NURBURGRING – 13, 14 and 15 JUNE – ROUND 7
SUPERPOLE
Nurburgring, Saturday 14 June 2008
Neukirchner powers to Superpole in home round at
the Nurburgring
Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) powered to a second Superpole
win of the season in his home round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike
World Championship at the Nurburgring. The 25-year-old from
Stollberg in the former East Germany, set an incredible time
of 1 minute 55.471 seconds around the 5.137 km circuit on
his Suzuki GSX-R1000. The remainder of the front row was made
up of riders from three different manufacturers; Troy Bayliss
(Ducati Xerox) was three-tenths of a second down in second
place, followed by Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda)
and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB), who ten days
ago was undergoing surgery on a broken collarbone.
Max Neukirchner: “It was an unbelievable
lap, I was really fast. I’m so happy for my team, they
did a great job this weekend for my home race and to help
me get my second pole position of the season. I hope the weather
will be fine tomorrow and a lot of fans come here with the
German flag and say ‘go go go, Max!”
Troy Bayliss: “All the practices have
been going quite well for us, when I saw Carlos’s time
I was pretty surprised and I thought that’s around where
my limit is going to be. I didn’t expect Max to do such
a good job, that was incredible the lap he pulled out. We’re
hoping that it’s going to be a nice day tomorrow because
the conditions have been quite mixed already. Although we’re
looking good in those situations, we’d love it to be
a dry track because I think there’s going to be a really
good turn-out here. The Nurburgring is a lovely place with
a great atmosphere so I’m looking forward to it.”
Carlos Checa: “Here we didn’t
find the grip we had in America but we’ve been working
on the bike to find more mechanical feeling with these tyres
and finally it worked a bit better. I was confident with that
feeling even with the qualifying tyres and on my Superpole
lap the time came very good, then of course Troy and especially
Max did a great lap time. We are on the first row and it’s
very positive, I think we’ll catch up the pace and we’ll
be looking good for tomorrow.”
Fifth place went to Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), just
a fraction away from another front row start. The young Italian
was ahead of Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB), Lorenzo
Lanzi (RG Ducati) and Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati)
whose second row start still gives him a chance of fighting
for the win.
Ninth quickest time was clocked by Karl Muggeridge (DF Racing
Honda), while Japan’s Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare)
had to miss the Superpole session after crashing out in the
afternoon’s free practice session and being taken to
hospital with concussion.
Superpole: 1. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki
GSX-R1000 1'55.471; 2. Bayliss T. (AUS) Ducati 1098 F08 1'55.791;
3. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1'55.888; 4. Haga N. (JPN)
Yamaha YZF-R1 1'56.401; 5. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 F08
1'56.436; 6. Corser T. (AUS) Yamaha YZF-R1 1'56.522; 7. Lanzi
L. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'56.574; 8. Biaggi M. (ITA) Ducati
1098 RS 08 1'56.918; 9. Muggeridge K. (AUS) Honda CBR1000RR
1'56.980; 10. Xaus R. (ESP) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'57.053; 11.
Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1'57.112; 12. Kiyonari R.
(JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1'57.143; 13. Laconi R. (FRA) Kawasaki
ZX-10R 1'57.301; 14. Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'57.491;
15. Gimbert S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1'57.514; 16. Kagayama
Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000.
FIM Supersport World Championship
Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport) clinched his third
pole position of the season for the Supersport race at the
Nurburgring with a lap time of 2 minutes 00.015 seconds .
The 26-year-old Australian, after clocking quickest time on
the opening day, repeated the performance today to see off
Britain’s Craig Jones (Parkalgar Honda) by almost half-a-second.
Australian riders also made up the rest of the front row,
with Joshua Brookes (Hannspree Stiggy Motorsport Honda) and
Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) in third and fourth.
On the second row can be found the surprise of the weekend,
Mark Aitchison (Triumph Italia BE1) with Matthieu Lagrive
(Intermoto Czech Honda) and German wild-card Arne Tode (G-Lab
Racing Triumph), while Tommy Hill (Hannspree Honda Althea),
who returned to racing this weekend after recovering from
injuries suffered six months ago, set a superb eighth quickest
time. The top two riders in the standings Joan Lascorz (Glaner
Motocard.com Honda) and Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport)
could only manage eleventh and tenth quickest times respectively,
the Frenchman ruining his day with a crash.
Times : 1. Parkes B. (AUS) Yamaha YZF-R6
2'00.015; 2. Jones C. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 2'00.473; 3. Brookes
J. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 2'00.669; 4. Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR
2'00.727; 5. Aitchison M. (AUS) Triumph 675 2'00.965; 6. Lagrive
M. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 2'00.967; 7. Tode A. (GER) Triumph
675 2'01.051; 8. Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 2'01.115.
Superstock 1000 FIM Cup
Rain prevented the Superstock 1000 field from improving on
Friday’s times, so pole position went to Brendan Roberts
(Ducati Xerox Junior Team), who will be flanked on the front
row by Maxime Berger (Hannspree IDS Ten Kate Honda), Davide
Giugliano (Cruciani Moto Suzuki) and by wild-card Dominic
Lammert (Suzuki International Europe). Fifth place went to
championship leader, the Belgian Xavier Simeon (Alstare Suzuki),
followed by Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni), Matej
Smrz (MS Honda) and Fabrizio Perotti (Cruciani Moto Suzuki),
with Claudio Corti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) next
up.
European 600 Superstock Championship – Race
Patrick Vostarek (Intermoto Czech Honda) scored his first
win of the year after a sprint finish with the championship
leader Loris Baz (YZF Yamaha Junior Team) of France. The final
podium slot went to Gino Rea (StoneBaker Yamaha) from Britain,
who got the edge over Giuliano Gregorini (Lorini Honda), Marco
Bussolotti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) and Dan Linfoot
(StoneBaker Yamaha).
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