Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s fifth round World Superbike championship race from the second row of the grid after filing the sixth fastest time in today’s Superpole session at Monza in Italy.
Pole position was taken by America’s Ben Spies as Rea’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Carlos Checa, qualified with the ninth fastest Superpole time.
Rea went into Superpole with the third fastest time, but the three-stage shoot-out for final grid positions has proved a lottery in previous rounds and the Northern Irish rider slipped back to sixth.
Jonathan Rea – P6, 1’45.170s
We were definitely aiming for a front row start because that’s where we’ve been for most of the weekend, so I’m a little disappointed to have missed out on that. But the race pace we’ve shown is pretty good and top six is not really too bad. I had to do it all on my spare bike when the number one machine developed a problem right at the start of free practice, just before Superpole, so the guys didn’t get a chance to fix it. Of course a good start is paramount here, but I think we can get a plan together tonight and, if that plan works, there’s no reason why I can’t be right up there tomorrow. I’ll try to be aggressive for the first couple of laps to make sure that the fast guys don’t get away. After that, we’ll see what happens.
Carlos Checa – P9, 1’45.166
Well, as you can see, I missed Superpole 3 by maybe one tenth but, really, ninth is not such a bad place to start here – maybe better than eighth or seventh because you are on the outside. We struggled a little to find a perfect setting but qualifying is not especially easy here. I need two good starts tomorrow because our race pace is pretty good but it’s a very particular circuit, Monza. I hope I have the same feeling with the bike tomorrow because overall it’s pretty good and my strategy is to be in the leading group from the start because the tyres are working quite well over longer distance. Then I hope to still be in that group near the end.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
I’m really happy to see our riders still in the top ten and near the front after Superpole, which hasn’t always treated us so well in earlier rounds this season. We all know that a good start is very important here at Monza and at least Jonathan and Carlos are in a position that gives them a good opportunity to remain in touch with the leading group. Hopefully, riders and crew can harvest the fruits of all their development work since Valencia because everyone truly deserves it.
2009 World Superbike championship, round five – Monza, Italy
Final qualifying results:
1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1’44.073s
2 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati 1’44.270s
3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing 1’44.642s
4 Max Neukirchner (GER) Suzuki 1’44.900s
5 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati) 1’45.096s
6 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’45.170s
7 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia 1’45.605s
8 Yukio Kagayama (JPN) Suzuki 1’45.861s
9 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’45.166s (S’pole 2)
10 Tom Sykes (GBR) Yamaha 1’45.383s (S’pole 2)
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