Team Alstare Suzuki rider Michel Fabrizio had a crash at the start of Superpole 1 at the World Superbike 10th round at the Nurburgring; the resulting change in strategy leaving the young Italian chasing lap times on his spare bike.
He managed to recover well and get into Superpole 2, where he was able to use his favourite bike which had been repaired by the mechanics but he was unable to push as hard as he wanted because of chattering, and so failed to get into Superpole 3, ending with 12th position for tomorrow’s grid.
Series leader Carlos Checa (Ducati) took Superpole – his fifth of the season – with Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) second, Max Biaggi (Aprilia) third and Marco Melandri (Yamaha) fourth
Michel Fabrizio – 12th, 1:56.177:
“Obviously I am disappointed how things worked out, because I expected to do much better. Probably the crash in Superpole ruined all our plans and we had to change our programme. I crashed in more or less the same place as yesterday and I am wondering if there is a bump on the track or something like that because both times I went down without any warning. I was unhurt in the crash and able to get my bike back to the pits and then jumped on to my spare bike and continue Superpole 1. I did enough to get into Superpole 2, where I used my number one bike again, because it’s the bike I prefer – even though both bikes are set up more-or-less the same. But my favourite bike was not like it was before the crash and I experienced quite a bit of chatter and so I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to. It’s a shame because I really felt that I could have been on the two front rows of the grid for tomorrow. Now I’ve got to make two good starts and work as hard as I can to have any chance of some good results.”
Final Qualifying & Superpole: 1 Carlos Checa (ESP-Ducati)1:54.144, 2 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha) 1:54.512, 3 Max Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia) 1:54.743, 4 Marco Melandri (ITA-Yamaha) 1:54.818, 5 Noriyuki Haga (JPN-Aprilia) 1:55.113, 6 Tom Sykes (GBR-Kawasaki) 1:55.223. 12 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki) 1:56.177.
