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Press Release

Spies takes Superpole #11 at Portimao, Haga starts from row 3

Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda) overhauled Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) at the end of the session to take an excellent fifth place, after the Italian had crashed out in the pre-Superpole free session. Fonsi Nieto (DFX Ducati) and Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad) will line up alongside on the second row, while WSB newcomer Sylvian Guintoli made an excellent debut with eleventh place on the Suzuki Alstare machine.

Ben Spies: "We've been working under the radar all weekend on a lot of different things. Superpole was good for us, we kept pushing as hard as we could. Unfortunately Nori is back on the third row but we need anything we can get for track position. But it's not just about me and Nori tomorrow, there are other guys, we'll just run our own race and give it everything we've got to try and win both these things."

Shane Byrne: "I'm delighted to be back on the front row, it seems like it's been forever. We actually used both of our qualifying tyres before the last section and then a 42.99 came up on my dash and I was so tired that I closed the throttle on the straight and I had one more lap to go! Hopefully we can have a good weekend here and see what happens for next year."

Michel Fabrizio: "It was very hot and difficult in qualifying today. For the race I think the bike is OK, but in qualifying it was not so good. My racepace is quite similar to Ben Spies's but I know he is very fast. Hopefully also Shane can get into the battle. It's very important for me to do a good race for Ducati tomorrow and for sure I'll try and give a hand to my team-mate."

Jonathan Rea: "Twelve months ago I made my Superbike debut here and I didn't like the track. I think I must be getting worse because I was third on the grid last year. But we've had a good weekend so far and I've got a really good feeling with the bike."

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Spies claims the all time World Superbike Superpole record

Any doubt of Ben Spies' claim to all-time rookie fame was squashed today as he took pole position ahead of tomorrow's races with an incredible flying Superpole lap. This makes eleven poles for Spies, and gives him the record for most poles in a season ever in World Superbike to add to his other records already smashed this year. The American rider had a clear strategy for the three Superpole heats, coming out for just one lap in the first to qualify fifth for the second session with a 1'43.532. He then switched to a qualifier for the second heat and immediately dropped below the 1.43 mark to put in an astonishing 1'42.568, nearly eight tenths of a second faster than the previous lap record held by Troy Bayliss in 2008. Having moved through to the final heat, Spies then made it clear he was here to win this weekend, using his second qualifier to smash his own record, setting pole with an incredible 1'42.412. Spies had spent the earlier qualifying and free practice sessions working quietly on the set up of his race bike, holding out for the Superpole to reveal the Yamaha's balance and turn of speed.

Yamaha World Superbike rider Tom Sykes continued to struggle today with his shoulder injury. The British rider bravely battled on despite being in serious pain and discomfort, but was unable to translate his efforts into a fast consistent lap time on what is a very physical track. He will start tomorrow's two races from 21st on the grid.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World superbike Team (1st ,1'42.412)

"Getting the Superpole record is cool, it's one of those things that one day I'll look back on and enjoy, however right now I just see it as track position for me. I've got no other goals but to gain further help for my race tomorrow. We saw Haga struggle a little bit today but I'm sure Ducati will work it out quickly. We're just going to put it together tomorrow and see what happens. We've not wanted to show our pace until Superpole, then we pinned it and got some good laps in. We've got some other things to work on for race day and hopefully we can tie it down some more."

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (21st, 1'44.978)

"We tried a number of things today to get myself comfortable, I've spent a lot of time in the Clinica Mobile, hats off to them they are working really hard to patch me up. It seems I need more time to recover from the injury properly though. I'm really sorry for the Yamaha World superbike Team. To end this way is not ideal for me, It's not how I wanted to repay them for a season of hard work, we'll see what tomorrow brings."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team

"There are places where we can still improve on Ben's bike so for sure tonight the guys will try to find some solutions to make him more comfortable, hopefully we'll see positive results from that in the morning warm up. Tom unfortunately missed the Superpole session but I was expecting something like that today as he has been in a lot of pain. I know what he's feeling so all I can say is that he's trying really hard."

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Round 14 - Portimao
Saturday Oct 24 2009Round 14 - Portimao

DIFFICULT QUALIFYING FOR HAGA (DUCATI XEROX) TODAY AT PORTIMAO, SOLID THIRD PLACE FOR FABRIZIO

Portimao (Portugal), Saturday 24th October 2008: championship contender Noriyuki Haga and his Ducati Xerox squad experienced a difficult day, and a difficult Superpole, at the Portimao circuit today, closing in tenth position, while Michel Fabrizio and his Ducati 1198 had more success, qualifying on the front row, alongside Spies (Yamaha), Byrne (Ducati) and Rea (Honda), for tomorrow's crucial races.

