WSB Miller: Smrz leads Ducati charge to take provisional pole

B&G Ducati rider Jacob Smrz showed his impressive qualifying pace once again by securing provisional pole position for Monday’s two WSB races. The Czech rider spent the majority of the session at the top of the leader board and was able to respond every time one of his rivals went faster.

Michel Fabrizio continued to impress around the 3.048 mile Salt Lake City track to secure second position and back up his strong Free Practice performance earlier in the day.

Cal Crutchlow was forced to ride around ongoing brake inconsistency problems on his Yamaha, but proved his blistering outright pace to claim third. The 24 year old is also suffering with a painful shoulder, the result of a testing crash first time he rode the R1 at Portimao last October.

He said: “The pain in my shoulder is actually really bad. It’s been fine between Kyalami and here but as soon as I get on the bike it hurts a lot. The sessions today were ok, but the brakes are too inconsistent. On one corner they are coming into the bar so I adjust it, but then the next corner it’s too far out. We’re going to change the complete system so hopefully we won’t have the problem tomorrow.”

Leon Haslam made a slow start to the weekend, but jumped up the leader board at the end of the session to secure a place on the provisional front row of the grid. The championship leader was happy with the overall feeling but needs to dial out some chatter he experienced when pushing for a fast lap.

Althea Ducati men Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne were both impressive securing fifth and sixth places respectively.

James Toseland claimed seventh despite missing the final minutes of the session after suffering a high speed crash at turn three. The 29 year old was on a pole lap when he went down and put the crash down to pushing his well worn front tyre too hard. Jonathan Rea claimed 11th with Leon Camier in 13th and Tom Sykes 14th.

1 96 J. SMRZ CZE Team PATA B&G Racing Ducati 1098R 1’48.517 23 162,787 300,0
2 84 M. FABRIZIO ITA Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1’48.670 0.153 0.153 21 162,558 303,3
3 35 C. CRUTCHLOW GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’48.682 0.165 0.012 20 162,540 305,8
4 91 L. HASLAM GBR Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’48.734 0.217 0.052 24 162,463 301,6
5 7 C. CHECA ESP Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1’48.742 0.225 0.008 23 162,451 297,6
6 67 S. BYRNE GBR Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1’48.853 0.336 0.111 25 162,285 296,8
7 52 J. TOSELAND GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’48.887 0.370 0.034 17 162,234 303,3
8 99 L. SCASSA ITA Supersonic Racing Team Ducati 1098R 1’48.945 0.428 0.058 22 162,148 296,0
9 11 T. CORSER AUS BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1’49.040 0.523 0.095 19 162,007 300,8
10 3 M. BIAGGI ITA Aprilia Alitalia Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’49.191 0.674 0.151 25 161,783 313,7
11 65 J. REA GBR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’49.281 0.764 0.090 22 161,649 305,8
12 41 N. HAGA JPN Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1’49.386 0.869 0.105 23 161,494 303,3
13 2 L. CAMIER GBR Aprilia Alitalia Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’49.443 0.926 0.057 25 161,410 305,0
14 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’49.748 1.231 0.305 20 160,961 300,8
15 111 R. XAUS ESP BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1’49.961 1.444 0.213 21 160,650 294,4
16 76 M. NEUKIRCHNER GER HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.121 1.604 0.160 22 160,416 296,8
17 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’50.133 1.616 0.012 22 160,399 304,2
18 95 R. HAYDEN USA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’50.806 2.289 0.673 21 159,425 292,0
19 23 B. PARKES AUS ECHO CRS Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1’51.074 2.557 0.268 20 159,040 293,6
20 77 C. VERMEULEN AUS Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’51.122 2.605 0.048 19 158,971 297,6
21 15 M. BAIOCCO ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’53.724 5.207 2.602 22 155,334 292,8