Silverstone (UK), Saturday 31st July : Ducati Xerox rider Michel Fabrizio was more than satisfied with today’s Superpole result at Silverstone when, despite some very stiff competition from several riders, particularly the British contingent, he closed the session with the third fastest time, ensuring himself of a front row start for tomorrow’s races, alongside Cal Crutchlow, Jonathan Rea and Jakub Smrz.
Rain overnight meant that this morning’s second qualifying took place on a still damp track. Despite their best efforts, the Superbike riders were largely unable to improve on yesterday’s best times, with only two riders managing to go any faster. Noriyuki and Michel made good use of the 45-minute session, making small but all-important set-up refinements but, with the outcome conditioned by the damp track surface, results had not changed by the close of play, Fabrizio thus closing fifth and Haga twelfth, based on yesterday’s lap times.
Superpole 1: both factory riders opted for race tyres in this first fourteen-minute phase and neither Michel nor Nori needed to make a second exit, having done enough to progress safely to the second stage, Fabrizio closing in second and Haga in twelfth.
Superpole 2: this time the Ducati Xerox pair went out on qualifiers but after a first exit that left them in sixth (Michel) and fifteenth (Haga) both returned to the track on soft rear race tyres. The Italian rider ducked under 2m05 for the first time this weekend, recording a fastest lap of 2m04.6 and finishing this session in third position. His team mate Noriyuki had more difficulty and, citing grip problems, closed this phase, and today, in fifteenth place.
Superpole 3: given the outcome of the previous session, Fabrizio selected the soft race tyre once more for this final phase, and registering a best time of 2m05.0 to ensure himself of a place on the front row of tomorrow’s grid, third behind the British duo of Rea (Honda) and Crutchlow (Yamaha).
Michel Fabrizio
“I’m really happy with today’s result and I dedicate it to my team who have been working so hard this weekend. I love this new track and after the second session yesterday I felt confident that I’d be able to qualify on the front row today. Superpole went very well; I chose to use a race tyre in the last phase because the first qualifier I’d used earlier hadn’t given me a great feeling, and my choice proved to be a good one. We have a good race pace I think, though Cal is faster, and I must say I’m feeling quite confident ahead of tomorrow’s races.”
Noriyuki Haga
“Unfortunately I continued to have some problems today and the difficulty I was having in turning the bike as I want haven’t yet been resolved. I hoped that with the qualifier we could have done better but that wasn’t the case today and I’m back on the fourth row. There are many strong riders here, including the Brits, and the races are going to be really tough. We’ll see what we are able to achieve.”
TIMES (Superpole): 1. Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2m04.0; 2. Rea (Honda) 2m04.7; 3. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 2m05.0; 4. Smrz (Ducati) 2m05.1; 5. Haslam (Suzuki) 2m05.5; 6. Biaggi (Aprilia) 2m05.6; 7. Corser (BMW) 2m05.7; 8. Xaus (BMW)2m06.7… 15. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 2m06.4
