World Superbike News

Jonathan Rea 2009

Sunday saw round eight of the World Superbike Championship take place at the Misano Adriatico circuit in Italy with Ben Spies and Jonathan Rea sharing the wins.

Race One

On his first visit to the Misano circuit Ben Spies on the Yamaha World Superbike claimed his eighth win of the season in a flag-to-flag race.

Due to bad weather in the qualifying session, none of the riders were able to improve on their times in Q2 so the times remained the same as Q1.

Jakub Smrz on the Guandalini Racing Ducati, qualified in pole position during Superpole with an impressive time of 1:35.434 ahead of Jonathan Rea on the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda and Ben Spies on the Yamaha World Superbike.

Starting with a wet track the first half of the race was dominated by the Sterilgarda Ducati rider Shane Byrne until the riders re-entered the pits to swap bikes for a rapidly drying circuit.

Spies was on the ball immediately with his dry set-up and went on to take the victory with a gap of nearly eight seconds from second place man Byrne.

Michel Fabrizio on the Ducati Xerox machine finished in third after fighting off Smrz who was also aiming for that final step on the podium.  In fifth place was Noriyuki Haga on the second Ducati Xerox after passing Yukio Kagayama on the Suzuki Alstare in the closing laps of the race.  Haga admitted to struggling with his tyre choice during the race meaning he was unable to push as much as he wanted to.

Jonathan Rea finished in seventh place after starting from the pit lane after developing fuel problems on his sighting lap.  He was followed by Tom Sykes on the second Yamaha World Superbike, Shinya Nakano on the Aprilia Racing machine and Matthieu Lagrive on the Althea Honda completing the top ten.

Rea and Ryuichi Kiyonari on the Ten Kate Honda Racing machine were both given a drive-through penalty after the Japanese rider gave Rea a lift back to the pits during the sighting lap.

Leon Haslam on the Stiggy Motorsport bike blamed himself for his dismal twelfth place finish in the first race after making a bad decision to stay out longer than he should have on wet tyres leaving him too short of time to challenge the front runners.

Here are the results:

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

Race 2

A fantastic battle took place during the second race of the day between Irish rider Jonathan Rea, Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga.

Rea started from second on the grid he had passed race leader Haga on lap four to take the lead and continued to swap the lead with the Japanese rider and Fabrizio several times before making it stick on the final lap to claim his first WSB victory.

Fabrizio finished in second ahead of championship leader Haga in third and Jakub Smrz in fourth.  Carlos Checa on the second Hanspree Ten Kate Honda finished in fifth place after being passed by Smrz on the final lap followed by Shane Byrne in sixth.

Here are the results;

1 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 39′11.204 (155,293 kph)
2 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 0.063
3 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 0.457
4 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 3.635
5 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 4.460
6 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 4.538
7 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 12.679
8 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 12.763
9 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 13.237
10 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 14.412
11 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 20.073
12 10 Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 20.239
13 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 22.351
14 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 24.547
15 36 Lavilla G. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 24.696
16 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 25.615
17 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 31.887
18 57 Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 34.751
19 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 38.061
20 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 47.717
21 14 Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 48.973
22 2 Hacking J. (USA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 51.027
23 53 Polita A. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 52.526
24 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 57.589
25 88 Resch R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′36.359
RET 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R
RET 94 Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1
RET 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R