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| High drama in Misano as Yamaha riders fight for points in wet and dry races | | | Race one saw drama unfold as the World Superbike riders headed out for a wet race but were forced to change midway for slicks as the rain stopped and the sun broke out. Yamaha rider Ben Spies spent most of the wet heat in 4th tucked up behind rival Fabrizio as he paced himself on the damp track. He picked the ideal time to change to his dry bike on lap 13, emerging from the pits right behind Fabrizio, taking him swiftly for 8th position. Spies then displayed a typical Texan masterclass in racing, working swiftly up to take Xaus for the lead on lap 17, leading from there to the chequered flag. Race two saw a technical issue with the clutch drop Spies from 2nd back to 17th. He then proved his skill yet again, riding round the fault to work through eight riders to take ninth in the race.
Team-mate Tom Sykes made up for an average qualifying position to post good finishes in both races. Race one saw the British rider pit early for slicks and then come out fighting in 13th, enjoying the damp conditions he pushed on to eventually take eighth at the chequered flag. Race two saw a good start, Sykes moving to 11th then fighting hard all the way up to duel with Haslam for the 7th place spot as the race end drew close. Having lost the spot to Haslam on lap 20 he took it back again and crossed the line to claim his well deserved points.
Spies now prepares for Donington next week on 244 points, second in the championship and now closer to Haga, with 48 points separating them. Sykes heads back to the UK for his home race seventh in the championship on 130 points, with only five points separating him from fifth placed Max Biaggi. |
|  | Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1st, 9th)
"Race one was definitely better than race two! It was good for us, we did what we had to do. 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. I picked the right moment to come in and get out on dry tyres and switch bikes and put in good pace and we managed to win the race. Race two wasn't so great, I had an issue with the clutch on the start, for the first few laps I was short shifting and trying to ride round it. It finally came better but when I got behind Corser and Kagayama and those guys I couldn't get round them easily. The last seven or eight laps it came good and I tried to run everyone down and started picking them off. I got up to Sykes and Haslam and they were having their little battle, we were definitely faster but I needed another lap to get round them which I didn't have. It's frustrating as we've lost good points this year and we'd be leading the championship with them. We'll go to Donington and try to start over again and see what happens." |
|  | Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (8th, 7th)
"From where we qualified we've made a bit better day of things than I expected. For race 1 in the wet I had some difficulty with too much traction in the first heat. I pulled in a bit sooner than I would have done if I'd had a perfect wet set up. In the second half we were fast and consistent, I really enjoyed it, the 14 laps felt like two it was over so quickly. Race two we made a couple more changes and I was pretty happy with the balance of the bike, I struggled with some rear grip but we're improving the small bits and it's onwards and upwards. It's been a tough weekend and I'd like to thank the whole of the team, we've put our heads together and they put in a lot of hard work and effort to improve the bike."
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
"The first race was amazing, the second race was different! In the end we came here 54 points behind Nori and now we're 48 points behind so it's still better for the championship. Tom made a great improvement which was really important for him so now we're going to Donington where he will make another step. Both Ben and Tom know the track there, and Ben has showed us that when he doesn't have to learn the track he can be even quicker. See you in a week." |
| | 2009 WSB San Marino - Misano 21/06/2009 | | Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time | | 1 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 45'02.773 | | 2 | Shane Byrne | Ducati | GBR | 0'07.931 | | 3 | Michel Fabrizio | Ducati | ITA | 0'11.836 | | 4 | Jakub Smrz | Ducati | CZE | 0'11.886 | | 5 | Noriyuki Haga | Ducati | JPN | 0'31.670 | | 6 | Yukio Kagayama | Suzuki | JPN | 0'33.241 | | 7 | Jonathan Rea | Honda | GBR | 0'35.772 | | 8 | Tom Sykes | Yamaha | GBR | 0'41.931 | | 9 | Shinya Nakano | Aprilia | JPN | 0'51.507 | | 10 | Matthieu Lagrive | Honda | FRA | 0'59.921 | | 11 | Carlos Checa | Honda | ESP | 1'04.285 | | 12 | Leon Haslam | Honda | GBR | 1'04.313 | | 13 | Max Biaggi | Aprilia | ITA | 1'19.822 | | 14 | Ruben Xaus | BMW | ESP | 1'22.412 | | 15 | Alessandro Polita | Suzuki | ITA | 1'31.635 |
| Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time | | 1 | Jonathan Rea | Honda | GBR | 39'11.204 | | 2 | Michel Fabrizio | Ducati | ITA | 0'00.630 | | 3 | Noriyuki Haga | Ducati | JPN | 0'00.457 | | 4 | Jakub Smrz | Ducati | CZE | 0'03.635 | | 5 | Carlos Checa | Honda | ESP | 0'04.460 | | 6 | Shane Byrne | Ducati | GBR | 0'04.538 | | 7 | Tom Sykes | Yamaha | GBR | 0'12.679 | | 8 | Leon Haslam | Honda | GBR | 0'12.763 | | 9 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 0'13.237 | | 10 | Max Biaggi | Aprilia | ITA | 0'14.412 | | 11 | Yukio Kagayama | Suzuki | JPN | 0'20.073 | | 12 | Fonsi Nieto | Suzuki | ESP | 0'20.239 | | 13 | Shinya Nakano | Aprilia | JPN | 0'22.351 | | 14 | Ryuichi Kiyonari | Honda | JPN | 0'24.457 | | 15 | Gregorio Lavilla | Ducati | ESP | 0'24.696 |
| Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time | | Jakub Smrz | Ducati | CZE | 1'38.679 |
| Rider Standings | 21/06/2009 | | Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Points | | 1. | Noriyuki Haga | Ducati | JPN | 292 | | 2. | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 244 | | 3. | Michel Fabrizio | Ducati | ITA | 237 | | 4. | Jonathan Rea | Honda | GBR | 167 | | 5. | Max Biaggi | Aprilia | ITA | 135 | | 6. | Leon Haslam | Honda | GBR | 134 | | 7. | Tom Sykes | Yamaha | GBR | 130 | | 8. | Carlos Checa | Honda | ESP | 109 | | 9. | Jakub Smrz | Ducati | CZE | 108 | | 10. | Ryuichi Kiyonari | Honda | JPN | 98 | | 11. | Yukio Kagayama | Suzuki | JPN | 91 | | 12. | Shane Byrne | Ducati | GBR | 89 | | 13. | Regis Laconi | Ducati | FRA | 77 | | 14. | Max Neukirchner | Suzuki | GER | 75 | | 15. | Shinya Nakano | Aprilia | JPN | 71 |
| Manufacturer Standings | 21/06/2009 | | Pos. | Manufacturer | Points | | 1. | Ducati | 351 | | 2. | Yamaha | 287 | | 3. | Honda | 240 | | 4. | Aprilia | 142 | | 5. | Suzuki | 128 | | 6. | BMW | 62 | | 7. | Kawasaki | 41 |
| Crutchlow adds Misano to his list of conquered circuits | | | With a track both wet and dry and a race red flagged and re-started, it was never going to be a straightforward day for Yamaha World Superbike rider Cal Crutchlow. Having initially dropped back to eighth at the start he showed incredible pace to work back up to lead the race, taking less than two laps to pass the seven riders. He led until a red flag for oil on the track brought the supersport riders back into the pits. As the race re-started Crutchlow shot off to take the lead which he held until lap 18 where second placed rider Eugene Laverty dived underneath having pursued Crutchlow from the off. Two laps later Crutchlow took the lead back in a decisive overtake up the inside of Laverty and powered on to take the chequered flag.
Team-mate Fabien Foret worked hard from his less than perfect grid start spot. Race one saw him close in on the top ten, making up several places leading up to the red flag incident. The Frenchman put his head down in the second heat and put in consistent fast laps, much happier in the dry conditions of the race and eventually took Nannelli for eighth at the chequered flag.
