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Spies gets down to business in the Portuguese Sunshine

Championship title contender Ben Spies got straight down to business today under a clear blue sky and brilliant Portuguese sunshine, spending both the free practice session and following first qualifying session re acquainting himself with the Portimao circuit. Spies spent the sessions working through different tyre options and race settings, looking for the optimum set up ahead of tomorrow's second qualifying and following Superpole sessions. He showed a consistent pace throughout qualifying, before putting the hammer down as the final seconds ticked away to finish third in the standings, less than one tenth of a second off fastest man Rea.

Team mate Tom Sykes had a less enjoyable day. The British rider showed true courage to work hard through both sessions despite suffering constant shoulder pain resulting from his collision with Carlos Checa in the second race at Magny Cours.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (3rd, 1'43.870)
"we had a good day today, we worked a lot on the race set up and evaluated a couple of different tyres. The package feels good and the bike feels good on the track, all we can do is keep trying to make it better and better and keep working on my riding and see what happens. The track is still a little green but it's getting better."

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (18th, 1'45.239)
"it's definitely not going to plan today. I'm upset for myself and for the team, I had very big expectations of this weekend especially as in the test I was running as fast as the front guys. I'm struggling a lot with the shoulder, it's worse than I expected. I'm finding it hard but trying not to let the boys down so I'm going to the clinic tonight to see what the boyto s can come up with. I hope we can get stronger over the next couple of days."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
"Ben is quite satisfied, he says the bike still needs some improvements in a couple of corners but he's feeling confident. We are still working to find the right race tyre. Unfortunately Tom is in a lot of pain, I know how he feels because I had the same problem many years ago. We hope he can get some more help from the Clinica Mobile and will be able to improve tomorrow."

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SBK: EIGHTH PLACE FOR BIAGGI,
NINETEENTH FOR CAMIER

A Spring-like day opened the final round of the 2009 SBK at Portimao. All
eyes were on Haga and Spies who were still battling it out for the title,
but it was Rea on the Ten Kate Honda who achieved the best time of 1:43:786,
with a advantage of 80 thousandths over Smrz and 84 thousandths over Spies
on his Yamaha.

It was eighth place for Max Biaggi with a time of 1:44:210 just 0:424
behind Rea. A problem with his RSV4 a few minutes after the end of the
qualifying round complicated the Roman driver's quest for the best race
settings.
Leon Camier finished in nineteenth place with a time of 1:45:333, replacing
Shinya Nakana who is still recovering from his neck injury, here in
Portugal once again after Magny Cours. The young English driver experienced
an apprentice's day trying to learn all of the secrets of the track in
Lusitana and to improve his feeling with the RSV4.

"Unfortunately, just fifteen minutes before the end of the warm-ups, the
bike that I had been using all day had a little problem," said Biaggi. "So
during the last few minutes I had to use the second motorcycle with which I
hadn't even done one lap and it wasn't ready. With respect to the last two
races, we suffered from excessive vibrations going into the curve and this
created quite a few problems for me. Now we're working a lot to try to
resolve these difficulties. I'll have to drive it to try to find the best
compromise to be the fastest possible starting tomorrow."

"We made very few changes today with respect to the last round," said
Camier. "This was to improve my feeling with the RSV4 and to learn the
track well, which is quite technical in some parts. We are still a long
ways off compared to the others, but tomorrow we have to make some big
changes, especially with regard to the curves, where I tend to slip a lot."

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THE SEASON FINALE OPENS AT PORTIMAO; FABRIZIO SEVENTH AND HAGA NINTH IN FIRST QUALIFYING

Portimao (Portugal), Friday 23rd October 2009:  the 2009 World Superbike Championship finale opened today under clear, sunny skies at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, the duel between championship title contenders Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) and Ben Spies (Yamaha) getting underway with a closely fought first qualifying session. Michel Fabrizio, already assured of third place in the final championship standings, closed qualifying in seventh position, with Noriyuki in ninth; both riders are confident ahead of Sunday's showdown.

In the opening free practice session of this weekend's season finale, championship contender Noriyuki Haga immediately demonstrated his determination by putting himself at the top of the timesheets early on in the session. He remained consistently fast throughout the hour, and was the only rider to complete several laps in under 1m45,  including a fastest lap of 1m44.9s registered during a mini long-run. His quickest lap left him in second position overall when privateer Ducati rider Smrz made a flying lap in the latter stages of the practice. Team-mate Michel Fabrizio worked to improve rear grip and overall feeling with his Ducati 1198 and although he closed in eighth position, he was only two tenths of a second off Noriyuki's pace.

Later in the day and on a hotter track (38°C) with respect to the morning, both factory Ducati riders worked with their technicians to improve both grip and absorption over the uneven track surface. Both Noriyuki and Michel were lapping with consistently fast times but, with the first ten riders all within half a second of each other, the Ducati Xerox men closed this closely fought first qualifying session in seventh (Michel) and ninth place (Noriyuki), Michel just a tenth of a second faster than his Japanese team-mate. The Ducati 1198 machines in the hands of Smrz (Guandalini Racing), Byrne (Team Sterilgarda) and Nieto (DFX Corse) also demonstrated their potential today, closing in second, fifth and sixth position respectively.

