Ducati toke it all in Race 1 and 2 of WSBK Kyalami

Ducati� Xerox team made twice wins at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa. Noriyuki Haga took a double victory yesterday on board his Ducati Xerox with team mate Michel Fabrizio taking second place twice. Sadly for their strongest rival Yamaha’s Ben Spies, although he was in third postion in the first race but the American rider had to pull out at the third lap after a gear shift problem stopped his race.
Behind the Haga there were Jonathan Rea came in fourth in Race 1, managing to keep Max Biaggi�s ultra fast Aprila RSV4 behind him and in Race 2 took third place on the podium alongside the Ducati duo. Max Biaggi came in fifth also in Race 2 after battling it out with Leon Haslam who managed to keep the Italian behind him. Haslam crashed out in Race 1. Hannspree rider took two sixth places while Shinya Nakano, finally back in health after his operation, took two seventh places. Yukio Kagayama also took two double eigtht places.


Noriyuki Haga � Ducati Xerox (1st � 1st):
�In the first race, having had some suspension problems during Friday and Saturday, I have to say I didn�t expect to be able to keep pace with Michel and Ben. But I made a good start and tried to stick with Michel and then when he appeared to have a small problem, I made my move. My arm was not a problem at all during the racing. I must say I was very glad to see there are less birds here at Kyalami than at Monza! In Race 2 we made a small change to the setting of my bike and I felt more comfortable on it but I knew that Michel was close behind me and in the last laps my braking was suffering, so I had to hold on and am very happy to take another 50 points away with me today and again increase my advantage in the standings.�
Michel Fabrizio � Ducati Xerox (2nd � 2nd):
�Race 1 turned into a great battle between myself and Ben, it�s just a pity that the battle was for second and not first place. Once Nori got past us, he started to build a small gap and was going faster than me in the first split, which meant I couldn�t catch him again. Then maybe I made a mistake telling Nori that I was going strong in the third split because in Race 2 that�s where he really pushed hard and although I was giving it my all right until the end, it was Nori who took the win in the end but we had fun battling it out together. I�ve moved into second place with today�s results though so this leaves me extremely satisfied and I look forward to the next race in Salt Lake.�

Ben Spies - Yamaha World Superbike Team (3rd -DNF):
�We were struggling to hang in there in race one, it was a good race for all three of us up at the front. When I passed Michel I tried to reel in Nori and then unfortunately made a mistake. I was really strong in parts of the track but giving up too much time in some corners and couldn�t get in there. The second race was very unfortunate, I was feeling good and had secured an early lead, then obviously had the technical problem and had to retire, I�m really disappointed about it. I�m looking forward to going home to the USA for the next round and seeing if we can make it up.�

Race 1 Results:
1 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 39?47.436
2 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 0.950
3 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 3.391
4 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 8.914
5 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 9.019
6 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 14.812
7 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 14.971
8 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 15.723
9 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 21.529
10 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 21.795
11 Lavilla G. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 29.872
12 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 34.216
13 Morais S. (RSA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 34.275
14 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 38.280
15 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 40.885
16 Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 44.841
17 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 49.075
18 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 49.702
19 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 50.065
20 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 50.391
21 Whyte S. (RSA) Yamaha YZF R1
22 Martin S. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR
RET Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
RET Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR



Race 2 Results:
1 Noriyuki Haga 2439?45.027
2 Michel Fabrizio 2439?45.349
3 Jonathan Rea 2439?53.963
4 Leon Haslam 2439?55.588
5 Max Biaggi 2439?55.794
6 Carlos Checa 2439?57.440
7 Shinya Nakano 2439?57.643
8 Yukio Kagayama 2439?59.905
9 Tom Sykes 2440?01.252
10 Jakub Smrz 2440?03.224
11 Sheridan Morais 2440?05.656
12 Gregorio Lavilla 2440?09.347
13 Ryuichi Kiyonari 2440?09.591
14 Broc Parkes 2440?23.774
15 Fonsi Nieto 2440?35.072
16 David Salom 2440?43.026
17 Tommy Hill 2440?51.000
18 Steve Martin 2441?13.712
19 Shaun Whyte 2339?49.082
RT Luca Scassa 1423?56.709
RT Shane Byrne 711?46.526
RT Ben Spies 23?22.812
RT Ruben Xaus 23?51.969
RT Karl Muggeridge 11?47.521

Posted in: motorcycle technology