The second round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship, due to take place in Qatar this weekend, had a watery prologue today as seven top riders took to offshore boats of the Qatar Powerboat Team around the Corniche bay area of the capital, Doha.
Noriyuki Haga (Ducati), Ben Spies (Yamaha), Max Biaggi (Aprilia), Max Neukirchner (Suzuki), Troy Corser (BMW), Jonathan Rea (Honda) and Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) were all invited by Sheikh Hassan Al Thani, Qatar Marine Sports Federation President and Class 1 offshore champion on board two Nor-Tech Mercury 36' catamarans for a different kind of speed trip, this time on water, in the build-up to this Saturday's WSBK round.
"It wasn't my first time onboard this kind of boat but it was quite exciting", declared Phillip Island race 1 winner Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox). "I'm thinking I want to buy this kind of boat but it's just to throw away for the money and I need to check with my wife first!. As for this weekend's race, Ducati have good experience and settings for here, now I have started the season well from the first round so we will see from here in the next races."
"We knew we had the pace to battle at Phillip Island, not necessarily to win, but it was important to get the first win out of the way" commented Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike). "I've kind of been like trying to prove myself on Superbikes for quite a long time, so my win in Australia felt like it had been a long time coming. Qatar is a track where I've never turned a wheel on, it seems OK, I'll just have to go out and learn it. 110 mph on water is a different feeling totally, but luckily we survived that and now I can go to work tomorrow!"
"Phillip Island was high performance on qualifying, nobody expected to see us on the front row and fighting for pole position until the end" said Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing). "But something at the moment is still a bit ‘raw' and we need to find the right conditions to make it ‘well done' and explore different ways to go for development. At the moment we're in early stages. This morning was a completely new way to go for me, we went fast on the speedboats. It was interesting to see the steering round the buoy, they go very quick and this type of boat is very stable, almost double the speed on the tarmac!"
On TV: Eurosport (pan-European): Sunday 15 March, 08.30 race 1 (delayed), 09.15 race 2 (delayed).
The Qatar Round of the HANNspree Superbike World Championship takes place from Thursday 12 thru Saturday 14 March. World Supersport and World Superbike free practice and qualifying takes place on both days, with WSBK Superpole scheduled for Friday at 15.00. The two 18-lap Superbike races are scheduled to run on Saturday at 12.00 and 15.30, with the 18-lap Supersport race at 13.25 local time.
First strike for Spies (Yamaha) in Qatar
Ben Spies (Yamaha) set the quickest time on the opening day of qualifying action at the Losail circuit in Qatar. The three-times AMA Superbike champion - and race 2 winner at Phillip Island - dominated qualifying, ending the one-hour session with a time of 1 minute 58.886 seconds, eight-tenths of a second off the best time set by Troy Corser (Yamaha) last year.
"Today went pretty good, the result will be more important Saturday but every time I come to the track with Yamaha the bike is getting better and it's already such a fun bike to ride" declared Spies. "The team's working really good, but there are so many people that are fast out there that if you have just an OK session you end up behind. It's going to be a tough year, but we're clicking off session by session and we'll see where we're going to end up."
Spies, the only rider to lap below the 1'59" mark, was close to a second quicker than almost all his rivals, with the exception of Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), three-tenths behind. The young rider from Northern Ireland was the spearhead in the competitive three-rider Ten Kate Honda attack, with Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari placing third and fifth respectively. The latter two were separated by Max Biaggi,who took his Aprilia RSV4 to a provisional front-row grid slot thanks to a quick lap at the end of the session.
In sixth place was the first Ducati, the Sterilgarda machine of Shane Byrne, while the factory 1098R machines are so far down in eighth (Michel Fabrizio) and eleventh (Noriyuki Haga) respectively. Last year's winner Suzuki are so far struggling, with Max Neukirchner only down in thirteenth place, and Yukio Kagayama fifteenth, approximately 1.5 seconds off the pace. The two BMWs of Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus were right behind the Japanese rider in sixteenth and seventeenth.
FIM Supersport World Championship
The first day of Supersport action at Losail bore the mark of Yamaha as the two factory riders powered to the top two positions in qualifying. Cal Crutchlow from the UK set the provisional pole in a time of 2 minutes 02.634 seconds, with his French team-mate Fabien Foret just over a tenth behind. Crutchlow's performance was even more impressive seeing as it was the first time he had raced on this track. The rest of the top 15 runners were all within 1 second, and they were headed by Phillip Island winner Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), in front of Hannspree Honda Althea's Matthieu Lagrive, three-tenths off the pace. The provisional second row is led by the young Australian Mark Aitchison (Hannspree Honda Althea) ahead of Spain's Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com), who is proving to be extremely rapid around this track. Triumph also had a positive qualifying hour, with Garry McCoy and Gianluca Nannelli eight and eleventh on the ParkinGo BE1 675 machines.
Superbike - Free Practice 1st Session
Update: March 12, 2009, 09.45 PM ET
1 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'00.486
2 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 2'00.514
3 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 2'00.676
4 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 2'00.744
5 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 2'00.770
6 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'00.945
7 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 2'01.162
8 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 2'01.234
9 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 2'01.261
10 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 2'01.280
11 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 2'01.457
12 44 Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.464
13 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.658
14 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.698
15 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'01.755
16 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 2'01.783
17 100 Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'02.204
18 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2'02.317
19 33 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 2'02.529
20 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 2'02.587
21 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 2'02.642
22 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'03.075
23 31 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'03.363
24 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 2'03.580
25 24 Roberts B. (AUS) Ducati 1098R 2'03.757
26 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'03.773
27 86 Badovini A. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'03.941
28 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'06.136
Superbike - Qualifying 1st Session
Update: March 12, 2009, 13:33 PM ET
1 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1'58.886
2 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1'59.177
3 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1'59.731
4 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1'59.826
5 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1'59.937
6 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1'59.980
7 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 2'00.024
8 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2'00.101
9 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 2'00.232
10 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 2'00.238
11 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 2'00.254
12 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 2'00.283
13 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'00.345
14 44 Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 2'00.374
15 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'00.398
16 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 2'00.455
17 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 2'00.610
18 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'00.769
19 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 2'00.799
20 100 Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'01.222
21 31 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 2'01.224
22 33 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.336
23 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'01.464
24 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.560
25 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'01.607
26 24 Roberts B. (AUS) Ducati 1098R 2'01.779
27 86 Badovini A. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'02.272
28 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 2'02.917
