FIM Superbike World Championship Nurburgring, Germany September 5, 2009 Final Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires): From Superpole Three: 1. Noriyuki HAGA (Ducati 1098F09), 1:55.489 2. Jonathan REA (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:55.749 3. Leon HASLAM (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:55.776 4. Michel FABRIZIO (Ducati 1098F09), 1:55.927 5. Ben SPIES (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:55.938 6. Troy CORSER (BMW S1000 RR), 1:56.296 7. Max BIAGGI (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:56.440 8. Carlos CHECA (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:56.699 From Superpole Two: 9. Tom SYKES (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:56.406 10. Shane BYRNE (Ducati 1098R), 1:56.663 11. Fonsi NIETO (Ducati 1098R), 1:56.670 12. Makoto TAMADA (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:56.683 13. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:56.901 14. Jakub SMRZ (Ducati 1098R), 1:57.091 15. Broc PARKES (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:57.098 16. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:57.293 From Superpole One: 17. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:57.515 18. Ryuichi KIYONARI (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:57.522 19. John HOPKINS (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:57.523 20. Vittorio IANNUZZO (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:59.279 The Rest of the Grid: 21. Matteo BAIOCCO (Ducati 1098R), 1:58.637 22. Shinya NAKANO (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:58.643 23. David SALOM (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:59.058 24. David CHECA (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:59.467 25. Luca SCASSA (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:59.521 26. Richard COOPER (BMW S1000 RR), 1:59.602 27. Roland RESCH (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 2:02.102 More, from a press release issued by Ben Spies’ publicist: SPIES FIFTH IN QUALIFYING AT NURBURGRING No. 19 will start from the second row on Sunday Nürburg, Germany (Sept. 5, 2009) For the Yamaha ace who is used to starting from the front of the field, Ben Spies will get his first taste of starting from the second row Sunday in the German World Superbike round. Spies, the qualifying leader this season with nine Superpoles, qualified fifth today in Superpole with a time of one minute, 55.938 seconds on the challenging 3.2-mile, 17-turn circuit. That time was just about a half-second off Nori Haga’s pole-winning pace. Spies trails Haga by just seven points in the championship standings coming into Germany. The chase for the title is fully on with Haga showing he’s made a full recovery from injuries suffered earlier this season. While fifth is a sub-par qualifying outing for Spies, he’s happy about the direction things are going after a tough opening day at the Nurburgring. One a wet and cool Friday Spies ended the day in 13th and 2.6 seconds off the top pace turned by Jonathan Rea. Saturday dawned dry and the Yamaha Superbike squad and Spies went to work. He quickly got up to speed turning in the second best time in Saturday’s timed qualifying practice session. But then Spies crashed in free practice, the final session before Superpole, and ran the wrong way back to the pits allowing the team precious few laps to make critical final fine-tuning of the machine before Superpole. “I didn’t do myself or the team any favors by crashing and missing most of that session,” Spies said. “It was just a low-side that threw me in the gravel trap pretty good over in the Dunlop hairpin. The biggest problem is it gave us so few laps in the dry before Superpole that we ran out of time to get the bike right.” Spies ran seventh in the first Superpole session, third in the second session to make the final Superpole cut and ultimately ending the day in fifth in the third and final Superpole session. “We’re making progress, but there’s a bit of an issue with the bike that we have to address,” Spies explained. “Knowing the problem is one thing, getting it corrected is another. It’s been an uphill battle here. The track is not that difficult to learn. Tomorrow’s practice session will be important for use to make final adjustments to be ready for the race, but I’m confident the team will come through and we’ll be competitive come race time.” Things were considerably better off the track for Spies this weekend. It was announced that he has re-signed with Yamaha for two more seasons. “It’s great to be back with Yamaha,” Spies said. “This company has such a strong commitment to racing and giving its riders top-notch equipment. I’m looking forward to the challenge and expecting more good things to come in the future.” In the U.S. both legs of World Superbike from Germany will be shown back to back in primetime starting at 8:00 pm Eastern on SPEED. More, from a press release issued by Infront Motorsports: Haga back to his Samurai best in Superpole at the Nurburgring Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) bounced back to his best form in today’s qualifying sessions at the Nurburgring as he took his first Superpole win of the year and his seventh overall. At a circuit where he scored a brilliant double win last year, the championship leader made up for his recent difficult period with a commanding lap time of 1 minute 55.489 seconds, despite still not being at 100% from his Donington injury. Haga’s lap time came in the final minutes of the third Superpole run, but he was unable to improve on the lap record time of Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare), absent this year due to injury. Haga denied Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) of his maiden pole by just three-tenths of a second, the British rider lining up on the front row ahead of his fellow Honda man Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing), on the front row for the second time this season. Fourth place went to Italian Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), who pushed fellow title-chaser Ben Spies off the front row of the grid by just a whisker. The Texan, who has signed for Yamaha for the next two years, crashed in the afternoon session and didn’t look as incisive in Superpole as he had in previous races. Noriyuki Haga: “It’s been good to get back into things yesterday and today, also I did my best lap in Superpole. The bike is really good for the feeling. I like this track but it’s my first time here with Ducati so this is a good result. I needed a result like this for the championship battle, tomorrow I will just try and do my best.” Jonathan Rea: “I put a pretty good lap in at the start and thought it was enough so I rolled off a bit, but all credit to Nori, that was a really good lap. The bike’s working really well here, I’m glad the guys didn’t fall asleep on holiday during the summer break! We’ve come back with some development parts on the bike. I really love this circuit, but I can sleep solid tonight and look forward to things tomorrow.” Leon Haslam: “We’ve had a tough mid-season and the last race at Brno wasn’t one of the best so to bounce back after the break with a front row start I’ve only had one this year is really good. I’ve really got to grips with this new circuit, which I’ve never been to, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” Michel Fabrizio: “I’m not particularly satisfied with fourth position on the grid. It was a bit difficult because we made some changes to the bike in the afternoon session and were only able to find the right set-up in the second Superpole run. But it’s OK, the others are looking really strong, even the two guys next to me on the grid, so it’ll be a good battle tomorrow.” Troy Corser again notched up a row 2 position on his BMW S1000 RR machine, confirming the German manufacturer’s upward trend, while Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) completed the front two rows. The first Kawasaki, the ZX-10R of Makoto Tamada was on row 3, while Yukio Kagayama placed his Suzuki Alstare BRUX GSX-R1000 on the fourth row. Times: 1. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1’55.489; 2. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’55.749; 3. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’55.776; 4. Fabrizio M. (ITA)Ducati 1098R 1’55.927; 5. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’55.938; 6. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’56.296; 7. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’56.440; 8. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’56.699; 9. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1’56.406; 10. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1’56.663; 11. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1’56.670; 12. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’56.683; 13. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’56.901; 14. Smrz J. (CZE)Ducati 1098R 1’57.091; 15. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’57.098; 16. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’57.293 World Supersport Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) once again powered to the front in Supersport qualifying, this time at a circuit where he has never raced before. The Coventry man utterly dominated the session to take his eighth pole of the year in 11 races with a time of 1 minute 57.866 seconds, a full 1.3 seconds clear of the next runners. Second place went to Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), while the front row was completed by Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda), who had an engine blow-out in the morning run, and Garry McCoy on the improving Triumph 675. His ParkinGo team-mate Gianluca Nannelli was also in eighth place on row 2, behind Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini) in fifth and the Kawasaki Motocard duo of Katsuaki Fujiwara and Joan Lascorz. Italian Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Czech Honda) posted ninth quickest time ahead of the experienced Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) in tenth. Times: 1. Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’57.866; 2. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’59.201; 3. Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 1’59.373; 4. McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 1’59.716; 5. Pirro M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1’59.765; 6. Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’59.779; 7. