Michel Fabrizio was angry after a weekend where things didn't quite fall into place for him at Miller Motorsports Park.
The Alstare Suzuki rider had been suffering with a flu virus all weekend and qualified a disappointing 15th after struggling for grip in the slippery conditions that made Superpole a lottery.
The Italian was making progress in race one but was taken out by Castrol Honda's Ruben Xaus who carried too much speed into turn one. Fabrizio later revealed that the Spaniard came to apologise.
“I am angry because today could’ve been much better for us”, he claimed. “I couldn’t do anything about the crash in the first race because I didn’t know what was going on until I felt a thump. The impact made me fly through the air and I landed very heavily on my left side. Ruben Xaus had got in a bit too hot and just hit me and that was that. Afterwards he came into our garage and apologised.”
Fabrizio was able to demonstrate the improving performance of the GSX-R1000 in race two, improving the likes of Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri in the space of a single lap.
He eventually made it up to fifth but couldn't quite overcome the Yamaha of Eugene Laverty. Fabrizio felt that fourth would have been his if the race had been a lap longer.
“The team repaired the bike and I used it in race two. I didn’t take any painkillers before the second race because I wanted the pain to transform into positive energy. I didn’t make a particularly good start and had a lot of work to do in the opening laps. Bit by bit, I moved up through the field and by lap 11 I was in fifth place, but a long way behind Laverty.”
“I kept forcing the pace and managed to catch him. I knew I was turning in faster laps than him and was confident that I could pass him on the next lap. Unfortunately I ran out of laps, but if there had been one lap more, I am sure I would’ve passed him and taken fourth. So I am happy to get fifth from 15th on the grid, but a little angry because one lap more and I would’ve got fourth.”
