Xerox Ducati's Michel Fabrizio has his sights set on the podium after strong testing performances and a second-fastest time at today's Phillip Island qualifying session.
Heat and grip were the issues of the day at Australia’s Phillip Island as the World Superbike paddock practiced for this weekend’s opening round. Track temperatures reached 51 degrees Celsius and the lack of traction caused by the heat had riders flying off the Australian course.
When it was all said and done, Althea
Ducati’s Carlos Checa weathered conditions the best and posted the fastest lap time of the day at 1’32.155 seconds. Checa continues to show good form on his new ride, backing up his fourth-fastest showing at the final World Superbike test at Phillip Island last weekend with a time-sheet topping performance today.
A fraction off of Checa’s pace was Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio. The Italian rider continues to look impressive early in the season and has to be considered one of the favorites headed into the first race. Fabrizio finished only .007 seconds behind Checa.
Former British Superbike star Leon Haslam posted the third-fastest time of the day. The Alstare
Suzuki rider ran a hot lap of 1’32.373 on race rubber while working hard to get his bike dialed in for Sunday’s races.
“The differing temperatures have given us different challenges, but I’m pretty confident about the bike’s set-up, unless of course it rains and then we’ll all be in trouble. The track felt a bit slippery and greasy today, because of the hotter temperatures, and the wind was a bit of a problem in turns 1 and 2 and sector 4, but it was the same for everybody and we just had to cope with it,” Haslam said.
Cool Carlos rode to the top of the timesheets at Phillip Island today and will be a serious podium contender come Sunday. Checa is looking very comfortable aboard the Ducati.
Shane Byrne provided more promising results for the Althea Ducati team with the fourth-fastest time of the qualifying session. Shakey pushed hard to move up on the timesheet during his final lap but suffered a big highside near the final corners on his last lap.
Ducati Xerox’s Noriyuki Haga grabbed the final spot in the top five. Haga and Fabrizio give the Ducati Xerox team a formidable one-two punch, while Ducati’s snared four out of the top five slots at PI.
The next five positions are more of a mixed bag of manufacturers. Max Biaggi was able to log the sixth-fastest time for the Alitalia
Aprilia team but was among the long list of riders who crashed today. Emperor Max was followed closely by HANNspree Ten Kate
Honda’s Jonathan Rea, with Alstare Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli a mere 0.018 seconds off Rea’s pace.
Pata B&G Racing Ducati’s Jakub Smrz continues to look surprisingly strong, grabbing the ninth position in today’s Phillip Island qualifying session. Smrz finished with the third-fastest time
Max Biaggi all decked out in the new Aprilia Alitalia livery.
during the final round of testing at PI a week ago and continues to be one of the fastest privateers.
The final top ten position went to Yamaha World Superbike’s Cal Crutchlow. All of the top ten riders in today’s qualifying session lapped within 0.833 seconds of one another. Crutchlow’s Yamaha teammate, former World Superbike champion James Toseland, was on the long list of crashers today and finished the session back in 13th place.
2010 WSB Phillip Island Qualifying Results:
1. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1'32.155
2. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1'32.162
3. Leon Haslam (Alstare Suzuki) 1'32.373
4. Shane Byrne (Althea Racing) 1'32.635
5. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1'32.703
6. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) 1'32.850
7. Jonathan Rea (HANNspree Ten Kate) 1'32.884
8. Sylvain Guintoli (Alstare Suzuki) 1'32.902
9. Jakub Smrz (Team PATA B&G Racing) 1'32.905
10. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda) 1'33.038
11. Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) 1'33.296
12. Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing) 1'33.389
13. James Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda) 1'33.422
14. Lorenzo Lanzi (DFX Corse) 1'33.454
15. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing) 1'33.492
16. Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad) 1'33.512
17. Andrew Pitt (Team Reitwagen BMW) 1'33.940
18. Max Neukirchner (HANNspree Ten Kate) 1'33.960
19. Ruben Xaus (BMW Motorrad) 1'33.984
20. Roland Resch (Team Reitwagen BMW) 1'34.065
21. Vittorio Iannuzzo (SCI Honda Garvie Image) 1'34.417
22. Josh Brookes (ECHO CRS Honda) 1'34.663
23. Matteo Baiocco (Team Pedercini) 1'35.892
24. Roger Lee Hayden (Team Pedercini) 1'36.113
Rider's Quotes:
Carlos Checa, Althea Ducati:
“I know what I can do. I have to confirm my time tomorrow but I know that I wish we had the same weather as today for the race. The crash in qualifying was not a problem. Ducati’s work very well at Phillip Island and my pace at the moment is very good. I do not know yet if it is good enough for the race.”