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’00.103; 8. Nannelli G. (ITA) Triumph Daytona 675 2’00.176 Superstock 1000 A violent downpour marked qualifying for the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, but the rider who managed to get the best out of the conditions was Frenchman Loriz Baz (MRS Yamaha), who bolted on a rear slick in the drying conditions to notch up his first pole in the category. Second was points leader Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox), quickest in the two free practice sessions. The front row is made up of Sylvain Barrier (Garnier Yamaha) and Andrea Antonelli (Yamaha Trasimeno), scoring his best result of the season so far and first Italian in the timesheets. Davide Giugliano (Celani Suzuki) was in sixth behind Austrian Rene Mahr (TKR Suzuki), while the other two title hopefuls Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare BRUX) and Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda) struggled and will start from 13th and 16th place respectively. Times: 1. Baz L. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 2’12.833; 2. Simeon X. (BEL) Ducati 1098R 2’14.283; 3. Barrier S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 2’14.867; 4. Antonelli A. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R1 2’16.218; 5. Mähr R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2’17.434; 6. Giugliano D. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2’17.584; 7. Beretta D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2’17.795; 8. Jezek O. (CZE) Honda CBR1000RR 2’18.901 Superstock 600 Vincent Lonbois’ run of form continues as the MTM Yamaha man followed up his first pole position at Brno with the same result at the Nurburgring. The Belgian’s time came right at the end of the session and he was the only one to dip under 2 minutes 06 seconds. Second place went to Italian Eddi La Marra (Honda Lorini), who qualified ahead of two more Italians, the Yamaha Trasimeno duo of points leader Danilo Petrucci and Marco Bussolotti, while the other two title chasers, Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Yamaha) and Gino Rea (Ten Kate Honda) are on row 2. Times: 1. Lonbois V. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 2’05.924; 2. La Marra E. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 2’06.841; 3. Petrucci D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 2’06.966; 4. Bussolotti M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 2’07.452; 5. Karlsen F. (NOR) Yamaha YZF R6 2’08.441; 6. Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2’08.541; 7. Rea G. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 2’08.655; 8. Guittet B. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 2’08.849 More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two 11th-round World Superbike championship races from the front row of the grid after setting the second fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole session at Nurburgring in Germany. It looked as though Rea might take his first WSBK pole start but Japan’s Noriyuki Haga pipped the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland with his final lap, beating Rea to the top slot by two hundredths of a second. Rea has been running at the top of the timing sheets all weekend but he lost almost 20 minutes of the free practice session just before Superpole. His main bike developed a technical problem and Rea then crashed his spare machine, cutting his left index finger and thumb. However, his technicians were able to repair his number one bike in time for Superpole. His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team mate, Carlos Checa, progressed to Superpole 3 this afternoon and will start from the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s two 20-lap races. Jonathan Rea P2, 1’55.749s (Superpole 3) I put a pretty good lap in at the start of the last Superpole session and thought it would be enough. But all credit to Nori it was a really good lap on a not exactly 100% qualifying tyre. But my package was working really well and I’m glad the guys didn’t go to sleep during the summer break. We’ve come here with some really good development parts for the bike and I can’t thank the boys enough for digging deep. I really love this circuit but didn’t ride so well in the Supersport race here last year but this is a new year and I think our race package is pretty good. I can sleep solidly tonight and really look forward to tomorrow. Carlos Checa P8, 1’56.699s (Superpole 3) We changed a little bit for the last run and I thought I would be able to do a low 56 or even a high 55, but it did not come. I am pretty happy with the race tyre, though and the package is feeling good, even though I am still struggling a little in the first sector. I wasn’t feeling so good today a headache and maybe a little temperature. So we’ll hope for more tomorrow, both from me and the bike. Ronald ten Kate team manager I think we can all be quite happy with the results achieved today. It’s good to see that the work we did during the summer break has paid off. We honestly thought that Jonathan had secured pole position and I think Haga’s lap caught everyone in the paddock by surprise! Anyway, we are quite ready for the races tomorrow with both Jonathan and Carlos strong on race tyres. So hopefully we’ll get some good results to maintain our recent progress. More, from a press release issued by Ten Kate Honda: Ten Kate Honda Racing’s Ryuichi Kiyonari qualified for Superpole after this morning’s qualifying session for tomorrow’s two 11th-round World Superbike championship races at Nurburgring in Germany. However, the Japanese ace was not able to find the right feel with his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade in order to progress beyond Superpole 