Michel Fabrizio - Superbike World Championship

Superbike World Championship

For 2006 Fabrizio was teamed with the veteran Pierfrancesco Chili on privateer Honda machinery. He started his career with fifth and eighth at Qatar. He stood in for Toni Elías on MotoGP Fortuna Honda at Donington Park, but crashed in practice and broke his collarbone. He replaced the injured Elías again for the same team in the 2007 German Grand Prix at Sachsenring on July 15, 2007.

At Brno in the 2006 Superbike World Championship, he started tenth, but chose hard-compound tyres, which remained on the pace as other riders faded. In the first race he passed a fading Andrew Pitt as well as Fonsi Nieto, Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga in the closing laps to score his first Superbike World Championship podium finish. In race two he fared even better - after passing James Toseland for fourth towards the end, he caught the battle for second between Haga and Corser. As Corser attempted a move, Fabrizio dived down the inside of both, slithering and nearly hitting Haga, before edging ahead of them both to the line, immediately improving on his career-best result with a second. His best results of 2007 were two third places, at Assen and Brno. In both seasons he was eleventh overall.

In 2008 he raced alongside Troy Bayliss for Ducati Xerox Team on the new Ducati 1098. He came third in race one at Philip Island, Australia, despite a huge crash at the original start. At Miller Motorsports Park, he qualified on the front row and took a pair of third places, despite dropping to eleventh on lap one of the first race. He had a double-DNF at Assen, shortly before an arm operation, and finished a career-best 8th overall.

For 2009, he stays on at Ducati Xerox, partnering Noriyuki Haga after Bayliss' retirement. His first WSBK win (in his 94th start) came at Monza after Ben Spies ran out of fuel. Seven successive podiums followed, cementing his third place in the standings behind Haga and Spies. This run ended at Brno when he took Spies down as they battled for the lead. He finished the season third overall.

Fabrizio and Haga both continue with the team for 2010. The bike dominated pre-season testing at Phillip Island.

After Ducati announced that they would be ending support for their World Superbike operations at the end of the 2010 season, Fabrizio agreed a contract with Team Suzuki Alstare to race in the 2011 Superbike World Championship season.