Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > WSBK 2009 - Round 5 Monza: 1st Qualifying

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Round 5 - Monza
Friday May 08 2009Round 5 - Monza DUCATI XEROX RIDER FABRIZIO FLIES TO TAKE PROVISIONAL POLE AT MONZA; HAGA THIRD


Monza (Italy) Friday 8th May: the Ducati Xerox Team is pumped up and ready for action, completing today the first qualifying session of the fifth World Superbike round of the season under the Monza sunshine. Factory rider Michel Fabrizio was on the pace from the first practice session of the day, finishing said session in first place before heading out onto a track that reached temperatures of 47°C for the afternoon qualifying session, in which he again pushed his 1198 machine to the limit, to conclude first qualifying three tenths of a second faster than any other rider on track.
Noriyuki also made an extremely positive start to the weekend and took the third fastest time of the day in the afternoon qualifying. Today’s results bode well for the weekend and both Noriyuki and Michel hope that the dry sunny weather is set to continue until the all important race day.

Michel Fabrizio 1m45.4s
“Fastest in both the free practice and first qualifying, yes I’d say it’s all going well so far. This weekend will be hard and Nori and Spies are on the pace but I’d really love to score my first win here at Monza and think that I can do a good job this weekend. In these last two weeks I have really thought hard about what’s needed and what’s needed is a win, to relieve some pressure, to boost by confidence and help take me to that next level. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions.”

Noriyuki Haga 1m45.7s
"It’s gone very well today yes. Unfortunately the track conditions are not as good as they were during testing here a couple of weeks ago but finally we got under the 1m45 barrier and feeling has improved throughout the day even if I hope to find more improvements tomorrow by changing a few things. We’re still not sure about the tyres but it will be interesting to see how we go tomorrow morning. So far, so good I think.”

TIMES: 1. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.4s; 2. Sykes (Yamaha) 1m45.7s; 3. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m45.7s; 4. Rea (Honda) 1m45.9s; 5. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m45.9s; 6. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m45.9s; 7. Spies (Yamaha) 1m46.0s; 8. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1m46.0s