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.