Michel Fabrizio 1m44.1s

"For now I'd say we have things under control. Today we worked mainly with the hard tyres to improve feeling on the track surface. I don't yet have total faith in the front of the bike and the asphalt was not in the best condition, which meant I couldn't really push as hard as I wanted to. Tomorrow we'll make some more changes, testing some different tyres and hopefully I'll be able to improve significantly on my time."

Noriyuki Haga 1m44.2s

"The lap times today were faster than those recorded during testing earlier this year. In general we haven't had any real problems but we are working to find the optimal setting and we'll continue this work tomorrow. I would like to find more grip but apart from that I am pretty confident, I know we are fast and that we can be very competitive here."

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Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea earned himself a provisional front row start by setting the fastest time in today's opening qualifying session for Sunday's title-deciding World Superbike championship finale at Portimao in Portugal.

Rea lapped the 4.92km circuit in a time of 1'43.786s - one thousandth of a second under Troy Bayliss's 2008 lap record - while title rivals Ben Spies and Noriyuki Haga set the third and ninth fastest times respectively in this afternoon's hour-long qualifying session.

Carlos Checa also took a provisional front row start by setting the fourth fastest time with a lap of 1'43.945s. The Spaniard is confident of further improvement in tomorrow morning's second qualifying session, to be followed by Superpole at 14.00h local time to determine final grid positions for Sunday's two 22-lap races.

Jonathan Rea - P1, 1'43.786s
That was a good first day and we've found a good balance with the bike. We've been trying to put some distance on race tyres and we only used three tyres today. I'm finding more confidence on the bike each time I go out and the team is working really well. We're not getting ahead of ourselves though, and know that we need to go out and attack tomorrow, just like we did today. This is quite a technical track and I felt like I really gelled with it for the first time during that session. That's not all down to me, but also to the hard work the team has been putting in recently.

Carlos Checa - P4, 1'43.945s
It seems that we have a base setting that works really well at places like Brno, Nurburgring and here, while it is more critical at other tracks like Imola and Magny-Cours. Here, we are again on the pace, even though there are still some areas we need to work on. Today, I tested both bikes and the two tyre options and, although the setting's were quite different, the lap times were similar. We will try to push for tomorrow and make some longer runs on the tyres, but I think we are already nearly ready.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager
That was a very good start to the weekend and it's easy to see now the progress and improvements that have been made to the Honda CBR1000RR during this year, since the pre-season tests at Portimao, where the unique layout makes it such a joy for the riders. Having two bikes on the provisional front row is testimony to the hard work that the riders and their crews have been putting in during the year. There is still some more work to do, of course, and we will start to put that in this evening to see where we can make some improvements for tomorrow.

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Team Suzuki Alstare news
2009 Superbike World Championship
Round 14, Portimao, Portugal
Friday qualifying, 23rd October
Circuit: 4.592 kms. Conditions: Dry, mostly sunny 21-25 C.

YUKIO JUST MISSES TOP TEN. SYLVAIN STEADY ON DEBUT.

Team Suzuki Alstare riders Yukio Kagayama and new boy Sylvain Guintoli ended the first day of practice and qualifying with the 11th and 22nd fastest laps respectively. Yukio suffered rear suspension problems, but is confident that he and the team will improve the bike tomorrow so that he can attack Superpole and be in a good position for Sunday's races.

For Sylvain, today was all about learning the bike, learning a new track and working with his new team. He worked hard in both sessions and is now looking forward to tomorrow and making significant progress.

Jonathan Rea (Honda) set today's fastest lap, with Jakub Smrz (Ducati) second, Ben Spies (Yamaha) third and Carlos Checa (Honda) fourth.

Yukio - 11th, 1:44.674
Today was not so bad and I am a bit happy because the front suspension is working well and I am getting a lot of feedback from it. This means that I can push the front much harder and attack more. Now we have to do more on the rear because, at the moment, the feeling is not so good.
We can improve this for sure, but we just need more kilometres. I tried a soft tyre at the end of qualifying today, but for me, the grip was no better than race rubber. I am a bit sad, because this weekend will be my last race with Suzuki Alstare and so I want to qualify well and say thank you to the team by ending with a good result.

Sylvain - 22nd, 1:45.508
Considering that today was my first time on this bike and my first time at this track, I am pretty happy with what we did. Although I raced a GSX-R1000 Suzuki in the British Superbike Championship this year, the Suzuki Alstare bike feels very different and that means I have to learn about it. Also, this was my first time at this track and I can tell you that it is a very technical track and very demanding. On TV, you don't get a true impression about the elevation changes and this track is a real roller-coaster!
I am happy because I think we found a good base set-up today and I am very happy about how well I have got on with this new team. Already I feel part of it and this makes it easy to look forward to tomorrow and making further progress.

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