Help us:
|
|
|
| | | World SuperBike Qatar : Big Bang Ben lays down his rules! |  Written: 16/03/2009 : 15:35. Read 9281 times (9/day). | We expected to see him up front, but not really as close to the stars. Ben Spies just outclassed his fellow fiends from the begining to the end of this race weekend. Track record, pole position, and double victory, what can we say except that Noriyuki Haga and the others, Biaggi first, were not able to hold their course in front of this new texas tornado!
 1 votes | |
| |
It was this weekend in Qatar, this little peninsula nestled in the heart of persian gulf. All the WSBK contenders were here to compete the second event of the begining 2009 season.
Newcomers, Aprilia and BMW were a bit nervous to fight the pack without much informations (nothing for BMW).
Italians from Bologna arrived quite confident after the astralian meeting, and Japanese were as usual, cool and calm.
This discretion of Japanese was quickly changed in a really impressive lesson from Spies's Yamaha, while Honda Suzuki and Kawasaki were stopped at the border of top 5.
So, the fact who took my attention, and just made my jaw drop was the easiness of this American rider. Rookie in the series, rookie in this track, and on a new bike, he managed to destroy his contenders.
Useless to say that those two races were a really candy for motorcycle lovers, but they also permitted to understand that Ben Spies is a really quick learner. Not beacause he manages to learn Losail track in "one minute", this is his job! But because we saw a smart rider, able to adapt his strategy during the race. His intelligence troughout the battle and his expedience.
The first leg was just a model of perfect race.
Waiting behind the two hares (Haga and Biaggi), Spies has just had to wait until the last 8 laps to give them the final blow.
He was easy behind those two, and wait just to the right moment to attack. Two passes, fast and right, and Spies made his effort to escape from them. After two laps the story was over.
The second race was a routine task, great start and a fast pace right away. A solo race and one more evidence that Big Bang Ben Spies is a really great rider.
Lets talk about the others riders, because this american shined so strongly that he dazzeled everyone!
First with Ducati who suffered during this weekend. Haga was the only one to really show the 1198 up front. Jakub Smrz also was not so bad (qualifyed 2) but his two races were a disaster. He fell during the first race and was forced to start from the pit lane in leg 2.
The other official rider, Michele Fabrizio was in the middle of a nightmare. Two withdrawal, a weekend to forget.
On Aprilia's side, after a nice australian "rendez vous", Qatar was supposed to be the confirmation of the great potential of the RSV4 and it was!
Led by Max Biaggi, the two RSV4 were able to manage a three-four double on first race and Biaggi made a second Podium during second race.
Now we can say that the new Aprilia RSV4 is just from tenth to a victory, and it will certainly come soon!
The other new comer this season is BMW and the german team was not as shiny as Aprilia, but their challenge is hard, maybe harder than aprilia's one. So the Qatar event ended in a nice top ten result in both races. We can surely expect a top 5 soon from the S1000rr.
At last to end this little story, I wish to talk about Suzuki and Honda.
For Suzuki, the first race was just a disaster. After a bad qualify session Neukirchner fell during the race and Kagayama went off track. But Neukirchner was able to do better during the second race by taking the 6th position on the line to Nakano.
For Ten Kate Honda, Qatar was a « not so bad » weekend. Checa made a 5th position in first race and Kiyonari made a really nice second race. Fourth at the end « Kiyo » rode in his spectacular own way, « tutto di traverso » (drifting all the time) as could say italian speakers!
This meeting was a confirmation, a great champion is about to born, and this WSBK season is more spectacular than ever if you look at the show we had past weekend.
But this new great rider, Ben Spies, is also the biggest and a really heavy load on Haga's shoulders after he fell in front of such great champions as Fogarty, Edwards or Bayliss...
If you want to see or see one more time those races, they are on free VOD on he official WSBK website.