Michel Fabrizio, Xerox Ducati:
“We tried different tire solutions this morning and various small things that my engineer wanted to test. I had a fall, losing the front, but without causing myself, or my bike, too much damage thankfully. Then in the qualifying session we sorted a lot of things out and with the tire solution that may well be the one to choose for the race many riders were able to drop their times. During my fast lap I lost a couple of tenths through the last corner but I’m fairly happy anyway; we’ve worked well and I’m satisfied with the results. We have a good race pace but a lot will depend on Sunday’s weather.”
Noriyuki Haga, Xerox Ducati:
“We’ve tested the different rear tires that Pirelli make available to us this weekend but we are still undecided as to which will have the best durability in these hot conditions. Tomorrow we’ll try a different solution for the setting but overall I’m happy. The lap times have been consistent but today was very hot and although I felt I could have pushed a little more, I didn’t want to risk it, also because I saw that several riders crashed."
Leon Haslam, Alstare Suzuki:
“I am really happy with today because we are well on the way to finding a good set-up for the race on Sunday. We tried all three different tires and now we have good ideas about which one we will use depending on the conditions. I didn’t
Leon Haslam continues to impress aboard the Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000.
even use a soft tire this afternoon and my fastest lap was done on ordinary race rubber.
“The differing temperatures have given us different challenges, but I’m pretty confident about the bike’s set-up, unless of course it rains and then we’ll all be in trouble. The track felt a bit slippery and greasy today, because of the hotter temperatures, and the wind was a bit of a problem in turns 1 and 2 and sector 4, but it was the same for everybody and we just had to cope with it. No problems really today, except that I heard from home this morning that my 19 year-old dog had died. He’s had a good, long life, but he will be missed.”
Sylvain Guintoli, Alstare Suzuki:
“We’ve made a good step forward today - maybe part of it was down to me using my right hand better - and I am really loving riding the bike. We tried many different settings and also did a lot of work on trying to improve the tire life and, like Leon, I did my best lap on normal race rubber.
“At the moment, I am struggling a bit finding problems with the bike and everything is going very well. That’s also down to the hard work put in by the whole team and we are feeling good about our prospects on Sunday. First aim tomorrow morning is getting into Superpole. After that, we’ll see what happens.”
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda:
"I think we've worked hard and got rid of the chatter problem. The 2009 parts that we've used seem to have helped us in that way. The tank and the seat unit seemed to have stopped the chatter now. If you look at our times, although we're not initially fastest straight away we've got consistency across the sessions. We've got some more areas to work on and I'm looking forward to making the bike even better tomorrow. We've got a good direction to work in, it was just a little unfortunate that the track temperature was so hot today. Even so we were still doing the same times as Ben's race pace from last year. Hopefully it will cool off over the next couple of days and work better for us."
James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda:
"Unfortunately had a big crash today coming out of the penultimate corner which didn't help things. I did go back out on the other bike but had a pain in my hand so came in as I wanted to make sure it was ok. We're definitely making improvements, we've just had a lot to do in one day to work through the package. We're only a bit over a second off pole now so we'll focus down and keep moving forward tomorrow."
