Team Alstare Suzuki rider Michel Fabrizio just missed out on a top-10 finish on the first day of World Superbike Championship Qualifying at Monza in Italy today despite a small crash in the first session.
He spent the two sessions working on his GSX-R1000’s set-up and also tried some new Ohlins forks, so didn’t push hard on the unfamiliar material. Whereas many of his rivals used slipstreaming to set their fastest laps, Fabrizio’s lap of 1:43.762 was completed without any assistance.
Leon Haslam (BMW) posted the quickest lap with a time of 1:42.934. Second is Max Biaggi (Aprilia) with Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) third and Ayrton Badovini (BMW) fourth.
Michel Fabrizio – 11th, 1:43.762:
“I am not happy, but I am not unhappy with how things went today. The first chicane’s profile has changed and now we enter and exit it much faster than before. Because of that, we have to find new braking points for the entrance. When I crashed this morning, it was because I was going about six kilometres per hour faster than my previous lap and just lost the front end going in. I didn’t hurt myself at all, and the damage to the bike was mainly cosmetic – fairing, handlebars and footpegs, so there wasn’t too much work for my mechanics.
“This afternoon, we tried some new Ohlins forks and at the end my feeling about them is so-so: I need more time to understand them and get comfortable but, at the moment, I can’t say if they are better or not. Tomorrow morning we will put the new forks on one bike and the old forks on the other and run back-to-back tests. Then we’ll decide which ones to continue to work with.
“Although I am 11th, the times are pretty close and things will definitely change tomorrow. I am always happy to race in my home country and hope that tomorrow’s Qualifying and Superpole go well and I get on the first two rows of the grid.”
Friday WSB Qualifying: 1 Leon Haslam (GBR-BMW) 1:42.934, 2 Max Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia) 1:42.953, 3 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha) 1:43.265, 4 Ayrton Badovini (ITA-BMW) 1:43.276, 5 Jonathan Rea (GBR-Honda) 1:43.321, 6 Noriyuki Haga (JPN-Aprilia) 1:43.531. 11 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki) 1:43.762.
