2009 World Superbike Round 2 - Qatar

Photos courtesy Yamaha Racing.  Text sources World Superbike and Yamaha Racing.

Spies Cleans Up With Sensational Double Win in Qatar

March 14, 2009 - Yamaha rider Ben Spies lived up to the hype again in Qatar today, riding an incredible two races to take his second and third consecutive victories in the Losail heat.

Dropping to fifth from the start of the first race, the three-time AMA champion moved up to third position on lap four to tuck in behind race leader Max Biaggi and second placed rider Noriyuki Haga for most of the race.

The super-calm Texan waited for his moment six laps from the end to make his move.  As Haga moved out to look up the inside of Biaggi, Spies took the opportunity and passed him on the inside, before taking Biaggi on the next corner as the Italian race leader ran wide.

From the moment he took the lead Spies win was never in doubt as he cleanly pulled away from the battle for second.  Spies' team-mate Tom Sykes had a frustrating start, dropping several places up to ninth position before fighting his way back through to finish seventh.

Race two saw Spies dominate again, after initially dropping a couple of places from the start line, he moved up behind Haga and Biaggi again before moving out to take the lead on lap seven.

The American superstar then put in a sensational performance of perfect laps, increasing the comfort zone until taking the checkered flag in style, comfortably ahead of second place Haga. S

pies leaves Qatar in second place in the standings, ten points behind Haga in the championship.  Spies also takes the new lap record for the Qatar circuit away with him this weekend.

Tom Sykes got a better start to race two and fought with Yukio Kiyonari and Troy Corser in the opening laps for fifth position.  Fighting behind the leading pack Sykes held his own with an impressive race pace, putting in consistent laps to finish the race in fifth position.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team
"It was an extremely tough first race, I got an ok start and got to the back of Nori and Max after a few laps.  All three of us were strong in different parts of the track so it was really interesting.

It was very hard to pass them both, It was when Nori was looking up the inside of Max, that I had my chance to get inside of him, and then Max ran a bit wide so I got through.  Once I got it done I got my head down and kept it clean, it was good enough to win.

In the second race Nori set a really good pace first for a few laps so I just tried to keep the same rhythm. Eventually I managed to get past and just kept my head down and tried to open up a gap.

It was a hard race, but a better race for me than first one as I could concentrate on riding my lines. Hopefully when we go to Valencia we'll be up there fighting at the front again! A good weekend for the team, they're not always like that but we'll take them when they come."

Circuit Length: 5380
Weather: Hot
Lap Record:: 2' 0.061 (Noriyuki Haga, 01/01/2006)
Fastest Lap Ever:: 1' 57.280 (Ben Spies, 14/03/2009)
Last Year's Winner:: Shuhei Aoyama

---

Yamaha Rookie Ben Spies Takes Incredible Second Consecutive Superpole in Qatar; Sykes Qualifies 5thhh

The second day of qualifying for round two of the 2009 Superbike World Championship again saw the new Yamaha YZF-R1 set the pace in qualifying and Superpole.

Topping the rankings already in the morning session, Ben Spies took his second ever World Superbike Superpole later today with a flawless run and a time of 1"57.280, improving the Losail WSB lap record by almost 0.8 seconds.

This adds to his pace-setting achievement at Phillip Island two weeks ago. Team-mate Tom Sykes proved he had the speed as well to run with the front pack today, fighting down to the final eight Superpole session and setting a 5th time of 1"57.878 which puts him on the second row of the grid when the lights go out tomorrow.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team
"it's been a good day again today, the most important thing is being on the front row with this many fast guys.  The Qualifiers were definitely quicker than I thought they were going to be and we made it through with a good time at the end.  The race pace is looking really promising although I know it's going to be a really hard race tomorrow as everybody's riding really fast and catching up so it's going to be good!"

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team
"To be honest I was reasonably happy with the qualifying, I certainly felt like I could have been on the front row but made a small mistake so dropped to the second.

I'm happy on the race tires and I think both myself and Ben have a consistent race pace so if we can get away cleanly tomorrow I think it'll show at the end of the race.

Other than that I'm happier with where we're starting compared to Phillip Island and really looking forward to getting off the line quickly and racing with the front pack tomorrow."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
"we had another good day today, we found a race tire we're happy with and the pace of both riders is very good.  I'm confident we are ready for tomorrow although we will do more adjustments and possibly try a few things tomorrow morning to see if we can find an even better set-up before the first race. 

My compliments to Ben for achieving his second Superpole in a row and it's great that Tom has moved up to start on the second row as well."

Note:  For informational use only.  All material and photographs are Copyright © webWorld International, LLC - 2000-2009.  All rights reserved.  See the webBikeWorld® Site Info page.  NOTE:  Product specifications, features and details may change or differ from our descriptions.  Always check before purchasing.  Read the Terms and Conditions!

Please send comments to
Comments are ordered from most recent to oldest.
Not all comments will be posted.  Posted comments may be edited.

---

 wBW Home  |  Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy  |  Site Info - Contact Info  |