World Superbikes: Round 8, Race 1 Results from San Marino
Yamaha’s Ben Spies timed things to perfection to win the first race of the 8th Round of the 2009 World Superbike Championship held out Misano in the Republic of San Marino after the new flag to flag format was tested for the first time. Spies switched bikes at just the right time from wets to slicks as the track dried in the windy conditions, overhauling early leader Shane Byrne. Championship leader Noriyuki Haga struggled with his Miller injury to 5th whilst team-mate Michel Fabrizio made the podium just ahead of pole sitter Jacob Smrz.
Raceday dawned to a torrential rain storm meaning the track was wet, a point made clearly when Troy Croser crashed the BMW on the warm-up lap and reinforced further when British rider Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne, by definition a wet weather specialist, blasted off the line and straight into the lead ahead of pole man Jacob Smrz. After the first lap he already had a 2.2 second lead. Michel Fabrizio easily passed Spies on the second lap whilst Haga seemed content to sit behind the American given his back injury following his spectacular Salt Lake City crash. Jonathan Rea had a terrible start, the 2nd fastest qualifier starting from pit lane and then receiving a ride through penalty. Byrne continued to pull away at more than a second per lap so that after 7 laps he was already 10 seconds in the lead.
The real mover though was Ruben Xaus on the BMW who was relishing the wet conditions to lap even faster than Byrne and who was behind Haga in 7th place after just 8 laps. Haga started to struggle, clearly more injured than he was letting on looking very wooden on the bike and barely moving around as he began to be swamped by the riders behind him including Jamie Hacking on the Kawasaki. Shinya Nakano made World Superbike history as he was the first rider to swap bikes in the flag to flag race, switching to slicks on the Aprilia RSV4.
Like MotoGP, chaos ensued as the riders changed over and it was not clear who was on what tires. At half distance, Shakey was still in the lead by 22 seconds and still on wets whilst Haga, Spies et al had made the switch to slicks. With 10 laps to go Haga was 11th and now the fastest man on the circuit nearly 3 seconds a lap faster than Spies who was running in 8th.
Checa lost a lot of time in the pits as like Jonathan Rea, the Ten Kate Honda wouldn’t fire up when he switched machines. Bryne finally came in handing BMW the race lead for the first time ever in a World Superbike event, but Xaus was still on wets. Meanwhile Spies was charging in 5th and overhauled Byrne with ease since the Ducati man was still on slicks not up to race temperature. Spies swept past Xaus to take the lead, the wet tires on the BMW beginning to break up. Amazingly Ruben stayed out on his wet tire until just 5 laps to go whilst Spies pulled well away lapping 2 seconds faster a lap than the field.
With just 3 laps to go Smrz in 4th posted the fastest lap confounding his critics who claim he is Captain Qualifier who can’t last the distance in a race. To add further to the point he ran down Fabrizio on the factory machine on the last lap and just failed to pass him on the line. But it was Spies who held the day starting the 2nd half of the season the way he finished the first with a win from Byrne, Fabrizio and Smrz. Haga passed Kagayama for 5th making it 4 Ducati’s in the top 5 but a Yamaha in the spot that mattered most. Jonathan Rea had the race of the day to finish in 7th despite starting from pit lane, a ride through penalty and then his machine failing to fire when he pitted to swap bikes. The gamble for wet tire holdouts Xaus and Hacking didn’t payoff and they finished 14th and 16th respectively.
Ben Spies: “It was a hard one, we knew from the start it was going to get dry and in that first half hats off to Shakey, he rode great. I had the feeling in the rain that I wasn’t quite happy but I tried as hard as I could to stay close to Michel. My box showed me that some riders were starting to come in for a change so I said that it was time to get in now. It was a hectic race, pretty eventful, not a great race but I was happy to pull this one off.”
Shane Byrne: “That was a fantastic race. It’s a shame it didn’t stay wet for a little bit longer because I had a really big lead at one point. I wasn’t sure what to do with the tyre situation and all the time the lead was going up, and I didn’t know whether to stay out or not. I switched bikes with about seven laps to go and the first two laps were really difficult. Ben had done a couple more dry laps than I had, he passed me and there was no way I was going to get him. It was a fantastic result for the team at their home circuit, they’ve all worked really hard.”
Michel Fabrizio: “That’s not a bad result, it was a great battle with Jakub for the final podium slot. When I saw that on the big screen that he was getting closer and closer, I knew that I had to invent something special on the last lap. I was unable to find the best possible feeling immediately with the dry tyres and I slipped back a bit but I’ve had a lot of bad luck in recent years at Misano so I’m very happy to get onto the podium.”
link: Official World Superbike Site
Looks like Race 2 will be a straight fight in dry weather.
World Superbike Results: Race 1 from Misano
1 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 45’02.773 (135,093 kph)
2 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 7.931
3 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 11.836
4 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 11.886
5 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 31.670
6 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 33.241
7 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 35.772
8 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 41.931
9 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 51.507
10 14 Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 59.921
11 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’04.285
12 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’04.313
13 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’19.822
14 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1’22.412
15 53 Polita A. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’31.635
16 2 Hacking J. (USA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’39.830
17 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’42.964
18 10 Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’43.303
19 57 Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R
20 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR
21 94 Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1
22 36 Lavilla G. (ESP) Ducati 1098R
23 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R
NC 88 Resch R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9
RET 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R
RET 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R
RET 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR
NP 121 Hopkins J. (USA) Honda CBR1000RR
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