Spies hunts for the perfect set up in Germany

QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 05/09/2009 Spies hunts for the perfect set up in Germany Ben Spies Day two and the second qualifying session at the Nurburgring saw Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies improve dramatically on his time of yesterday as he experienced the track in the dry for the first time. The American rider managed to finish the session in second position, less than one tenth of a second from leader Haga. The afternoon's free practice was a frustrating one, a small crash at a difficult to access section of the circuit meant Spies lost over 20 minutes of valuable track time returning to the pit, leaving him with a less than perfect set up for the subsequent Superpole sessions. He made it through all three sessions, using a Qualifier in the second and third heats and will start tomorrow on the second row of the grid in fifth position. Team-mate Tom Sykes continued to show his consistent fast form of the weekend in the second qualifying heat, the British rider ended the session in fifth place, less than half a second adrift of Spies. Sykes flew through the first Superpole session, again in fifth place, however a faulty qualifying tyre in the second session left him unable to lay down a competitive time, and subsequently he will start on the third row of the grid in ninth position behind his team mate. Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (5th 1'56.489) "I didn't do us any favours by falling in the second practice and missing out on valuable track time, so we're still looking for the right set up. We seem to be struggling a bit for grip on the bumpy sections and that's what we're trying to deal with. Combine that with the rain when we arrived and the lost time in free practice means we've only really had an hour of dry time here to find our set up. We've got the warm up and two races to figure it out so we're on it." Tom Sykes Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (9th 1'56.950) "we've been up in the top five all weekend and feeling really good in the dry and the wet but when it came to using the Qualifier in the second heat of Superpole it felt wrong. It felt like a used race tyre when I went out, so I thought I'd try another lap. I improved on my lap time but it didn't feel remotely like a Qualifier tyre. On the third lap I was undecided whether to come in or not and couldn't see a timer anywhere. By the time I got back it was too late to get out again which was really frustrating. It's a shame as I certainly felt like we could have been front row tomorrow for the start. Still, we've got a good race pace and it's a long race so we'll see what we can do." Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager "the rain yesterday really made our approach to the weekend complicated. We still have the warm up tomorrow to try some settings and tonight we will see if we can find any other improvements on the bike as well. I think we can still make a good challenge tomorrow. We've lost nearly three sessions this weekend which means it is normal not to have the bike set up ready. I feel really sorry for Tom, he's been having a really good weekend and been consistently fast in all the sessions but he had a rear tyre that didn't work properly and unfortunately stayed out one lap too long so didn't have the opportunity to change to his second Qualifier tyre. I think he will have a good race tomorrow as he's shown a really good pace all weekend." Circuit Length: 4556 Fastest Lap Ever: 1'55.471 (Max Neukirchner, 15/06/2008) Last Years Winner: Noriyuki Haga 2009 WSB Germany - Nürburgring 05/09/2009 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Noriyuki Haga Ducati JPN 1'55.489 2 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 1'55.749 3 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 1'55.776 4 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'55.927 5 Ben Spies Yamaha USA 1'55.938 6 Troy Corser BMW AUS 1'56.296 7 Max Biaggi Aprilia ITA 1'56.440 8 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 1'56.699 9 Tom Sykes Yamaha GBR 1'56.406 10 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1'56.663 11 Fonsi Nieto Ducati ESP 1'56.670 12 Makoto Tamada Kawasaki JPN 1'56.683 13 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'56.901 14 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'57.091 15 Broc Parkes Kawasaki AUS 1'57.098 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Noriyuki Haga JPN 2'12.635 1'56.394 2 Ben Spies USA 2'13.898 1'56.489 3 Michel Fabrizio ITA 2'12.354 1'56.549 4 Tom Sykes GBR 2'11.781 1'56.590 5 Jonathan Rea GBR 2'11.278 1'56.785 6 Shane Byrne GBR 2'12.819 1'57.043 7 Carlos Checa ESP 2'13.550 1'57.323 8 Karl Muggeridge AUS 2'14.073 1'57.401 9 Leon Haslam GBR 2'12.979 1'57.506 10 Broc Parkes AUS 2'17.965 1'57.532 11 Yukio Kagayama JPN 2'14.214 1'57.665 12 Max Biaggi ITA 2'13.928 1'57.722 13 Makoto Tamada JPN 2'14.954 1'57.937 14 Jakub Smrz CZE 2'13.089 1'58.049 15 Matthieu Lagrive FRA 2'14.653 1'58.049 24 David Checa ESP 2'15.913 1'59.467 QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 05/09/2009 Crutchlow smashes the lap record and takes an incredible eighth pole in Germany Cal Crutchlow Yamaha World Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow has been on fire from day one at the Nurburgring circuit. The British rider has left the competition standing in each session, averaging at least a second a lap quicker than the Supersport field and ending the qualifying session on pole nearly one and a half seconds faster than closest rival Keenan Sofuoglu. Crutchlow also smashed Broc Parkes' 2008 lap record of 2'00.015 by over two seconds, with a best lap of 1'57.866. Crutchlow's team mate Fabien Foret was still hunting the perfect feel for the bike by the end of the qualifying session, and will start tomorrow's World Supersport race from the third row of the grid in 11th position. Foret worked hard during the session to find the right set up but not in time to bring his lap times into the top ten at the end. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st, 1'57.866) "It was a good session today, but we still have a job to do tomorrow; I'm under no illusions about that. We did well in Brno qualifying but we didn't come away with a race win so all focus is on the race. We still have some problems that we can work on, I don't think we need to go any faster I just think we maybe need to try to find some more grip. Maybe we're struggling for grip because we're going too fast!" Fabien Foret Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (11th, 2'00.513) "I'm not very happy, I've been off the bike for a while over the summer and it's taking me some time to find a set up that I'm comfortable with again. We're going to try and find a solution to get a better feel for the bike and see how we get on tomorrow." Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager "Cal is amazingly fast, hopefully everything goes well for him tomorrow. I'm happy for him and he's back into shape and impressing everyone, even us. For Fabien it's more difficult at the moment, he didn't attend the test over the summer so is missing some track time. We tried some different settings this afternoon but they didn't give the best feeling for him so we're going to work on that and hopefully improve it for him for tomorrow morning." Circuit Length: 4556 Fastest Lap Ever: 1'57.866 (Cal Crutchlow, 06/09/2009) Last Years Winner: Andrew Pitt 2009 WSS Germany - Nürburgring 05/09/2009

Qualifying 1

Pos.	Rider	Manu.	Nat.	Total Time
1	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	GBR	1'57.866
2	Kenan Sofuoglu	Honda	TUR	1'59.201
3	Eugene Laverty	Honda	GBR	1'59.373
4	Garry McCoy	Triumph	AUS	1'59.716
5	Michele Pirro	Yamaha	ITA	1'59.765
6	Katsuaki Fujiwara	Kawasaki	JPN	1'59.779
7	Joan Lascorz	Kawasaki	ESP	2'00.103
8	Gianluca Nannelli	Triumph	ITA	2'00.176
9	Massimo Roccoli	Honda	ITA	2'00.290
10	Andrew Pitt	Honda	AUS	2'00.455
11	Fabien Foret	Yamaha	FRA	2'00.513
12	Michael Laverty	Honda	GBR	2'00.558
13	Robbin Harms	Honda	DNK	2'00.595
14	Mark Aitchison	Honda	AUS	2'00.600
15	Anthony West	Honda	AUS	2'00.769
27	Doni Tata Pradita	Yamaha	IDN	2'03.416
28	Yannick Guerra	Yamaha	ESP	2'03.697

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