World Superbikes: Round 5, Race 1 Results
Fabrizio Rewards Tardozzi’s Faith for Maiden Win
Factory Xerox Ducati rider, Michel Fabrizio, took his maiden World Superbike win in style after 94 previous attempts by winning the first race of the 5th round of the championship in Monza. After proving fastest in pre-Superpole qualifying Fabrizio looked impressive from the start taking the lead early in the race and having no hesitation in muscling his teammate and series points leader, Noriyuki Haga aside at times. His victory was assured when last lap leader Yamaha’s, Ben Spies ran out of gas on the last lap.
The first Superbike race of the day got off to a bad start when a first lap crash saw Tamada, Hill, Corser, Neukirchner and Roberts go down leading to a restart. Max Neukirchner suffered a broken right femur and dislocated right foot.
At the restart the usual suspects, Haga and Spies were joined by Michel Fabrizio, the young Italian keen to impress at his home race. Michel put a number of moves on Haga in the early laps to lead but Spies took the lead in his usual definitive style on the fifth lap.
The race became a little processional but the best was yet to come. With 6 laps to go the factory Ducatis closed up on Spies and a lap later Fabrizio tried to outbrake Spies but Spies responded with an impressive stoppie to hold onto first position. Fabrizio was not to be withheld however and with 3 laps to go he waved to Spies as he came up the inside braking into the first chicane, the rear weaving. Spies snatched a brief look behind to see number Haga’s number 41 right with him.
Spies fought back and had his foot off the peg as he dashed past Fabrizio on the brakes at Curve Grande and Haga also took the opportunity to slide into 2nd place however Fabrizio came back aggressively at Ascari and made it stick. These team antics let Spies get a little gap and it is clear that Fabrizio was not thinking of team orders if any were to exist.
Haga tried again on Fabrizio but Michel resisted and lost a lot of momentum mid-turn for his effort which further hampered the Ducatis’ chances of making it a last lap dash for winning glory. Despite this Fabrizio amazingly managed to close up on Spies again when disaster struck for Spies as he visibly slowed entering the last turn and the two Ducatis flashed by.
Michel Fabrizio was clearly ecstatic as he took his maiden World Superbike win in front of a home crowd rewarding the faith that Davide Tardozzi has shown in him. Spies bike crawled along as 12 other bikes blew past (including Biaggi for 3rd) and he eventually crossed the line in 15th for a solitary point, his Yamaha simply out of gas.
After the race Biaggi was penalized 20 seconds for straight lining a chicane promoting Ryuichi Kiyonari into 3rd. Jake Zemke who was subbing for injured John Hopkins finished 18th on a Honda.
Results: World Superbike Championship Round 5, Race 1
1. Michel FABRIZIO (Ducati 1098 F09) 2. Norikyuki HAGA (Ducati 1098 F09) -0.239 3. Ryuichi KIYONARI (Honda CBR1000RR), -8.175 4. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9) -11.001 5. Jonathan REA (Honda CBR1000RR), -12.447 6. Tom SYKES (Yamaha YZF-R1) -13.693 7. Ruben XAUS (BMW S1000 RR) -19.172 8. Regis LACONI (Ducati 1098R) -24.989 9. Carlos CHECA (Honda CBR1000RR) -26.930 10. Broc PARKES (Kawasaki ZX-10R) -27.418 11. Max BIAGGI (Aprilia RSV4 Factory) -27.752 12. Jakub SMRZ (Ducati 1098R) -29.545 13. Shinya NAKANO (Aprilia RSV4 Factory) -30.952 14. Shane BYRNE (Ducati 1098R) -31.414 15. Ben SPIES (Yamaha YZF-R1) -36.998 18. Jake ZEMKE (Honda CBR1000RR), -48.888
Michel Fabrizio: “Well, I really didn’t expect this win, even though I’d been up at the front for the past two days. I had a small problem when the gearing hit neutral after Ben and I touched and I was not able to find second. He got away a bit from me but I thought I had to fight until the very end because I was convinced I could do it. But I think his fuel finished, a real pity for him.”
Noriyuki Haga: “For sure we did a great race, and it was really tiring, unfortunately on the last lap and the last corner Ben had to stop, but for us we did a great job so I want to say a big thanks to all the team. My bike was working good but this weekend we had a little problem that we tried to find but we didn’t resolve and it wasn’t perfect.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari: “My start was very bad in race one but I was able to fight back lap by lap during the race. Still I can’t believe this result because on the last lap I thought fifth, but when the race stopped I was in fourth and when I got to my pit box my team told me I was third, so I was very surprised and happy.”
Quotes: Official World SBK site
The results put Haga in a commanding 79 point lead in the series with the second race still to come.
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