Race 1
Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) scored his eighth win of the season in the first World Superbike race at the Misano World Circuit in San Marino, Italy. Drama unfolded as the race was held in flag-to-flag conditions, all riders starting with their full wet tires and switching mid-way to finish in the dry. Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) had a dominate lead over Ruben Xaus, Michel Fabrizio and Spies mid-way through the 24-lap race. Spies and Fabrizio both chose to change to their dry bikes on the 13 lap, which proved the turning point of the race. Equipped with his slick tires the Texan slipped back on the track behind Fabrizio in eighth. By lap 17 he had taken the lead from Xaus and set the pace for the rest of the race, finishing almost eight seconds ahead of runner-up Byrne.
Ben Spies' focus was on getting ahead of Michel Fabrizio, who has been running at a similar pace throughout the weekend and last few rounds of World Superbike.
"I stayed as close as I could to Fabrizio, I couldn’t run Byrne’s pace but wanted to stay with Michel as he was the one who mattered to me in the championship, " explained the rider known as the Texas Terror. "I picked the right moment to come in and get out on dry tires and switch bikes and put in good pace and we managed to win the race."
It took a couple laps for Fabrizio to find feeling with his Ducati 1198, but he was able to hold-off the rapidly charging poleman Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Racing Ducati) in a very close battle for the last podium position. Despite being 20 seconds behind Smrz, Haga managed to garner 11 points as he passed fellow Japanese rider Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare) to take fifth.
Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate) was the first Honda to the checkered-flag despite starting from the back of the grid and also picking up a ride-through penalty. Tom Sykes made up for an average qualifying position to take eight more points for Factory Yamaha, adding to Spies' first-place trophy of 25. Shinya Nakano was the top Aprilia rider in ninth, with Biaggi also collecting three points in 13th. World Superbike rookie Matt Lagrive, who was chosen by the Honda Althea team to permanently replace struggling English racer Tommy Hill in Round 5, scored his first points of the season in tenth.
Ruben Xaus led the race with seven laps to go, but received a 'ride-through' penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed after coming in to switch bikes. Xaus would finish in 14th and take the only points for the BMW team in Round 8, with his teammate Troy Corser sitting out Race 1 after an electronic problem caused him to high-side during the warm-up lap. Fortunately the Australian ride did not further injure his shoulder in the crash. The last point went to Alex Polita, who replaces Celani Suzuki's injured Karl Muggeridge during this round and the next at Donington.
The 2008 British Superbike champion Shane Byrne took his first podium of the 2009 World Superbike season in Race 1.
Ben Spies: "It was a hard one, we knew from the start it was going to get dry and in that first half hats off to Shakey, he rode great. I had the feeling in the rain that I wasn't quite happy but I tried as hard as I could to stay close to Michel. My box showed me that some riders were starting to come in for a change so I said that it was time to get in now. It was a hectic race, pretty eventful, not a great race but I was happy to pull this one off."
Shane Byrne: "That was a fantastic race. It's a shame it didn't stay wet for a little bit longer because I had a really big lead at one point. I wasn't sure what to do with the tyre situation and all the time the lead was going up, and I didn't know whether to stay out or not. I switched bikes with about seven laps to go and the first two laps were really difficult. Ben had done a couple more dry laps than I had, he passed me and there was no way I was going to get him. It was a fantastic result for the team at their home circuit, they've all worked really hard."
Michel Fabrizio: "That's not a bad result, it was a great battle with Jakub for the final podium slot. When I saw that on the big screen that he was getting closer and closer, I knew that I had to invent something special on the last lap. I was unable to find the best possible feeling immediately with the dry tyres and I slipped back a bit but I've had a lot of bad luck in recent years at Misano so I'm very happy to get onto the podium." (worldsbk.com)
1. Ben Spies (Yamaha YZF-R1) 45'02.773
2. Shane Byrne (Ducati 1098R) +7.931
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati 1098R) +11.836
4. Jakub Smrz (Ducati 1098R) +11.886
5. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati 1098R) +31.670
6. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +33.241
7. Jonathan Rea (Honda CBR1000RR) +35.772
8. Tom Sykes (Yamaha YZF-R1) +41.931
9. Shinya Nakano (Aprilia RSV4) +51.507
10. Matthieu Lagrive (Honda CBR1000RR) +59.921
11. Carlos Checa (Honda CBR1000RR) +1'04.285
12. Leon Haslam (Honda CBR1000RR) +1'04.313
13. Max Biaggi (Aprilia RSV4) +1'19.822
14. Ruben Xaus (BMW S1000RR) +1'22.412
15. Alex Polita (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +1'31.635
16. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki ZX 10R) +1'39.830
17. Broc Parkes (Kawasaki ZX 10R) +1'42.964
18. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +1'43.303
19. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati 1098R)
20. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Honda CBR1000RR)
21. David Checa (Yamaha YZF R1)
22. Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati 1098R)
23. David Salom (Kawasaki ZX 10R)
NC. Roland Resch (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9)
RET. Luca Scassa (Kawasaki ZX 10R)
RET. Matteo Baiocco (Kawasaki ZX 10R)
RET. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda CBR1000RR)
RET. Troy Corser (BMW S1000RR)
NP. John Hopkins (Honda CBR1000RR)
Race 2(
motorcycle-usa.com)Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider Jonathan Rea took his maiden World Superbike victory after regaining the lead from Ducati's Michel Fabrizio on the final lap of Race 2, crossing the finish-line just 0.06 of a second ahead of the Italian. Championship leader Noriyuki Haga led the race in the opening laps, but was passed by Rea and then forced to battle with his teammate for second. Fabrizio passed Haga and then Rea to take the lead on the 16th lap, where he remained until Rea's ultimate race winning maneuver. Haga easily took the final spot on the podium as he finished over three seconds ahead of the next group of riders. Fabrizio remains third in the Championship, but narrows Haga's lead by nine points.