1 from which the 16 fastest riders proceed to the final two sessions. A disappointed Kiyonari finally qualified 18th fastest on the fifth row for tomorrow’s two 20-lappers at the 5.13km Nurburgring. Pole position was taken by his fellow Japanese Noriyuki Haga with Kiyonari’s Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Jonathan Rea, taking the runner up slot. Ryuichi Kiyonari P18, 1.57.522s I am very disappointed with today’s qualifying sessions and Superpole because yesterday it felt like we were making some good progress with the bike and I had a good feeling in the wet. Today in the dry the feeling was not so good and I’m not so sure what we can do to improve things. But we will look at everything again later to see where we can improve the bike and maybe the rider. Of course, I will try my best in tomorrow’s races and hope for a better result than today. Ronald ten Kate team manager We felt that we were making some good progress with Kiyonari-san’s new suspension set up yesterday, but he appears to have lost some of that good feeling today. I strongly believe that we are still moving forward, however, so the Superpole result today is a real shame. Kiyo is a fighter though, and we all know he will give it his best shot in the races tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by Team Sterilgarda: Sterilgarda rider Shakey Byrne set the tenth fastest time at the end of Superpole today and confirmed himself among the quickest with race setup. His goal for tomorrow’s two races will be to finish in the top 6 although bad weather might influence the round’s outcome. Shakey took full advantage of today’s two sessions and found a good setup. As a result, he did a 12 lap long-run in the afternoon practice. However, he was not as effective with soft tyres as he was with hard ones in the second Superpole round and made a few small mistakes that prevented him from qualifying in the first two rows in Superpole 3. SHANE BYRNE | Ducati 1098R | 10th in 1’56.663: “I’m not happy with the Superpole result but the boys did a brilliant job on the bike. I learned the track in two laps only although this is a new one for me. Unfortunately I made a few small mistakes which also affected my result. I’m confident, nevertheless, I can do well tomorrow, I just hope we’ll either have rain or nice weather”. More, from a press release issued by Aprilia: SUPERPOLE: BIAGGI FINISHES IN SEVENTH PLACE There is no rain for the German Superpole Superbike round but the cold continues at fourteen degrees as well as strong winds over Nurburgring. Haga on the official Ducati takes his first Superpole of the season with a time of 1’55″489 leading Rea’s Honda by 0″260 and the other CBR1000RR ridden by Haslam by 0″287. Seventh for Biaggi with 1’57″722 at 0″951 from the pole. The Roman rider came through the first phase in sixth place on a racing tyre while in Superpole 2 he finished in seventh after having used the first qualifying tyre available to him. Shinya Nakano does not qualify for the Superpole and will start tomorrow from the twenty-second row. The Japanese rider had various difficulties finding the right feeling with his RSV4 on this circuit since he had never ridden on it dry before. In the pre-session Nakano showed some progress, working with a vision toward the race, but obtaining times which were far from the first positions. “We worked very hard – Biaggi said – the bike is very nervous and difficult to manage. The fact that we haven’t ridden it on the dry track certainly didn’t make it easy for us to find the best setting for the RSV4. Now we are going better step by step. The races of tomorrow will be very hard and I have to push harder and harder to get a good result”. “These were very difficult qualifications – Nakano said – I couldn’t find the right feeling with the bike having never ridden here on a dry track. I am very disappointed but now we are working hard for tomorrow and we are doing what’s possible to straighten out the situation”. More, from a press release issued by Stiggy Racing Honda: Stiggy Racing Honda rider Leon Haslam claimed an impressive third place on the second day of qualifying for the eleventh round of the World Superbike Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany today. After he only made his first appearance at the track yesterday, Englishman Leon Haslam quickly found his pace and superbly worked himself through the three 12-minute Superpole shoot-outs today that determine the positions on the grid. He took the number three slot for tomorrow’s two 20-lap races behind fellow countryman and Honda rider Jonathan Rea and current championship leader and pole-sitter Noriyuki Haga. A minor electronic problem reduced valuable time on track for John Hopkins today, and the American rider had to work hard to string a consistent series of fast laps together in the second qualifying practice to enter the Superpole session. He was pushed out of the first shoot-out and will start the German round of the championship from a 19th place at the grid. Hopkins will use Sunday’s 20-minute warm up session to chase the speed he will be needing to compete with the front of the field in the two superbike races around the 5.137km long German track. Leon Haslam – P3 – 1’55.776s: 1C;I am really happy with my results today. I had a very good summer break, and then to come back to the championship and put the machine on the front row is just fantastic. I will be starting from the front row for