Friday, April 03, 2009

Biaggi, Aprilia claim Friday pole at Valencia


Max Biaggi has put the new Aprilia RSV4 on provisional pole for round three of the 2009 World Superbike Championship, at Valencia.

During a topsy-turvy opening day, when many riders struggled to set fast lap times in both sessions, Biaggi claimed a solid third place in free practice - then lowered his best lap time by one-second during the afternoon qualifying hour, allowing the Italian to edge out Ben Spies by 0.132sec.

Superstar rookie Spies, winner of three of the first four races, had been just 17th fastest in free practice, but made quick progress up the order during qualifying. The American steered his factory-backed Yamaha around the Spanish circuit a massive 1.783sec than he'd managed in free practice, squeezing out Ducati's championship leader Noriyuki Haga by just 0.001sec as a result. Haga was ninth fastest in free practice.

Biaggi's Aprilia team-mate Shinya Nakano qualified eleventh.

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