2009 World Superbike Round 6 - Kyalami, South Africa

Photo and text sources include Ducati Corse, World Superbike and Yamaha Racing.

Double 1-2 for Haga and Fabrizio

A dream finish to the Kyalami weekend for the Ducati Xerox Team, with Haga scoring a double win in today’s races followed across the line by team-mate Michel Fabrizio.

The two Ducati Xerox riders on their 1198 machines got away to a cracking start in the first race and held first and second place for almost the entire race distance.

For the first eleven laps it was Michel in the lead just ahead of Noriyuki and Ben Spies, until the Italian made a very small error and gave his team-mate Noriyuki Haga the opportunity to pass.

Lap by lap, Haga then gradually built up a gap, leaving Michel and Spies to battle it out for second.  Michel, the most consistently fast rider in the practice and qualifying sessions, finished a worthy second and also recorded the fastest lap of the race in the process with a 1m38.548.

In Race 2, Haga again took off from the start line and led the 24-lap race from the offset. Michel meanwhile had to contend with Rea and then Spies in the opening laps before Spies suffered a technical failure, allowing the Italian to move into second position.

The two Ducati Xerox riders then continued to increase their lead over the chasing pack, consisting of Rea, Haslam and Biaggi, who battled it out between themselves but were unable to make up what was by the end of the race an 8 second gap.

Haga took the win as well as the fastest lap of this second race (1m38.577) just a fraction of a second off Fabrizio’s fastest lap in Race 1.

Noriyuki’s arm injury, sustained last week in Monza’s second race, did not prove to be a problem at Kyalami today.

Today’s points boost moves Fabrizio up into second place in the classification, 85 points behind championship leader Haga (now holding 250 points) and 3 ahead of third-placed rider Spies.  Ducati now holds 275 points in the constructors classification, leading the championship by 72 points over Yamaha.

Noriyuki Haga (Race 1 – winner, Race 2 - winner):  “In the first race, having had some suspension problems during Friday and Saturday, I have to say I didn’t expect to be able to keep pace with Michel and Ben.

But I made a good start and tried to stick with Michel and then when he appeared to have a small problem, I made my move.  My arm was not a problem at all during the racing.

I must say I was very glad to see there are less birds here at Kyalami than at Monza!  In Race 2 we made a small change to the setting of my bike and I felt more comfortable on it but I knew that Michel was close behind me and in the last laps my braking was suffering, so I had to hold on and am very happy to take another 50 points away with me today and again increase my advantage in the standings.”

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Spies on Fire: Equals Superpole Record!

Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies erased any doubts anyone had of his abilities today as he equaled the all time consecutive Superpole record set in 1991 by fellow Texan Doug Polen.

Spies had spent the earlier qualifying session and subsequent free practice sessions perfecting the set-up of the 2009 R1 in time for the Superpole heats.

He came out strongly from the start and was looking fast from the word go.  Saving his qualifiers for the last session, he put in an incredible 1.37.423 to go onto provisional pole with his first of the two super-sticky tires.

As the session drew to a close it looked like Fabrizio was going to snatch the pole from him, putting in a super quick 1.37.289, only for the American rocket to cross the line a few seconds later 0.001 seconds faster, taking his sixth consecutive pole position start and his rightful place at the front of the grid.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team, (1st, 1'37.288):  "It was a good Superpole session, we got down to some fast times on race tires in the first two heats which was great.

It wasn't perfect at the end, I didn't feel I used the qualifiers as well as I could have, they were so grippy I didn't take full advantage of them.  The bike is working really well but we need to find a bit more for the race so we're now going to concentrate on tomorrow.

Michel Fabrizio has been riding well all weekend, I think the Ducatis will be up front and it's going to be a tough race.  It's a long one and everyone will be sliding around at the end so it should be a great one to watch."

Michel Fabrizio Misses Pole by 0.001" at Kyalami

Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), fastest again on board his Ducati 1198 in second qualifying this morning, was robbed of his first pole position by an incredible thousandth of a second this afternoon at Kyalami.

In a thrilling edition of Superpole, Michel looked like he would reign supreme, ahead of the pack in the final minute, but then in the final seconds Yamaha man Spies lapped a fraction of a second faster than the Italian to take his sixth consecutive pole of the season.

Noriyuki Haga, having qualified for today’s Superpole in eleventh place, picked up the pace on qualifying tires to snatch fourth and a precious front row place alongside Michel, in second, and Biaggi, in third, for tomorrow’s races.

In the morning’s qualifying session, despite not improving on his fastest time of yesterday, Italian rider Michel Fabrizio was once again the fastest rider on track and was also the most consistent, putting together a string of laps in under 1m 39s to qualify for Superpole in first position.

Hot on his heels this morning was the British Superbike contingent with Haslam, Rea and Sykes qualifying in second, third and fourth for the afternoon’s Superpole.  Noriyuki Haga qualified safely for Superpole but in eleventh place, having spent time making further modifications to identify a more advantageous setting to try during tomorrow’s warm-up.

Michel Fabrizio 1m37.2s:  "I thought I’d done it today, I really thought I’d got my first Superbike pole, but it wasn’t to be and Ben beat me by just a thousandth of a second.

I am very happy with my performance today but of course it’s a pity I missed out on the pole by such a fraction.  We have a good race pace and I’ve been really consistent with my lap times up until now, so I hope that me, and Nori too, can be up there fighting at the front for the wins here tomorrow.

I really enjoyed the racing at Monza last week and I know that this great track will be the setting for two similarly exciting races tomorrow.”

Noriyuki Haga 1m37.5s:  "We’ve spent the day trying to solve the same issues that we suffered from yesterday, as the bike is still causing me problems on the uneven track surface.

We still have more work to do in order to be competitive for the races.  I managed to do some good laps in Superpole but these were on a qualifier of course which is totally different.

Anyway overall I am happy to be on the front row and I hope my arm doesn’t hinder my performance too much over race distance.”

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