the first time this season so I am over the moon. I am really looking forward to racing tomorrow. I had a good wet practice on Friday and after today’s results I am feeling really confident I can ride a good race tomorrow.” John Hopkins – P19 – 1’57.523s: 1C;I had some minor technical problems that kept me in the garage a lot. I could not put as many consistent laps as I would have wanted to. Without that consistence it was hard to push for a good lap time. It left us too far behind from where we would like to be. Leon has shown what the bike is capable of and has definitely set the bench mark. I will try to get into a good rhythm in the warm-up sessions and try to get off the line as best as possible to improve the situation we are in now.” Johan Stigefelt – Team Manager: “Today has been a fantastic day for our Superbike team. I am very happy with the qualifying result we achieved here. It is the starting position we have had so far this season. I am glad to see Leon starting from the front row. It’s definitely what we needed after coming back from our summer break. I think it will be an interesting race for Leon tomorrow. John has been dealing with a technical problem all weekend and I think he would have done a lot better, if we had been able to give him a machine that performed consistently. If he gets off the line fast tomorrow, then I am confident that he can ride a good race as well.” More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: NORIYUKI HAGA (DUCATI XEROX) TAKES FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON AT NURBURGRING; FABRIZIO FOURTH Nürburgring (Germany) Saturday 5th September: Noriyuki Haga and his Ducati Xerox squad this afternoon celebrated their first pole of the season at the Nurburgring circuit. Quick in every session so far, the Japanese rider exited for the Superpole with a steely determination, to register the fastest time in each of the three phases. The track temperature was significantly higher (26°C) than it had been in the morning and fortunately for the Superbike riders the all-important Superpole took place in dry conditions. Despite such a long career, this is only the seventh time that Haga has taken the pole and it came at just the right moment, with only four rounds of the championship left to run. After the physical problems he has suffered over the last two months, this result demonstrates that Nitro-Nori is back in shape and ready to fight for the world title. Team-mate Michel Fabrizio is also on the pace this weekend and, despite an error during his fast lap in the final Superpole session, he nevertheless secured a place on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s races, fourth behind the two Hondas of Rea and Haslam. The Superbike riders also escaped rain in the morning’s second qualifying session and so lap times dropped considerably with respect to yesterday. Fourth and fifth at the end of play yesterday, the Ducati Xerox men Michel and Noriyuki today made the progress that both had envisaged, qualifying easily for the afternoon Superpole session. Noriyuki was the fastest rider on track while Michel was two tenths of a second behind in third, Yamaha’s Ben Spies closing in second. Noriyuki Haga 1m55.4s “You can see that I’m back in shape after the holidays and I’m very happy to have taken the pole today. It’s my first pole position with Ducati and it comes just at the right time, as the championship reaches the final stages. I’ve been feeling comfortable on the bike all weekend and this bodes well for tomorrow. I like the track a lot and, having gone well here last year, I’m looking forward to racing.” Michel Fabrizio 1m55.9s “I am fairly happy with the result; it’s just a shame I made a small mistake on the last corner because I think if I had nailed that I could have finished second or third. Anyway the important thing is that I’m starting from the front row and I am more than ready to fight for the win tomorrow. I predict a close battle between us on the Ducatis and the two Hondas.” More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsport: TROY MISSES THE FRONT ROW BY A WHISKER! Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport rider Troy Corser lost his chance of a possible front row grid position when Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) inadvertently got in his way towards the end of the final Superpole. Troy had qualified for Superpole in 19th place, but then stormed his way up through Superpole 1 with the fourth fastest time. In Superpole 2, he surprised everybody by posting the second quickest time and the scene was set for BMW’s first front row of the season. But, in Superpole 3, Troy got baulked by Haga right at the end and the time lost was enough to leave Troy with the sixth fastest lap and a place on row two instead. Troy’s young team mate Richard Cooper failed to qualify for Superpole because of a lack of dry set-up time. After yesterday’s rain-filled sessions, today saw a dry track and Richard had to find a dry set-up right from scratch. But the young Briton ran out of time in the 45-minute qualifying session and was forced to sit out Superpole. Noriyuki Haga took Superpole, his first of the season, with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second, Leon Haslam (Honda) third and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) fourth. Troy – 6th, 1:56.296 Towards the end of Superpole 3, I was really going for it and looking for our first front row of the