Archive - May 2009 - Race Or Practice Result

Superpole results:

Xerox Ducati's Michel Fabrizio made it four sessions out of four during the second free practice session. Ben Spies stood atop the timesheets for most of the session, looking like he might finally break Fabrizio's hegemony, but the Italian put in a flying lap with just a couple of minutes to go to reaffirm his authority. Spies ended the session in 2nd spot, ahead of Ryuichi Kiyonari and Noriyuki Haga.

Results of World Superbikes FP2 session at Monza:

World Supersport Qualifying Practice results and summary:

Michel Fabrizio continued his reign of terror at Monza, the Italian setting out his intentions in no uncertain manner. The Ducati man has topped all three sessions so far, and there are few challengers to stop him. The morning qualifying saw Max Neukirchner finish 2nd fastest, ahead of Johnny Rea on the Ten Kate Honda, Rea finally looking like a contender again.

Fabrizio's team mate and championship leader Noriyuki Haga was 4th quickest in the second qualifying session, ahead of Max Biaggi on the Aprilia and Yamaha's Ben Spies. The final grid will be settled during this afternoon's Superpole sessions.

Combined World Superbike qualifying result from QP1 and QP2, riders in bold go through to Superpole:

Cal Crutchlow continued to impose his will on the World Supersport field at Monza, leading the second session of free practice by half a second. Yamaha team mate Fabien Foret was 2nd fastest, ahead of the rapidly improving Mark Aitchison in 3rd. Joan Lascorz was again near the front in 4th, while Eugene Laverty made a serious improvement in his lap times to vault up to 5th spot, from 11th yesterday afternoon. The grid will be settled during qualifying this afternoon.

Results of World Supersport FP2 at Monza:

Michel Fabrizio was once again fastest during the first official qualifying practice at Monza this afternoon. But unlike in free practice earlier today, Fabrizio's hegemony went completely unchallenged. Fabrizio was up to half a second faster than his nearest rivals for most of the session, only surrendering a couple of tenths towards the end. Fabrizio is in sparkling form at Monza, and with an advantage of over 0.3 seconds over the 2nd place man, is very much the rider to beat at Monza.

Xerox Ducati team mate Noriyuki Haga was the nearest rider until the final few minutes, when British Yamaha rider Tom Sykes jumped in to take second place. Sykes has been in the shadow of his team mate so far this season, but the cheery Brit took a big step out forward at Monza, consistently near the top of the timesheets. Sykes' fast lap pushed Haga down into 3rd, just 3/100ths off Sykes' time.

The Hondas had been mostly invisible throughout qualifying, until Johnny Rea put in a fast lap in the dying seconds of the session to take 4th place. Rea's position was at the expense of the two Suzukis, Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama forced down to 5th and 6th, though both the German and the Japanese rider had been fast earlier in the session.

Ben Spies finished uncharacteristically far down the field, only managing to set the 7th fastest time on his Yamaha Motor Italia YZF-R1. But given the tiny difference between 4th and 9th, Spies could have been further forward or further back if he had been just a couple of hundredths faster or slower. Spies did finish ahead of Max Biaggi, which will have disappointed the Italian veteran. Leon Haslam, the man who has been the fastest Honda rider so far this year, could only manage the 12th quickest time, while the privateer Ducatis are pretty far down the field, Shane Byrne the first of them in 10th, and Jakub Smrz just managing 13th.

Cal Crutchlow was the quickest rider out of the traps in the first session of free practice at Monza this afternoon on his very first race at the circuit. Crutchlow took a while to learn the track, but was up into the top three by halfway through the session, and taking 1st with 20 minutes to go. Crutchlow shared first place with Fabien Foret, and Joan Lascorz for the second half of FP1, before setting his fastest lap on his last lap around the track.

Kawasaki's Joan Lascorz ended the session 2nd fastest, ahead of the surprising Mark Aitchison on the Althea Honda. Aitchison has been making quiet progress this season, and is now starting to get himself noticed. Crutchlow's team mate Fabien Foret finished the session in 4th spot. Biggest surprise of the session was the local boy Danilo Dell'Omo, who is normally lucky to get inside the top 15, but the Italian was near the top of the timesheets all afternoon, finally ending up in 6th spot.

The Ten Kate riders finished best of the pre-race favorites, but Andrew Pitt and Kenan Sofuoglu could only managed the 8th and 9th times, while Eugene Laverty was 11th fastest on his debut at Monza. Ant West, on the podium here in his first ever Supersport race two years ago, had a miserable start to the weekend, ending up 21st in the standings.

Full result of the World Supersport FP1 session at Monza:

Michel Fabrizio finished top of the timesheets in the first session of Free Practice at Monza for the World Superbike class. Fabrizio and Ben Spies swapped places for the lead throughout the session, both men much faster than the rest for most of practice, but Fabrizio pulled a gap that proved to be unbridgable with 8 minutes of the session left.

The Yamahas are clearly working well at Monza, as Spies' team mate Tom Sykes took 3rd spot, just behind his team mate, with the Suzukis of Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama next in 4th and 5th. Noriyuki Haga was 6th fastest in the session, making it three teams sharing the top 6 spots.

Full results of World Superbikes FP1 session at Monza:

The second race of the Red Bull Rookies cup turned up more close racing. Sturla Fagerhaug looked like he had the race in the bag until the last lap, when Danny Kent dived inside in the final turn and held the line to take the win. Japanese rider Daijiro Hiura came home in third.

Results:

Result and summary of the Jerez MotoGP Race:

Results and report of the 250cc race at Jerez:

Results and summary of the 125cc race at Jerez: 

Results of the warm up session at Jerez for the MotoGP class:

Results of the warm up session for the 250cc class at Jerez:

Results of the warm up session for the 125cc class at Jerez: