Spies takes front row start in Misano

QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 20/06/2009 Spies takes front row start in Misano Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies spent the second day of qualifying at the Misano circuit laying down consistent fast laps in all sessions to perfect set up and race pace for Sunday's races. The American rider looked fast and on the pace as he stayed in the top three places for the duration of the day. Superpole saw him work hard to make it through all three sessions and he will start tomorrow's race in third position from the front row of the grid. Tom Sykes made further improvements from yesterday's qualifying session and is beginning to show the results from the changes in set up. Bad weather affected the second qualifying session and gave little opportunity for him to capitalize on the changes. Sykes made it through the first Superpole session in ninth and was holding on for the third session until the last minute when he was bumped out. He will start tomorrow's race from the fourth row of the grid in 14th position for tomorrow's races. Ben Spies Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (3rd, 1'35.631) "it was a good session for us today we just weren't fast enough at the end. I never managed to put a perfect lap in but even if I had I think it would have been right there with Smrz so it's not like we were going to blow anything out of the water. Our race pace is good and I'm really happy with that. You can't win them all, I'm really happy to be on the front row, we're in a good position for turn one so I'm going to try and get a good start and have a great race." Tom Sykes Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (14th, 1'36.978) "we've definitely cured a couple of our set up problems this weekend and we're heading in the right direction. We've still got some work to do on the front so I can take some of the corners like I want to. We're only .9 of a second off the quickest but that means quite a few places down the grid. We've made up two seconds over the last two days so if we can make some more in warm up we should be up there." Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager "Third place is a good result, to start from the first row of the grid is the target so we're happy. We've had so many Superpoles this year it's become almost normal but first row is what's important. I'm confident we can expect a really good result tomorrow. Tom made some improvements from the last couple of races and he showed us he had a good pace. The bike is working well and he's found the right tyre combination for the race. We'll see what happens tomorrow, we're quite optimistic." Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1'37.580 (Troy Corser, 01/01/2008) Fastest Lap Ever: 1'35.435 (Jakub Smrz, 21/06/2009) Last Years Winner: Ruben Xaus 2009 WSB San Marino - Misano 20/06/2009 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'35.435 2 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 1'35.609 3 Ben Spies Yamaha USA 1'35.631 4 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'35.811 5 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1'36.224 6 Noriyuki Haga Ducati JPN 1'36.277 7 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 1'36.537 8 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 1'36.884 9 Max Biaggi Aprilia ITA 1'36.439 10 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 1'37.490 11 Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 1'36.510 12 Shinya Nakano Aprilia JPN 1'36.682 13 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'36.916 14 Tom Sykes Yamaha GBR 1'36.978 15 Troy Corser BMW AUS 1'36.994 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'37.016 1'55.508 2 Ben Spies USA 1'37.102 1'57.259 3 Yukio Kagayama JPN 1'37.209 1'58.571 4 Jonathan Rea GBR 1'37.238 1'55.092 5 Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN 1'37.281 1'56.470 6 Carlos Checa ESP 1'37.441 1'56.402 7 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'37.451 1'58.174 8 Leon Haslam GBR 1'37.490 1'56.521 9 Troy Corser AUS 1'37.503 1'54.503 10 Shinya Nakano JPN 1'37.630 1'59.336 11 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 1'37.702 2'04.986 12 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'37.710 1'57.401 13 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'37.773 1'55.568 14 Gregorio Lavilla ESP 1'37.786 2'00.159 15 Max Biaggi ITA 1'37.813 1'57.935 18 Tom Sykes GBR 1'37.992 1'55.439 24 David Checa ESP 1'38.828 1'59.799 QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 20/06/2009 Crutchlow takes a front row start in difficult Misano conditions Day two at Misano and the World Supersport qualifying was a wet affair, difficult conditions saw a half wet half dry track with fine drizzle for most of the session. Yamaha World Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow spent nearly half of the session in the pit waiting for a break in the weather having started in the wet with a few laps to set 10th on the standings. With ten minutes to go and a drying track the British rider was the first to come out with dry tyres on and immediately went to the top of the chart where he stayed until the last seconds where Pirro edged a one tenth advantage. Crutchlow started a last hot lap and was on track to take pole back but was hampered when rain started to fall again, leaving him with a front row start in second position for tomorrow's race. Crutchlow's team-mate Fabien Foret had a less than satisfactory session, the difficult weather made it hard to confirm his set up on the bike to validate changes made from yesterday. The French rider never enjoys racing in the rain and ended his qualifying session in 18th place with some work ahead of him in tomorrow's race. Cal Crutchlow Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (2nd, 1'40.508) "It was a good enough session considering we were tenth at one point. I knew that when the track dried up it was possible to go faster so I made the gamble and went out managed to do some decent laps, I was the first out on dry tyres and did 20 laps on one set. I was doing decent laps at the end, so let's see what tomorrow brings." Fabien Foret Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (18th, 1'44.256) "it was definitely not my favourite conditions today so I'm 18th and I think it's going to be a hard race tomorrow. I'm hoping I can do a good start and make up some places. It's a shame because we had some settings to confirm on the bike but we haven't had the time on track to do it because of the weather. Let's hope tomorrow is dry for the race and also for the warm up so we can check the set up and be ready for the start." Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager "Very difficult circumstances here in Misano today. When it's wet we know the track is very slippery. Finally at the end of the session we had Cal second and Fabien 18th, so not the best start for him. We know he doesn't like the half and half weather so he has to prepare himself for a difficult race tomorrow. With Cal being second his main rivals are behind him which is very important. Congratulations to Pirro for pole in difficult conditions. Cal tried to come back in the last lap but it started to rain again. Today we didn't get a lot of new data as the difficult weather was very restricting. Let's wait and see what the weather does tomorrow as that's going to be the most important factor." Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1'40.187 (Broc Parkes, 01/01/2008) Fastest Lap Ever: 1'39.398 (Broc Parkes, 01/01/2008) Last Years Winner: Andrew Pitt 2009 WSS San Marino - Misano 20/06/2009

Qualifying 1

Pos.	Rider	Manu.	Nat.	Total Time
1	Michele Pirro	Yamaha	ITA	1'40.498
2	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	GBR	1'40.508
3	Massimo Roccoli	Honda	ITA	1'40.509
4	Katsuaki Fujiwara	Kawasaki	JPN	1'40.994
5	Gianluca Nannelli	Triumph	ITA	1'41.109
6	Anthony West	Honda	AUS	1'41.125
7	Mark Aitchison	Honda	AUS	1'41.458
8	Eugene Laverty	Honda	GBR	1'41.459
9	Andrew Pitt	Honda	AUS	1'41.666
10	Joan Lascorz	Kawasaki	ESP	1'41.963
11	Kenan Sofuoglu	Honda	TUR	1'42.012
12	Danilo Dell'omo	Honda	ITA	1'42.563
13	Garry McCoy	Triumph	AUS	1'42.903
14	Gianluca Vizziello	Honda	ITA	1'43.240
15	Jesco Gunther	Honda	GER	1'43.665
18	Fabien Foret	Yamaha	FRA	1'44.256
22	Alessandro Brannetti	Yamaha	ITA	1'45.255
24	Doni Tata Pradita	Yamaha	IDN	1'45.963
26	Yannick Guerra	Yamaha	ESP	1'47.266

---

Yamaha Racing Communications
Hoogte Kadijk 61 HS / 1018 BE Amsterdam / The Netherlands
T. +31 (0) 20 330 2709 / F. +31 (0) 20 420 9470
E. office@yrc.nl W. www.yamaha-racing.com

---