Fabrizio top as Haga falls
Added on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Fabrizio top as Haga falls
Michel Fabrizio was the fastest man on the track at Kyalami on the opening day of WSB testing but new Ducati teammate Noriyuki Haga struggled to get to grips with the 1098 F09, crashing three times on his first Ducati outing.
Fabrizio powered to a superb time of 1:41.204 seconds undercutting second placed Ben Spies by almost four tenths of a second and finishing, a tenth of a second under the unofficial circuit record set by Colin Edwards – then at Castrol Honda – in 2002.
“I’m really pleased because it’s the first time I’ve lapped on this track,” declared the 23-year-old.
“I feel sure can go even quicker: I’ll try and do so in the remaining two days.”
Noriyuki Haga suffered a somewhat less successful session as he made his debut on the factory Ducati. The ex-Yamaha rider crashed three times, the first after colliding with Jonathan Rea and the others due to individual errors although the Japanese rider did manage to set the fourth-quickest time.
Spies, Haga’s replacement at Yamaha following his move from AMA posted the second best time of the day whilst British teammate Tom Sykes had a less impressive day, finishing 13th overall.
“I like this track: it’s not too technical, not that difficult to learn,” said Spies. “We were most interested in trying out the bike in hotter track conditions than in Portimao.
“The handling is good: the engine comes in really smooth exiting corners and it lays the power down well.”
WSB Test; Day 1:
1. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1:41.204 (66 laps)
2. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1:41.599 (46)
3. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1:41.713 (69)
4. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) 1:41.730 (31)
5. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 1:41.755 (39)
6. Shinya Nakano (Aprilia) 1:41.846 (51)
7. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 1:42.446 (29)
8. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 1:42.744 (62)
9. Troy Corser (BMW) 1:42.975 (33)
10. Ruben Xaus (BMW) 1:43.274 (41)
11. Carlos Checa (Honda) 1:43.418 (10)
12. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1:44.496 (16)
13. Tom Sykes (Yamaha) 1’46″780 (16)
