Texan WSBK rookie Ben Spies on his Yamaha YZF R1 took his first Superpole win of the season during the new Superpole formula session at Phillip Island in Australia, also smashing the lap record to that was held by Troy Bayliss – by four tenths of a second with his best time of 1′31.
069 Max Biaggi scored second place and his best ever performance in Superpole, on the brand new Aprilia RSV4, with the Italian manufacturer from Noale returning to Superbike after a seven-year break.
The front row of the grid was completed by Britain’s Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Czech riderJakub Smrz of was the top Ducati rider on a private Guandalini.
The new knockout Superpole format on the first run claimed some high profile victims, and saw the early elimination of four of the top 20 riders including Troy Corser who is commonly known as Mr.
Superpole, Roberto Rolfo, Rueben Xaus and Tommy Hill.
The two BMWs, which had performed well until then, were excluded after a conservative choice of tyre.
The second run saw the elimination of Nakano, Kiyonari, Kagayama, Sykes, Haga, Neukirchner, Byrne and Parkes.
Spies who had never even seen the Australian circuit before last week, but studied it using his playstation, said: “There was a lot of pressure on me today but first congratulations to these guys, I know how fast the lap time was and we all did a great job.
The Superpole was really good, there was a lot of anticipation, a lot of nerves inside the pit box to get the first pole of the year.
It’s going to be hard tomorrow, with 7 or 8 guys up front and the real race will start 8 laps from the end.
Luckily we have a good starting spot, that’s all that matters and hopefully we can be there at the end.
Just like Biaggi said, I was very surprised at how many people started doing 31s in the second session, we really had to grit our teeth in the last one and put together a good lap.
”Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) commented: “It’s a big sensation for me to come back after so many years to Aprilia with this new project, the bike is good already.
We still have to see which is the best way to go but for now qualifying was very good and exciting.
I don’t know about race pace for tomorrow but this is an encouraging start.
When I saw everyone going 31s, I thought ‘wow, that is fast’.
I had some trouble in the free practice before qualifying, we swapped bikes and it was not my favourite one but we made a great job.
”Jonathan Rea, who will be racing in only his second WSBK event tomorrow, declared: “Superbike for me is getting more and more exciting all the time, a big thanks to the team for helping me make the transition from Supersport so easy.
I’ve got a lot of learning to do but every time I jump on the bike it’s getting better.
The new structure of Superpole was really exciting, with everyone in the box thinking should I go or should I stay, but lucky for us we used the first qualifier in the second session and got into the top 8.
I saw Ben’s lap time in the session before and it left me with a 31.
3 with one qualifier left.
We made a little mistake in the last run but I don’t think we can go much faster than that.
”Jakub Smrz was also delighted with his Superpole performance: “For us it is a very good start to the season because we didn’t test here like the other guys.
Now I am very pleased with the bike especially because this morning we had some small problems, then in Superpole everything went better.
It’s very nice to be ahead of the factory Ducatis but it’s only the start of the season and what is most important is to get a good result in the race.
”1 19 Spies B.
(USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1′31.
0692 3 Biaggi M.
(ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1′31.
4023 65 Rea J.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.
5964 96 Smrz J.
(CZE) Ducati 1098R 1′31.
6005 84 Fabrizio M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R 1′31.
8376 91 Haslam L.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′32.
1127 7 Checa C.
(ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1′32.
5378 55 Laconi R.
(FRA) Ducati 1098 RS 09 1′32.
6499 56 Nakano S.
(JPN) Aprilia RSV4 1′31.
84310 9 Kiyonari R.
(JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.
86011 71 Kagayama Y.
(JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′31.
86712 66 Sykes T.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1′31.
88113 41 Haga N.
(JPN) Ducati 1098R 1′31.
90714 76 Neukirchner M.
(GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′31.
91615 67 Byrne S.
(GBR) Ducati 1098R 1′32.
11916 23 Parkes B.
(AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′32.
71917 11 Corser T.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1′32.
87318 44 Rolfo R.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1′32.
99719 111 Xaus R.
(ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1′33.
15220 33 Hill T.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′33.
36321 24 Roberts B.
(AUS) Ducati 1098R 1′33.
58822 100 Tamada M.
(JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′33.
70923 86 Badovini A.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′34.
17424 25 Salom D.
(ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′34.
19425 31 Muggeridge K.
(AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′34.
34126 99 Scassa L.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′34.
39027 77 Iannuzzo V.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.
76728 15 Baiocco M.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′36.
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