All posts tagged wsbk-imola
Ben Spies Talks Imola - Video
Ben Spies gave Jonathan Green of On The Throttle an in depth interview about all the problems he had in yesterday’s Imola races.
One of the comments that really sparked our interest was when Spies was asked about the rumors of him switching to MotoGP next year, his answer: “we’re not at liberty to really say what’s going on right now” tantamounts to an admission that something definitely is going on.
BSN has gone as far as to state that Yamaha will make an official statement as early as tomorrow announcing that Spies will switch with James Toseland and make the move to MotoGP in 2010 and Toseland will take his place in the Yamaha Superbike team.
Stayed tuned because the Spies story isn’t over yet.
WSBK Imola Race 1- Haga Bounces Back
Italian engineering ruled during race one of the WSBK Championship at Imola. The podium saw Noriyuki Haga on Ducati take first, Max Biaggi on the Aprilia RSV4 take second and Haga’s team mate Michel Fabrizio, third place.
Max Biaggi led most of the 21 lap race, with the Ducati riders exchanging second and third, until Biaggi made a small mistake on lap 18 and Haga went past and opened the throttle putting a wide margin over Biaggi. Michel Fabrizio, who was complaining of shoulder pain before the race, overtook the Aprilia and looked like he would take second place, but Biaggi wasn’t having it. On the last lap and on the final variante, Biaggi dived up the inside of Fabrizio and held his place to the finish line.
Points leader Ben Spies was fourth, only at times being able keep up the pace that the three front runners were doing and would finish a full 5.4 seconds from Haga, losing 12 points and bringing his championship advantage down to six points.
Max Biaggi's Imola Helmet
The late Enzo Ferrari used to have a saying, that for every child that a driver had, he’d lose a second on his race time and slow down. Obviously Ferrari never saw Troy Bayliss, who has three kids, or Noriyuki Haga who has two or Michel Fabrizio who has two, race a motorcyle.
Aprilia’s Max Biaggi is sporting this new design on his Suomy helmet to celebrate the birth of his daughter Inès Angelica, last Wednesday. The sticker says Go Slow Daddy.
Biaggi was quoted by Gpone as saying: “I spent the day in the hospital and at the end, I had a headache and my teeth hurt”
Right Max, thank God you’ll won’t ever have to go through hours and hours of labour.
WSBK Imola - Fabrizio steals Superpole
Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio took his first ever pole position for tomorrow’s two World Superbike races at Imola. Fabrizio snatched the pole position from Ben Spies on his final lap and in the dying seconds of the session, with a 1.47.735 just 0.043s ahead of the Yamaha rider.
Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea will start from third position tomrrow ahead of Noriyuki Haga who completes the first row.
Jakub Smrz leads row two, leaving Aprilia’s Max Biaggi behind by half a second. Shane Byrne took seventh and an amazing Marco Simoncelli was eighth. The Italian rider taking part in his first ever Superpole. Troy Corser was 9th barely beating out Leon Haslam, who closed the top ten.
Michel Fabrizio:
“I’m really happy, I wanted this Superpole at all costs, and it’s even more satisfying to get it at home. Maybe I should only do the Italian championship as I got my first win at Monza and my first pole here! In any case tomorrow it’ll be a great battle between us young guys, because our race pace is pretty similar, so I feel sure we’ll have some fun tomorrow.”
WSBK Imola Delayed Free Practice Results
If you expected an apology or a decent explanation about what happened today during the WSBK FP1 at Imola, you’re not going to get it. The circuit organizers have down played the occurance and stated that a number of riders requested that the track be cleaned because they considered it to be too slippery. The track was finally washed and dried after more than two hours of consultations and riders refusing to ride, but according to the official SBK website, several riders and team managers maintained that it was only necessary for the riders to stay out on the track to continue to lay down rubber.
We won’t get into the controversy, but when some of the most experienced riders in the world (Spies, Haga, Biaggi, Rea, Corser, Haslam, Byrnes and others) who’ve raced in all type of conditions say that a track is dangerous because it has no grip, you’ve got to believe them and respect their opinions because it’s their lives that are on the line not the promoters.