In second qualifying this morning both Noriyuki and Michel continued to work to improve the rear setting of their Ducati 1198 machines, with both able to improve on yesterday's qualifying times despite an apparent lack of rear grip. Michel recorded the second fastest time of the session, ducking under the 1m44 barrier several times, to be beaten only by Jonathan Rea (Honda) while Noriyuki concluded the session in fifth place, improving on yesterday's performance and securing himself safe passage into the afternoon's Superpole.

Early afternoon free practice passed without incident, Michel and Noriyuki finished in second and eighth place respectively. Noriyuki and Michel then exited in the first mini-Superpole sessione on race tyres, thw two factory riders doing enough to progress easily on to the second phase, having closed phase one in tenth (Michel) and eleventh (Nori) position. Qualifying tyres were then mounted for the second session and in his first exit Michel registered the fifth fastest time. He didn't re-exit and so his fifth position dropped to eighth. Noriyuki, having consistently lost time in the third split throughout today, was unable to put together a fast lap in this second Superpole with his best time leaving him in tenth place, which positions him on the third row for tomorrow's all important races. Michel, with a new qualifier ready for the final Superpole phase made one very fast lap to project himself into first position, a position he maintained until the last minute when both Yamaha's Spies and Byrne on the Ducati lapped faster, meaning third place on the grid for the Italian rider tomorrow.

Michel Fabrizio 1m43.0s
"Of course I'm satisfied to be on the front row but it wasn't easy this afternoon. Ben really got the best out of the qualifying tyre while I found it more difficult to work with; there are also many strong guys out there this weekend. Anyway, I'll start from third and, bearing in mind that the championship is at stake, I will do everything to get ahead of Ben tomorrow, to help my team-mate Nori in the fight for the title. It will be hard for him, starting from the third row but we will see tomorrow; he is an extremely strong and expert rider. For me it might be difficult to stick with Ben, especially in the first laps, but I feel prepared. There's also another Ducati on the front row; it's good to have Shakey here too and I hope that he can be part of tomorrow's battle for the win."

Noriyuki Haga 1m43.3s
"Of course it is a disadvantage to be on the third row of the grid but I've won races from that position in the past and I know that anything can happen on race day. The problem is that all day today I've had trouble turning and, at the same time, I'm not happy with the level of rear grip. We used the two qualifying tyres in the second Superpole session and they gave me better grip but didn't help me to move the bike into the corners any more easily. So I'm consistently losing time in the final split and that's the real problem. We must change something for tomorrow so I'm talking to my engineer and we'll see tomorrow morning if we've found a solution that will enable me to fight for the race and title wins."

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Stiggy Racing Honda rider Leon Haslam claims a fifth place start position at Portimao

Saturday, October 24

Stiggy Racing Honda rider Leon Haslam secured a strong fifth place on the second day of qualifying for the ultimate round of the World Superbike Championship at Portimao in Portugal today.

Leon who started the weekend at a strong pace encountered technical issues in the last minutes of qualifying yesterday and didn't get enough laps out around the 4.592km track on his CBR 1000RR, finishing in a 10th place. Luckily Leon quickly found his pace again in today's sessions and worked his way up through the afternoon's three12-minute Superpole shoot-outs to finally take a second row start for tomorrow's 22-lap races.

Leon Haslam - P5 - 1'43.523s:
"I am pretty happy and we made some good progress through the weekend. We are lacking a little bit in the high RPM, so we are losing 0.1 or 0.2 seconds per lap, but we have only been 0.1 or 0.2 off the quickest all weekend. In that last Superpole we were frustrated because we ended up going back to the old qualifying tyre. It had dropped off a bit but it was still better than the new one. But I'm still quite happy to be fifth and on the second row."

Johan Stigefelt - Team Manager:

"I am really happy and it is fantastic to come to the end of the season and make it into the final Superpole, and Leon finished fifth, which is great. We were hoping for a front row but the second qualifying tyre he used in the last section was not good enough so he did his best time on a used qualifier. We are looking forward to tomorrow as Leon is very strong, one of the most consistent riders, and I'm sure he can challenge for the podium."

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SUPERPOLE: BIAGGI IN THE SECOND ROW,
CAMIER FINISHES THIRTEENTH

It was sunny and warm at Portimao for the final Superpole of the 2009 season. Ben Spies, on his Yamaha factory conquered the pole position with a time of 1:42:412, 0:584 ahead of Byrne's Ducati and 0:603 ahead of Fabrizio's factory version.

