Miller WSB: Ducati dominate Free Practice, Byrne takes third

Ducati’s occupied the top three places in the opening Free Practice session at Miller motorsports Park today thanks to Michel Fabrizio, Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne. Fabrizio riding the Xerox Ducati set an impressive 1’49.756s best on his 20th and last lap of the hour long session to edge out Althea Ducati’s Checa by 0.130.

Byrne was a further 0.551 off pole and lead a string of 12 riders down to Leon Haslam in 15th who were covered by just over one second.

Speaking to MCN, Byrne said: “It’s certainly a better start than I’ve made in recent races. I started with one bike set like last year and one bike as we had it in Kyalami. It wasn’t until the last exit that we tried a softer tyre and then it became clear that the Kyalami bike was working so much better. It’s more agile which is important around here and in general it has a better balance.”

Title contender Max Biaggi claimed fourth position and in doing so set the fastest top speed along the 0.66mile front straight. Biaggi scorched to 307.6KPH a massive 14KPH faster than second place man Checa.

Jonathan Rea made as solid start on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda finishing the session in fifth place after making only minimal changes to his set-up. Rea finished ahead of BMW mounted Troy Corser with a fast starting Tom Sykes in seventh onboard his factory Kawasaki.

Yamaha men James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow finished the session down in 12th and 14th places respectively. For Toseland it was his first time at the American circuit and he was coming to terms with the layout, high kerbs and high levels of grip compared to Kyalami two weeks ago. Crutchlow was plagued by brake problems which held him back.

First qualifying gets underway at 15.45 local time – UK time -7

1 84 M. FABRIZIO ITA Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1’49.756 20 160,950 302,5
2 7 C. CHECA ESP Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1’49.886 0.130 0.130 23 160,759 293,6
3 67 S. BYRNE GBR Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1’50.307 0.551 0.421 21 160,146 299,2
4 3 M. BIAGGI ITA Aprilia Alitalia Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’50.440 0.684 0.133 24 159,953 307,6
5 65 J. REA GBR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.464 0.708 0.024 23 159,918 301,6
6 11 T. CORSER AUS BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1’50.494 0.738 0.030 19 159,875 300,0
7 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’50.544 0.788 0.050 20 159,802 303,3
8 96 J. SMRZ CZE Team PATA B&G Racing Ducati 1098R 1’50.551 0.795 0.007 19 159,792 296,8
9 76 M. NEUKIRCHNER GER HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.579 0.823 0.028 25 159,752 301,6
10 41 N. HAGA JPN Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1’50.612 0.856 0.033 18 159,704 303,3
11 99 L. SCASSA ITA Supersonic Racing Team Ducati 1098R 1’50.651 0.895 0.039 21 159,648 292,8
12 52 J. TOSELAND GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’50.810 1.054 0.159 22 159,419 305,0
13 2 L. CAMIER GBR Aprilia Alitalia Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’51.040 1.284 0.230 28 159,089 305,8
14 35 C. CRUTCHLOW GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’51.070 1.314 0.030 20 159,046 305,0
15 91 L. HASLAM GBR Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’51.378 1.622 0.308 20 158,606 303,3
16 23 B. PARKES AUS ECHO CRS Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’51.438 1.682 0.060 19 158,520 291,2
17 111 R. XAUS ESP BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1’51.830 2.074 0.392 17 157,965 297,6
18 95 R. HAYDEN USA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’51.980 2.224 0.150 24 157,753 294,4
19 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’52.326 2.570 0.346 27 157,267 305,8
20 77 C. VERMEULEN AUS Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’52.523 2.767 0.197 21 156,992 297,6
21 15 M. BAIOCCO ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’54.893 5.137 2.370 22 153,753 294,4