June 21, 2009

Crutchlow adds Misano to his list of conquered circuits

Yamaha Racing
2009 WSS San Marino
Misano 21/06/2009

With a track both wet and dry and a race red flagged and re-started, it was never going to be a straightforward day for Yamaha World Superbike rider Cal Crutchlow. Having initially dropped back to eighth at the start he showed incredible pace to work back up to lead the race, taking less than two laps to pass the seven riders. He led until a red flag for oil on the track brought the supersport riders back into the pits. As the race re-started Crutchlow shot off to take the lead which he held until lap 18 where second placed rider Eugene Laverty dived underneath having pursued Crutchlow from the off. Two laps later Crutchlow took the lead back in a decisive overtake up the inside of Laverty and powered on to take the chequered flag

Team-mate Fabien Foret worked hard from his less than perfect grid start spot. Race one saw him close in on the top ten, making up several places leading up to the red flag incident. The Frenchman put his head down in the second heat and put in consistent fast laps, much happier in the dry conditions of the race and eventually took Nannelli for eighth at the chequered flag.

Crutchlow heads for his home race in Donington leading the championship with 160 points ahead of second placed Laverty on 146. Team-mate Foret also holds onto his seventh spot in the standings and heads to the UK with 63 points, just 10 behind 2008 champion Andrew Pitt.

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (1st)
"it was great to come here to Misano and take the win. It's all credit to the team, they did a fantastic job again and we're back to winning form. Let's hope we can continue this, bring it home to Donington and take another victory."

Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team (8th)
"It's been a tough race weekend for me. Qualifying wasn't great with the difficult changing weather making it hard to get a good spot on the grid. I put my head down today and worked to get as far up the pack as I could. I'm trying to improve my early laps to stay with the front guys to get back onto the podium."

Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager
"Well! It was an unbelievable race I would say. Again Cal and Eugene were very close. I'm so happy Cal was able to keep some distance between them on the last lap with an incredible 1'38.8 which is 1'3 seconds under the lap record, the pace was amazing. It's going to be hard until the last race! Fabien came from 18th position, so he worked hard. It's tough as we were expecting him to do better and he knows that so the mission is to practice more and get better first and second laps and he'll be up there. We're looking forward to Donington, we can see the hard work the team are doing is paying off."

Circuit Length: 4060

Lap Record: 1'40.187 (Broc Parkes, 01/01/2008)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1'39.398 (Broc Parkes, 01/01/2008)
Last Years Winner: Andrew Pitt

2009 WSS San Marino - Misano 21/06/2009

Race 1
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 36'51.032
2 Eugene Laverty Honda GBR 0'00.263
3 Massimo Roccoli Honda ITA 0'16.289
4 Joan Lascorz Kawasaki ESP 0'20.894
5 Mark Aitchison Honda AUS 0'21.615
6 Katsuaki Fujiwara Kawasaki JPN 0'22.272
7 Anthony West Honda AUS 0'25.099
8 Fabien Foret Yamaha FRA 0'26.374
9 Gianluca Nannelli Triumph ITA 0'34.558
10 Miguel Praia Honda POR 0'49.578
11 Gianluca Vizziello Honda ITA 0'51.446
12 Flavio Gentile Honda ITA 0'54.391
13 Danilo Dell'omo Honda ITA 1'00.324
14 Arie Vos Honda NED 1'11.594
15 Yannick Guerra Yamaha ESP 1'43.088

Best Lap
Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1'38.868

Rider Standings 21/06/2009

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points
1. Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 160
2. Eugene Laverty Honda GBR 146
3. Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 108
4. Joan Lascorz Kawasaki ESP 86
5. Anthony West Honda AUS 75
6. Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 73
7. Fabien Foret Yamaha FRA 63
8. Mark Aitchison Honda AUS 61
9. Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 48
10. Massimo Roccoli Honda ITA 40
11. Katsuaki Fujiwara Kawasaki JPN 39
12. Garry McCoy Triumph AUS 39
13. Matthieu Lagrive Honda FRA 38
14. Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 30
15. Robbin Harms Honda DNK 23
19. Doni Tata Pradita Yamaha IDN 8
22. Franco Battaini Yamaha ITA 5
26. Yannick Guerra Yamaha ESP 1