season. I saw Nori cruising and thought he’d keep off the racing line as I dived into a turn. I was committed and right on the white line when suddenly he drifted across and was in my way. I’m sure that I brushed his leathers as I tried to modify my line and for a while it was a bit of a scary moment. I’m not sure if I would’ve got front row if I didn’t have that moment, but it would’ve been a close thing. But, I’m happy with the bike and feel that the team have made a step up since Brno. Certainly the bike feels like a bike should and the general feel is more consistent. This isn’t a fun track in the wet, so I am hoping that it will be dry tomorrow so that I can fight for good results. Richard – 26th, 1:59.602 I am very disappointed with my position, especially as yesterday had gone so well. The problem was that today was dry, so we had to start with a completely new set-up, try and improve it, then finish in the top twenty – all in 45 minutes! Basically I went faster and faster throughout the qualifying session, but we just ran out of time. If we could’ve had another session, I’m sure I would’ve qualified for Superpole. Certainly I set my quickest lap of the day in the untimed afternoon session, so I know improvement was always on the cards. Today was the first time I’ve ever tried a ‘launch control’ and I thought it was great! From my position on the grid, I’m going to need a good start, so any help is good help. It’s going to be a hard couple of races tomorrow and I will have to try and fight my way through a lot of riders. But, this is a long track, so we’ll see how far up the field we can get in the two twenty-lappers. Rainer Baeumel (Team manager – BMW Motorrad Motorsport) Today has confirmed our results in Brno and shows that we are going in the right direction for sure. I expected Troy’s result today, but I feel sorry for Richard because he only had forty-five minutes this morning to find a good dry set-up and go fast enough to qualify for Superpole. That wasn’t sufficient time, but he continued his improvement in the afternoon untimed session and went quicker anyway. We’re very happy with the job he has done and I believe he’s got the talent to be a top Superbike rider in the future. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: After yesterday’s rainy conditions at the Nurburgring World Superbike 11th round in Germany, today’s sessions took place in the dry, although the wind and cloud cover kept the temperatures well down. Yukio Kagayama, Karl Muggeridge and all the riders had to begin today’s morning qualifying session with a dry set-up for the first time this weekend and while Kagayama could fall back on his and the team’s knowledge, Muggeridge had to start from fresh to find a good set-up and post a top-20 time in just 45 minutes. It was always going to be a tough task, but he rode superbly and managed to set the eighth-quickest time. Unfortunately things didn’t go so well in Superpole 1 and he failed to get into Superpole 2 by just one place. Kagayama did manage to get into Superpole 2, but was unable to advance any further. Yukio Kagayama – 13th, 1:56.901: “As it was dry this morning, we began with the dry set-up from our last race in Brno, but it didn’t work as well as we wanted so we had to start making changes. In the afternoon untimed session we tried some different spring settings to improve the bike, but maybe our direction was not so good because I could not go any faster. “Superpole today was like the rest of the season and although we have tried many different ideas and changed many things this year I don’t think we have solved the problem. It is frustrating for sure, but tomorrow is race day and my job is to race as hard as I can and do my best. This I will do, as usual.” Karl Muggeridge – 17th, 1:57.515: “Basically, we had to start afresh this morning because of the dry conditions and as it was my first time on the bike in the dry we had to do a lot of work in a very short time. So I was quite happy about what we achieved in such a short space of time. “I think that we changed a few too many things in the afternoon session and maybe I put too much pressure on myself in Superpole. I felt unsure about what was happening on the bike. Then it became harder to go faster and so I couldn’t get into Superpole 2. We will consolidate our good findings in the warm-up tomorrow morning and get the bike back into a state where I can ride hard and push for a good result.” Final Superbike Qualifying: 1 Haga (JPN-Ducati) 1:55.489, 2 Rea (GBR-Honda) 1:55.749, 3 Haslam (GBR-Honda) 1:55.776, 4 Fabrizio (ITA-Ducati) 1:55.927, 5 Spies (USA-Yamaha) 1:55.938, 6 Corser (AUS-BMW) 1:56.296. 13 Yukio Kagayama (JPN-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 1:56.901. 17 Karl Muggeridge (AUS-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 1:57.515. SUPERSTOCK 1000 QUALIFYING: Team Suzuki Alstare Brux rider Claudio Corti was unlucky towards the end of final qualifying this afternoon when his rear tyre was too far gone to cope with a drying track. The qualifying session had started in the rain, but the rain later stopped and some parts of the track began to dry out a bit as the end of the session approached. With two laps or so to go, a mostly dry line had appeared, but by then his rear tyre was shot and the Italian was unable to take advantage of the situation. Claudio Corti – 13th, 2:19.519: “It’s a big shame that the track didn’t dry out more quickly because if that had happened I would’ve been much further up the grid. By the time there was a dry line, my rear tyre was gone and I couldn’t go any faster. It was a shame because this morning’s practice was good and we were able to find a good dry set-up. So, if I can make a good start, I think I have a chance of a good result. Whatever happens tomorrow, I am ready for the fight and will battle all the way to the flag.” Final Superstock Qualifying: 1 Baz (F-Yamaha) 2:12.833, 2 Simeon (B-Ducati) 2:14.283, 3 Barrier (F-Yamaha) 2:14.867, 4 Antonelli (I-Yamaha) 2:16.218, 5 Mahr (A-Suzuki) 2:17.434, 6 Giugliano (I-Suzuki) 2:17.584. 