Crutchlow heads for his home race in Donington leading the championship with 160 points ahead of second placed Laverty on 146. Team-mate Foret also holds onto his seventh spot in the standings and heads to the UK with 63 points, just 10 behind 2008 champion Andrew Pitt. |
| Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st)
"it was great to come here to Misano and take the win. It's all credit to the team, they did a fantastic job again and we're back to winning form. Let's hope we can continue this, bring it home to Donington and take another victory." |
|  | Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (8th)
"It's been a tough race weekend for me. Qualifying wasn't great with the difficult changing weather making it hard to get a good spot on the grid. I put my head down today and worked to get as far up the pack as I could. I'm trying to improve my early laps to stay with the front guys to get back onto the podium."
Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager
"Well! It was an unbelievable race I would say. Again Cal and Eugene were very close. I'm so happy Cal was able to keep some distance between them on the last lap with an incredible 1'38.8 which is 1'3 seconds under the lap record, the pace was amazing. It's going to be hard until the last race! Fabien came from 18th position, so he worked hard. It's tough as we were expecting him to do better and he knows that so the mission is to practice more and get better first and second laps and he'll be up there. We're looking forward to Donington, we can see the hard work the team are doing is paying off." |
| | 2009 WSS San Marino - Misano 21/06/2009 | |
| Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time |
| 1 | Cal Crutchlow | Yamaha | GBR | 36'51.032 |
| 2 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | GBR | 0'00.263 |
| 3 | Massimo Roccoli | Honda | ITA | 0'16.289 |
| 4 | Joan Lascorz | Kawasaki | ESP | 0'20.894 |
| 5 | Mark Aitchison | Honda | AUS | 0'21.615 |
| 6 | Katsuaki Fujiwara | Kawasaki | JPN | 0'22.272 |
| 7 | Anthony West | Honda | AUS | 0'25.099 |
| 8 | Fabien Foret | Yamaha | FRA | 0'26.374 |
| 9 | Gianluca Nannelli | Triumph | ITA | 0'34.558 |
| 10 | Miguel Praia | Honda | POR | 0'49.578 |
| 11 | Gianluca Vizziello | Honda | ITA | 0'51.446 |
| 12 | Flavio Gentile | Honda | ITA | 0'54.391 |
| 13 | Danilo Dell'omo | Honda | ITA | 1'00.324 |
| 14 | Arie Vos | Honda | NED | 1'11.594 |
| 15 | Yannick Guerra | Yamaha | ESP | 1'43.088 |
| Rider Standings | 21/06/2009 |
| Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Points |
| 1. | Cal Crutchlow | Yamaha | GBR | 160 |
| 2. | Eugene Laverty | Honda | GBR | 146 |
| 3. | Kenan Sofuoglu | Honda | TUR | 108 |
| 4. | Joan Lascorz | Kawasaki | ESP | 86 |
| 5. | Anthony West | Honda | AUS | 75 |
| 6. | Andrew Pitt | Honda | AUS | 73 |
| 7. | Fabien Foret | Yamaha | FRA | 63 |
| 8. | Mark Aitchison | Honda | AUS | 61 |
| 9. | Michele Pirro | Yamaha | ITA | 48 |
| 10. | Massimo Roccoli | Honda | ITA | 40 |
| 11. | Katsuaki Fujiwara | Kawasaki | JPN | 39 |
| 12. | Garry McCoy | Triumph | AUS | 39 |
| 13. | Matthieu Lagrive | Honda | FRA | 38 |
| 14. | Barry Veneman | Suzuki | NED | 30 |
| 15. | Robbin Harms | Honda | DNK | 23 |
| 19. | Doni Tata Pradita | Yamaha | IDN | 8 |
| 22. | Franco Battaini | Yamaha | ITA | 5 |
| 26. | Yannick Guerra | Yamaha | ESP | 1 |
| Manufacturer Standings | 21/06/2009 |
| Pos. | Manufacturer | Points |
| 1. | Honda | 178 |
| 2. | Yamaha | 160 |
| 3. | Kawasaki | 97 |
| 4. | Triumph | 53 |
| 5. | Suzuki | 30 |
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