Michale Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) stormed to the top slot in the first day of official Superbike group testing at the Autodromo di Imola today. After 265 minutes of heat-sapping track action at the revised Santerno circuit, the young Italian slammed in an impressive time of 1 minute 49.164 seconds in the final seconds to edge Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) off the top slot. Fabrizio is running singleton for the Ducati factory squad at Imola as points leader Noriyuki Haga is scheduled to return at Brno following his recent Donington crash. “On the last lap I put on a new tyre to set my time, one of the development tyres that Pirelli brought along for this extreme heat” declared Fabrizio. “We worked a lot on the set-up, something we’ve never managed to do really well during the championship, and we worked on the traction control to try and get the best out of the engine in view of Brno. I really wanted to prove to Ben that I’m right there with him. There are still five rounds left and I think he realizes that by now!” Right throughout the day the battle had been between Spies and Fabrizio, but they were joined at the end by a group of riders who also set impressive times. Next up was Britain’s Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), just five-tenths down on the front man, while Ruben Xaus (BMW Motorrad) showed great progress for the German squad by powering through into an impressive fourth slot with his quickest time of the day in the closing stages. Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), fastest in the morning, maintained his good form in the afternoon, improving his time to end up fifth. Three Brits took the next three positions, but all were over the 1m50s mark, Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) coming in ahead of Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike) and Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda), while Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati DFX) and Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare BRUX) completed the top ten runners. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare BRUX) eased himself back into the WSB scene with an encouraging 14th position, but there was little joy today for Aprilia Racing, as Shinya Nakano and Max Biaggi could only take their RSV4 machines to 12th and 17th respectively. In the Supersport sessions, Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) proved to be too strong for the opposition on the first day, the Coventry man posting a time that was six-tenths quicker than Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda). Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) hauled himself up to third place, one tenth behind, Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport) also lapped within a second of the leader to finish fourth, just ahead of Mark Aitchison (Honda Althea) in fifth. Wednesday times: 1. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’49.164; 2. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’49.262; 3. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’49.684; 4. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1’49.823; 5. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’49.842; 6. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1’50.305; 7. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1’50.402; 8. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.586; 9. Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’50.797; 10. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’50.861; 11. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.868; 12. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’51.055; 13. Hopkins J. (USA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’51.270; 14. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’51.276; 15. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’51.339; 16. Polita A. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’51.683; 17. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’51.738; 18. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’51.746; 19. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1’51.909; 20. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’52.008; 21. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’52.482; 22. Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’53.535. More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: MICHEL FABRIZIO (DUCATI XEROX) LEADER OF THE PACK ON DAY ONE OF OFFICIAL TESTING AT IMOLA Imola (Italy), Wednesday 15 July: Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), having made steady progress and some very fast laps throughout the day, waited until the final minutes of today’s official test session at the international circuit of Imola to exit for the final time, recording in the process the fastest lap time of the day, 1m49.1s. The Ducati Xerox Team are taking part in the two-day official test session, organized by Infront Motor Sports, that opened today at the squad’s home track, the Autodromo Internazionale of Imola. Having not raced here since 2006, the Superbike circus will return to the circuit for the twelfth round of the 2009 championship on September 27th. Noriyuki Haga, still recuperating from the recent incident at Donington Park, is not riding at Imola this week and continues with intense physiotherapy treatment in order to be ready to get back in the hot seat at next week’s tenth Superbike round in Brno. Michel Fabrizio, who won the Superstock 1000 race at this track in 2003, got off to a great start today and he and his team were able to get a great deal of work done . The extreme heat, with track temperatures of around 60°C during the afternoon session, took its toll but the Ducati Xerox Team made consistent progress, trying different set-ups and working with the traction controls system. During the 265 minutes of Superbike track time, Michel clocked up 52 laps, but it was only in the final minutes of the late afternoon session that times really began to drop, as the temperature began to do the same. Five riders ducked under the 1m50s barrier, but it was Michel who was fastest today, with a best time of 1m49.1s, recorded for the very last lap that he made on track, seconds before the session’s end. Also present at the track, as a guest of Ducati, was Tyson Beckford, the American top model who, having taken part in the Ducati DRE riding course at Misano this morning, wanted to pop in at Imola to say hello to Michel and the Ducati Xerox Team. Michel Fabrizio “I am happy but also pretty tired! Imola’s a track I really like, even though it still needs to be resurfaced. It’s in the same state as it was in 2006, but now has this new chicane which is causing some controversy. If they move the wall back as they say they will in time for the race it will at least lessen the danger. Anyway, back to today. We’ve been able to get a lot of useful work done, trying things that we haven’t had time to look out so far during the season. We’ve worked on set-ups and sorting out the traction control system. We didn’t try Pirelli’s new tyres until the end of the afternoon, and I only had time to try one, but it was the right one evidently as, with the drop in temperature later in the day, I was able to record the fastest time. There are only five races left now so we have to get serious and push harder than ever. The Imola race will be interesting, as we’ve seen a much stronger Honda outfit here today.” Davide Tardozzi “We’re extremely satisfied with Michel’s performance today, he’s worked very hard despite the difficult conditions. We’re sorry Nori could not participate too but right now it’s more important that he gets back in the best possible shape in time for next week’s Brno round. Noriyuki’s race engineer Ernesto Marinelli is here anyway to acquire important data prior to the September race.” TIMES (Day 1): 1. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m49.1s; 2. Spies (Yamaha) 1m49.2s; 3. Rea (Honda) 1m49.6s; 4. Xaus (BMW) 1m49.8s; 5. Checa (Honda) 1m49.8s; 6. Byrne (Ducati) 1m50.3s; 7. Sykes (Yamaha) 1m50.4s; 8. Haslam (Honda) 1m50.5s