13 Claudio Corti (I-Suzuki Alstare Brux) 2:19.519. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Tamada On Row Three After Superpole WSBK, Nürburgring, Germany, 5 September 2009 Makoto Tamada was the top Kawasaki pre-race qualifier at the Nürburgring, earning a start on row three after posting 12th in Superpole qualifying. Broc Parkes had been the leading Ninja ZX-10R rider for the most part in dry practice, but a small fall in Superpole one contributed to him finishing 15th on the grid. In regular qualifying, which determines which riders can go forward to Superpole, Parkes was 10th and Tamada 13th, in what proved to be a dry second session, after Friday’s wet start to the weekend. The simulated race pace of the Kawasaki machines has been encouraging this weekend with recent technical improvements helping the team in the quest to maintain lap times over full race distance. Sunday’s two 20-lap Superbike races are expected to be held in drier conditions than those that have affected many aspects of practice so far, but even if raceday dawns wet, the team has now gained experience of the circuit in all conditions. Broc Parkes: “It wasn’t too bad but unfortunately I dropped the bike on the exit of the first corner in the first Superpole session. It is so slow there that it pretty much just fell over. I went back into the box and when we went back out on a qualifying tyre I didn’t quite have the confidence I wanted. It is OK, but I would have liked to be on the third row. We are still in there and got in the top 16 of Superpole again. Our race set-up is good, we ran almost the whole final untimed session on the same tyre and got 22 laps out of it. Now we have to look towards the race and get a few more things sorted for tomorrow.” Makoto Tamada: “In the last race the machine was much better than the previous rounds and here we have continued to get a good feeling with it. In braking it is very strong and in the faster corners it is good, but in the slower corners we could improve a bit more. The races will be difficult but it is always tough in this class. We have made a tyre choice for this track and starting from row three is not so bad.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Yamaha World Superbike rider Tom Sykes looked immediately at home in familiar weather conditions on the Nurburgring circuit today. Although an issue in the first free practice session meant missing out on some lap time, the British rider made up for it in the afternoon, and despite a small crash he moved quickly up the ranks to finish the first qualifying session in second place, half a second off provisional pole man Jonathan Rea. Team-mate Ben Spies worked to find the right set up today, taking his time to understand how his bike performed in the wet conditions and hunting the perfect combination of bike set up and tyre choice. By the end of qualifying he was confident that the right combination had been found and was looking forward to bringing his lap times down in tomorrow’s second qualifying session and following Superpole. Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (2nd, 2’11.781) “We started off steady this morning, we knew we had a couple of issues to sort out which took some time. We were also struggling for grip to start with but we made changes which worked. I went back out on a new tyre with all the changes in place and unfortunately the tyre wasn’t up to temperature so I lost the back end. I managed to low side it gently and had no damage so got back on and carried on. We had a good gap in the weather so I chipped away at the time. I think maybe we can improve a bit more but I was really impressed with how much grip we were finding.” Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (13th, 2’13.898) “Today went ok, we weren’t as high up in the time sheets as we wanted to be but it’s always hard coming to a track and learning it in the wet when you don’t know how the tarmac works in the rain. We worked on some set up stuff and towards the end of the session we started to get down to some better times than what we had been doing before. By the time we got to a really good set up we realized we had the wrong tyres on at the end of the session, there’s pretty much one set of tyres that are working well in the rain and we weren’t on them. We learnt a lot about the bike in the rain, we’ve found something pretty good so we just need to try some different rubber tomorrow and I’m sure the lap times will start to tumble.” Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager “for sure the conditions we had today are the worst for learning a track. We have to wait for tomorrow’s weather and hope it is better, but still we remain confident. Tom achieved some great results, I think the typical English weather helped him! He’s showed us that he’s always focusing on improving so we’re happy.”