Max Biaggi came in sixth with a time of 1:43:714, just 1:114 from the pole position. The Roman driver was the victim of a bad fall during the warm-ups before the Superpole, suffering several contusions and damaging the motorcycle that he had chosen for the race. In Superpole 1, he used the second bike and managed to secure the second place time by using racing tyres. In Superpole 2 he the first qualifying tyre and he achieved a time of 1:42:956, which qualified him for the last stage in third place. Leon Camier finished in thirteenth place with a time of 1:43:671, 1:259 behind Spies. During the first stage, the English driver qualified for the last open spot with the first qualifying tyre. In Superpole 2, he used the second one and remained in ninth place for quite a while, dropping back to thirteenth only during the last moments of the qualifying race.

"During the fall that happened in the warm-ups I damaged the bike that I do the best with," stated Biaggi, "and I had to use the second motorcycle which wasn't ready. In order to qualify, I couldn't push it to the maximum with the qualifying tyre because I wasn't very secure, and I don't know how to explain the reason why Superpole 3 was slower for everyone. I ended up with some contusions, which hurt a bit and I went to the Mobile clinc. Fortunately nothing is broken and starting this evening I'll begin a therapy with painkillers so I can participate in the two races tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll have to work a lot more during the warm-ups to be able to make up for the time that was lost with the falls."

"We changed the bike quite a bit with respect to yesterday," said Camier, "and the situation has improved a great deal, just as my feeling with the RSV4 has also improved. The grid position isn't the best, but we all have times that are close to each other. We've understood which direction we have to work towards and I'm certain that well have a great race tomorrow."

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WSBK'09 Round 14 Portimao, day 2

Shane Byrne may be the outsider in the WSBK finale taking place tomorrow but the British rider set the second fastest time at the end of Superpole and will start from the front row. He will try to score his second podium result of the season, after the one in race 1 at Misano. Tomorrow's two races will be a battle for the title between Haga and Spies. Shakey might have a say, although it will be a very hard-fought race.

SHANE BYRNE Ducati 1098R 2nd in 1'42.996: "I was never this close to crash as I was today. I gave 110%, I rode to the limit and I set a very good time. I'm confident for tomorrow, it's going to be a battle for the title and I'll try to give it my all. I'll have to get a good start and be constantly focused because many riders are going very fast and it's definitely not going to be an easy one. I just hope to end the season with a great result".

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Ten Kate Honda

Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow's final two World Superbike championship races at Portimao in Portugal from the front row of the grid after setting the fourth fastest times in today's Superpole qualifying sessions.

The 22-year-old had topped the time sheets in both earlier qualifying sessions and set a blistering time in the Superpole 1 on a race tyre. However, in Superpole 3, Rea had to ride around a slower rider, after showing the quickest time in the first two sectors of his flying lap of the 4.92km Portimao circuit.

Rea's bid for the top slot was spoiled, as Ben Spies went on to take pole position for tomorrow's two 22-lap races, with series leader, Noriyuki Haga, qualifying tenth fastest.

Although he ran comfortably within the top six of all free practice and qualifying sessions, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa will start from the third row of the grid after setting the 12th fastest time in Superpole.

Jonathan Rea - P4, 1'42.719s (Superpole 2)
I'm actually quite happy - it's a front row start after all, and we've been right on the pace all weekend so far. The strange thing is that the bike seems to work better on race tyres than it does on the qualifiers, so I think we're ready and feeling confident for tomorrow. I had a few problems with other riders on the track and I made a few mistakes of my own, but I'm not going to be too down in the dumps about it. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's two races, which are going to be a proper dog fight, for sure!

Carlos Checa - P12, 1'43.461s (Superpole 2)
Once again, we seem to have struggled in qualifying. I did the same lap times on the qualifying tyre as I did on the race tyre. Qualifying yesterday and this morning was good and we had the pace for top five. But with the qualifying tyres in the bike, we don't seem to have enough pace even for the top eight. I'm not so worried though, and I think we can run top five pace again in the races with a good start. The races are long so there will be plenty of overtaking opportunities.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager
Clearly, someone was in the way of Jonathan's fast lap in the final Superpole session and it was the usual guy waiting around for a tow. However, Jonathan's front row start is not so bad and we are quite sure he will have the pace to run at the front in tomorrow's races. Of course, we are disappointed for Carlos after he has been running in the top five or six all weekend, but I'm sure he will be able to battle well tomorrow.

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SUPERB START FOR SYLVAIN.

Sylvain - 11th, 1:43.406

Yukio - 14th, 1:43.717

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