Privateer Ducati rider Jakub Smrz converted his pole position into another fourth-place finish when he passed Carlos Checa on the final lap as the tires of the Spaniard's Honda CBR1000RR began to peel off. Finishing just behind Checa in sixth was Shane Byrne, pairing another good run with his Race 1 podium. Tom Sykes was the first of the Yamaha World Superbike riders across the line as he battled with Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda) to win eighth. Sykes' teammate Spies dropped from second to 17th at the start following a technical issue with his clutch. The 24-year-old sorted the problem and fought his way through the field to take ninth. Although the mechanical failure undoubtedly caused Spies to miss-out on potential points, the American still managed to reduce the points lead of Haga from 53 to 48 points over the weekend.
Max Biaggi broke into the top-ten on his Aprilia RSV4, while his teammate Shinya Nakano also scored three more points for the rookie Aprilia World Superbike team. Yukio Kagayama and Fonsi Nieto each netted points for Suzuki, but the Kawasaki and BMW riders failed to finish in the top 15.
Jonathan Rea takes his first win of the season after scoring podiums in each of the last rounds.Jonathan Rea: "To win my first race in Italy here is really special for me before my home round next weekend at Donington. As everybody's aware we switched suspensions, and tried them for the first time on Monday at Magny-Cours and the team all did a marvelous job to get me to win the race here so this is really special for them as well. I got settled into my own rhythm and Michel came past but he couldn't outbrake me and that spared my bike from doing all the running. I could pass where I wanted to pass and I saved it to the last lap. I'm really over the moon with the win!"
Michel Fabrizio: "In race 2 I didn't have a perfect feeling with the front and Rea's Honda accelerated better out of the corners than me. It's a pity I didn't win today but two podiums are my best result on this track and knowing that I did my best makes me happy. I'm just a few points behind Spies in the table and maybe I can start thinking about the title now although I realize that to be a serious candidate I have to keep on getting good results and even win a few races".
Noriyuki Haga: "Race 2 was much better than the first one: I got a good start but then Johnny and Michel passed me and it was hard to keep their pace, maybe because they're much younger than me! Seriously though we have taken home some good points and that's important because Misano is not one of my favourite tracks. Now I'm looking forward to racing at Donington where in recent years I've always had good results."(worldsbk.com)
1. Jonathan Rea (Honda CBR1000RR) 39'11.204
2. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati 1098R) +0.063
3. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati 1098R) +0.457
4. Jakub Smrz (Ducati 1098R) +3.635
5. Carlos Checa (Honda CBR1000RR) +4.460
6. Shane Byrne (Ducati 1098R) +4.538
7. Tom Sykes (Yamaha YZF-R1) +12.679
8. Leon Haslam (Honda CBR1000RR) +12.763
9. Ben Spies (Yamaha YZF-R1) +13.237
10. Max Biaggi (Aprilia RSV4) +14.412
11. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +20.073
12. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +20.239
13. Shinya Nakano (Aprilia RSV4) +22.351
14. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda CBR1000RR) +24.547
15. Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati 1098R) +24.696
16. Ruben Xaus (BMW S1000RR) +25.615
17. Broc Parkes (Kawasaki ZX 10R) +31.887
18. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati 1098R) +34.751
19. Troy Corser (BMW S1000RR) +38.061
20. Luca Scassa (Kawasaki ZX 10R) +47.717
21. Matthieu Lagrive (Honda CBR1000RR) +48.973
22. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki ZX 10R) +51.027
23. Alex Polita (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +52.526
24. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Honda CBR1000RR) +57.589
25. Roland Resch (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9) +1'36.359
RET. David Salom (Kawasaki ZX 10R)
RET. David Checa (Yamaha YZF R1)
RET. Matteo Baiocco (Kawasaki ZX 10R)