Result Qatar Race 1 :
1. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Italia YZF R1 18 laps
2. Noriyuki Haga JPN Ducati Xerox 1098R +1.893s
3. Max Biaggi ITA Aprilia Racing RSV-4 +2.168s
4. Shinya Nakano JPN Aprilia Racing RSV-4 +12.061s
5. Carlos Checa ESP HANNspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +12.597s
6. Shane Byrne GBR Sterilgarda Ducati 1098R +12.971s
7. Tom Sykes GBR Yamaha Italia YZF R1 +13.570ss
8. Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +19.306s
9. Troy Corser AUS BMW Motorrad S1000RR +19.388s
10. Regis Laconi FRA DFX Corse Ducati 1098R +20.981s
11. Leon Haslam GBR Stiggy Motorsport Honda CBR1000RR +21.164s
12. Jonathan Rea GBR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +21.994s
13. Ruben Xaus ESP BMW Motorrad S1000RR +22.917s
14. Broc Parkes AUS Kawasaki SRT ZX-0R +27.218s
15. Tommy Hill GBR HANNspree Althea Honda CBR1000RR +31.602s
16. Karl Muggeridge AUS Celani Suzuki GSX-R1000 +33.934s
17. Luca Scassa ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +47.496s
18. David Salom ESP Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +47.505s
19. Matteo Baiocco ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R +59.278s
20. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA SCI Honda CBR1000RR +59.295s
21. Brendan Roberts AUS Guandalini Racing Ducati 1098R +59.338s
22. Yukio Kagayama JPN Alstare Suzuki GSX-R 1000K9 +1min 04.008s
Not Classified
23. Ayrton Badovini ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R 10 laps completed
24. Michel Fabrizio ITA Ducati Xerox 1098R 7 laps completed
25. Jakub Smrz CZE Guandalini Racing Ducati 1098R 6 laps completed
26. Max Neukirchner GER Alstare Suzuki GSX-R 1000K9 5 laps completed
27. Roberto Rolfo ITA Stiggy Motorsport Honda CBR1000RR 3 laps completed
28. Makoto Tamada JPN Kawasaki SRT ZX-10R Did Not Start
Result Qatar race 2 :
1. Ben Spies USA Yamaha WSB YZF R1 18 laps
2. Noriyuki Haga JPN Ducati Xerox 1098R +1.274s
3. Max Biaggi ITA Aprilia Racing RSV-4 +1.622s
4. Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +1.845s
5. Tom Sykes GBR Yamaha WSB YZF R1 +5.117s
6. Max Neukirchner GER Alstare Suzuki GSX-R 1000K9 +9.512s
7. Shinya Nakano JPN Aprilia Racing RSV-4 +9.514s
8. Jonathan Rea GBR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +12.621s
9. Troy Corser AUS BMW Motorrad S1000RR +13.842s
10. Ruben Xaus ESP BMW Motorrad S1000RR +13.884s
11. Leon Haslam GBR Stiggy Motorsport Honda CBR1000RR +13.888s
12. Shane Byrne GBR Sterilgarda Ducati 1098R +14.913s
13. Carlos Checa ESP HANNspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +15.762s
14. Regis Laconi FRA DFX Corse Ducati 1098R +15.920s
15. Yukio Kagayama JPN Alstare Suzuki GSX-R 1000K9 +19.565s
16. Broc Parkes AUS Kawasaki SRT ZX-0R +21.759s
17. Jakub Smrz CZE Guandalini Racing Ducati 1098R +28.523s
18. Karl Muggeridge AUS Celani Suzuki GSX-R1000 +40.499s
19. Brendan Roberts AUS Guandalini Racing Ducati 1098R +43.761s
20. Luca Scassa ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +44.669s
21. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA SCI Honda CBR1000RR +48.955s
22. Roberto Rolfo ITA Stiggy Motorsport Honda CBR1000RR +1 lap
Not Classified
23. Matteo Baiocco ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R 15 laps completed
24. Michel Fabrizio ITA Ducati Xerox 1098R 13 laps completed
25. David Salom ESP Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 7 laps completed
26. Tommy Hill GBR HANNspree Althea Honda CBR1000RR 6 laps completed
27. Ayrton Badovini ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R 1 lap completed
28. Makoto Tamada JPN Kawasaki SRT ZX-10R Did Not Start
resultat championnat (position précédentes entre parenthèses)
1.(1) Noriyuki Haga Ducati Xerox 85 points
2. (4) Ben Spies Yamaha WSB 75
3. (2) Max Neukirchner Suzuki Alstare Brux 40
4. (13) Max Biaggi Aprilia 38
5. (3) Leon Haslam Stiggy Honda 36
6. (10) Tom Sykes Yamaha WSB 32
7. (7) Regis Laconi DFX Ducati 30
8. (8) Jonathan Rea Ten Kate Honda 27
9. (15) Shinya Nakano Aprilia 27
10. (5) Yukio Kagayam Suzuki Alstare Brux 25
11. (6) Michel Fabrizio Ducati Xerox 24
12. (11) Troy Corser BMW Alpha 22
13. (-) Ryuichi Kiyonari Ten Kate Honda 21
14. (12) Carlos Checa Ten Kate Honda 21
15. (9) Jakub Smrz Guandalini Ducati 16
16. (-) Shane Byrne Sterilgarda Ducati 14
17. (14) Ruben Xaus BMW Alpha 14
18. (16) Tommy Hill Althea Honda 5
19. (17) Roberto Rolfo Stiggy Honda 3
20. (-) Broc Parkes Kawasaki WSB 2
Full World Superbike Championship manufacturer standings (After 2 rounds of 14 - Previous position in brackets)
1. (1) Ducati 85 points
2. (2) Yamaha 81
3. (4) Honda 51
4. (6) Aprilia 41
5. (3) Suzuki 40
6. (5) BMW 27
7. (-) Kawasaki 2
Words : Aurélien Filippi
Photos : WSBK.com
|
Please register if you want to write a comment:
Clic here |
|
|
| | |
(not translated yet) Laconi arrête la compétition
