VALENCIA – 3rd ROUND - 4th, 5th and 6th APRIL
SUPERPOLE - Valencia, Saturday 5th April 2008
SUZUKI TAKE 1-2 IN THRILLING VALENCIA SUPERPOLE
Suzuki Alstare riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama
finished first and second in today’s thrilling Superpole
session at the Valencia circuit. The young German rider has
been on the pace all weekend and he took his first ever Superpole,
Suzuki’s 16th pole position, with a time of 1m33.805s,
the new outright circuit record. His Suzuki team-mate Yukio
Kagayama was just a fraction of a second behind, the Japanese
rider almost back to full strength after his recent collarbone
injury. Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) was the first rider this
weekend to dip under 1m34s, but he was outpaced in the one-lap
sprint and had to settle for third place.
“This is my first Superpole win and I’m really
happy about that” said Neukirchner. “Unfortunately
I had some small problems in the free practice, but now the
temperature goes a little bit down, my lap was very good.
A big thanks to my team, I think we have a good set-up on
the bike for race tyres and tomorrow I have big hopes of doing
a couple of good races.”
“I watched Troy’s Superpole and he made a great
lap time” declared Kagayama. “It was good motivation
for me then I went out and made a great lap. It wasn’t
a clean lap but I am very happy to be second. Now that my
collarbone trouble is over, it’s not perfect, but for
me it’s a better situation because if it was 100% I
would probably push too hard.”
“Today has been one of the toughest days as far as
things go, with the top 18 covered by one second in qualifying
and it’s very competitive out there” commented
Bayliss. “We’re pretty happy with the Superpole
lap but honestly for the race tomorrow, we still have a few
little problems to sort out. We’ve been trying a few
things today and hopefully we can be a bit more consistent
tomorrow.”
The final front row grid slot went to the first Spanish rider,
Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), who just edged
out Lorenzo Lanzi (RG Ducati). Two HANNspree riders, Ryuichi
Kiyonari and Carlos Checa were next up. The Spanish rider
could only manage seventh place after setting the quickest
qualifying time in the first two sessions, but is feeling
confident with a good race pace.
Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) was eighth fastest,
ahead of Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), who qualified
for Superpole with a painful wrist but who managed to set
a heroic ninth quickest time. Noriyuki Haga rounded out the
top 10 for Yamaha.
TIMES: World Superbike Superpole
1. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'33.805
2. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'33.928
3. Bayliss T. (AUS) Ducati 1098 F08 1'33.976
4. Xaus R. (ESP) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'34.332
5. Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'34.370
6. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1'34.370
7. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1'34.492
8. Corser T. (AUS) Yamaha YZF-R1 1'34.613
9. Biaggi M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'34.658
10. Haga N. (JPN) Yamaha YZF-R1 1'34.770
11. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 F08 1'34.799
12. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'34.930
13. Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'34.959
14. Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF-R1 1'35.089
15. Laconi R. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'35.232
16. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'35.980
Alfa Romeo Superpole Award
Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare) is the third winner in the
ALFA 159 SUPERPOLE AWARD contest, which was launched at the
start of the season. The prize, an Alfa Romeo 159 3.2 Sportwagon
Ti, will be awarded at the end of the year to the rider in
the Superbike World Championship who has totaled the highest
number of Superpoles. After three rounds therefore, Corser,
Bayliss and Neukirchner have one pole each.
World Supersport
Andrew Pitt (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) remained at the top
of the timesheets for the second day to take his second pole
position of the year. The Australian had some problems with
the front of his bike and twice crashed out, once in free
practice and once in qualifying, but no other rider was able
to improve on the time of 1m36.773s he set yesterday. Second
placed man was Joan Lascorz (Glaner Motocard.com Honda), one
tenth of a second down in second place, while Britain’s
Craig Jones took his Parkalgar Racing version to third in
a Honda 1-2-3. Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport), Katsuaki
Fujiwara (Kawasaki Gil Motorsport) and Jonathan Rea (HANNspree
Ten Kate Honda) took the next 3 places, with points leader
Joshua Brookes (HANNspree Stiggy Motorsport Honda) in eighth
place.
Superstock 1000
Brendan Roberts (Ducati Xerox Junior Team) headed a trio
of Italians in Superstock 1000 qualifying, the Australian
rider leaving the lap record at 1m37.114s on his 1098R. Davide
Giugliano was three-tenths behind for the Cruciani Moto Suzuki
Italia machine, followed by Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini
by Leoni) and Claudio Corti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team).
The leading Honda was fifth placed Maxime Berger, with Rene
Maehr posting a respectable tenth place on the rookie KTM
1190 RC8 machine.
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