Free practice finally got underway at 17.45 and saw Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio take the fastest time with a 1.49.895 and the only rider to get under the 1.50 mark, followed Carlos Checa, with points leader Ben Spies third, and Jonathan Rea (who just renewed his contract with Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was fourth.
Max Biaggi took fifth place, while 250 cc world champion Marco Simoncelli who is subbing for Shinya Nakano and his first outing at Imola was twelfth while Noriyuki Haga, who is trailing behind Spies in the standings was thirteenth.
Full times after the jump:
Marco Simoncelli says Yes! Will Race at Imola
Italy will have their dream team this weekend at Imola, because Marco Simoncelli has decided to take up the challenge and will make his World Superbike debut on the Aprilia RSV-4 alongside Max Biaggi.
“I’m very happy with this test and I was pretty fast and together with the bike managed to improve a lot, and I found it much better when I tried it at Valencia last year. We worked with the team to find the right set-up and at Imola it will be important to find a good set-up right as quick as possible that will make things easier.”
“I’d like to thank Aprilia for this great opportunity, I will be making my debut in a category and on a track that are completely unknown to me, the level of our rivals is very high and it won’t be at all easy to obtain a good result as I haven’t had much time on a four stroke and I’ve never raced with Pirelli tires, I’ve never even walked around Imola on foot.”
Simoncelli had all eyes on him today at Mugello, Aprilia bigwigs Gigi Dall’Igna, Giampiero Sacchi, Simoncelli’s current boss Gilera/Aprilia’s Luca Boscoscuro and even Simoncelli’s future boss in MotoGP Fausto Gresini was curious and showed up to see Marco Simoncelli in action on the Aprilia RSV-4. Simoncelli did at total of 91 laps with a best time of 1’53”55.
Max Biaggi was also testing at Mugello today, after his daughter’s birth yesterday at Montecarlo. Biaggi is just as curious as everyone to see how Simoncelli will do in this race because Simoncelli is also a 250cc World Champion, just like the Roman Emperor.
Continue reading: Marco Simoncelli says Yes! Will Race at Imola
Aprilia RSV4 R in white to be revealed at Imola WSBK
Aprilia is presenting the RSV4 R at the Imola Superbike round this weekend. These pics show the RSV4 R in white (very smooth, we think), and it shares the same V4 engine with 180 hp as the track-based RSV 4. The RSV4 R will also have the same chassis and ride-by-wire throttle control.
Additional features like Ohlins suspension and carbon fibre won’t be found on the RSV4 R, but the engine technology is such that if you’re buying this little baby, you probably won’t care whether alloy rims are included or not.
More news on the Aprilia RSV4 R will appear on September 27, and we should have more pics then, too. Check out previous posts for RSV4 R spy shots.
Source | Asphalt and Rubber
Marco Simoncelli to Replace Nakano at Imola?
Surprising news is coming from Motosprint according to the Italian website 2250cc rider Marco Simoncelli seems to have accepted Aprilia Racing Team offer to race in this Sunday’s WSBK round at Imola.
Simoncelli has previously tested the Aprilia RSV4 Factory last November at Valencia, a gift from Aprilia and his Team Metis Gilera for his 2008 World title, but today he’s at the Mugello race circuit putting in some serious test time in order to prepare for Sunday’s race at Imola.
Aprilia called in Simoncelli to replace Shinya Nakano, who will not be riding in the next two races due to severe neck problems.
Source | motosprint
UPDATE:
According to Gpone, Simoncelli will be also testing tomorrow and will make a final decision tomorrow evening and Aprilia in the meantime has also called in Alex Hoffmann, their test rider.
Be With Noriyuki Haga Live at Imola
Can’t be at Imola next week for 12th round of the WSBK Championship? The Ducati Xerox Team, in collaboration with Ducati Corse will be offering a rare opportunity for those fans from around the world the chance to see Noriyuki Haga and his team, direct from the Ducati garage at Imola in live streaming on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September
A web-cam, positioned Haga’s pit garage, will be activated between 14.00 and 17.00 on Saturday and between 09.00 and 17.00 on Sunday and to access the live stream you will need to log on to the official Ducati site www.ducati.com.
More information will be available on the Ducati website from Monday 21st September and if the project works, Ducati will be offering the same service for the final two rounds at Magny-Cours and Portimao.
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