t predict the tyre-wear if it were to be this hot for Sunday’s races. Tomorrow morning should be cooler and so in the second qualifying I want to be faster. I still have tyres at my disposition and so I’m feeling quite confident about being able to achieve that goal in the morning.” More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist: JUST A SECOND! Troy Corser ended the first day of qualifying at Phillip Island with the sixteenth fastest lap time, but is only a second or so off slower then today’s quickest rider – Jakob Smrz (Ducati). Since the test last weekend, Troy and the team have received some new parts for the team to evaluate and Troy spent the day working with the new material instead of chasing lap times. Considering all the work that had to be done, Troy ended the day happy to be so close to the leaders. Troy 1:33.377 Since the test last weekend we received some new parts to try out and so we spent today trying out various stuff instead of trying to set any quick lap times. I cruised around working with the new stuff (to do with the engine and clutch) and gave the boys back in the garage lots of info to work on. It was all productive and, at the end of the day, there was plenty for the engineers to think about and get ready for tomorrow. This afternoon I had a very slow speed crash when I lost the front end at Honda corner, but it was so slow that I didn’t hurt myself at all. We are a brand new team,with a brand new bike, in probably the toughest motorsport race series in the world, so to get to this stage with the bike is very impressive I think. Now we have to continue the hard work and make as much progress as possible in the shortest possible time. More, from a press release issued by Sterilgarda Team: Day 1 of the WSBK’09 has been employed by team Sterilgarda to work on Shane Byrne’s bike setting and on his feeling with the track. As a result, the British rider is just one second from the pole position, even though he had only once tested on the Australian circuit. Byrne is confident he can improve his performance. Tomorrow, at the end of the official tests, the stakes will be even higher when the new exciting Superpole starts, an event that fans are looking forward to. SHANE BYRNE | Ducati 1098R | 15th in 1’33.317:: “Day 1 was very useful. The team have done a great job setting the bike and I got to grips with the track. The gap that separates me from the top is not big and I hope to finish close to the top spots. As far as I know, almost all the riders that are in front of me had tested here last week; I hardly remembered this track and I have to say I feel great racing on it, even though I slipped by the end of the lap. We are working very hard and we really hope to get a good result”. MARCO BORCIANI – team manager: “The entire team is focused and eager to score a great result. Shakey understands our team’s mindset and I’m sure he will do great things this season.I got a bit worried towards the end of testing though,when Shane slipped but fortunately nothing serious happened”.