SUPERBIKES: Spies se acerca a Haga

Ben Spies (Yamaha) ha podido salvar un fin de semana que se le complicó mucho cuando en la primera carrera Fabrizio (Ducati) le tiró en la cuarta vuelta cuando era líder. Pero su victoria en la segunda carrera y los resultados de un voluntarioso Haga (Ducati) que ha soportado el dolor y ha conseguido acabar décimo en la primera carrera y sexto en la segunda, colocan al piloto americano a sólo siete puntos del japonés a falta de cuatro pruebas para que acabe el campeonato.

Biaggi (Aprilia) fue el dominador absoluto de la primera carrera tras la caída de Spies (Yamaha) y el piloto romano consiguió de esta forma su cuarta victoria como piloto de superbikes y la primera con Aprilia que no ganaba una carrera de la categoría desde la última victoria conseguida por Laconi en el 2001.


Carlos Checa (Honda) acabó segundo por delante de su compañero de equipo J. Rea (Honda), del británico Byrne y su Ducati privada y de la BMW de Corser que llegó a ser líder al inicio de la carrera y que con su quinta posición demuestra la positiva evolución de la firma germana.


"La primera carrera, declaró Checa, fue muy positiva y conseguimos un buen resultado gracias al buen trabajo que hemos estado haciendo. He tenido buen feeling con la moto y mejoramos mucho con respecto a los entrenamientos".


Desgraciadamente Xaus (BMW) sufrió una espectacular caída en la que se fracturó la cabeza del fémur de la pierna derecha. Estaba previsto su traslado a Barcelona para decidir esta noche si le intervenían quirúrgicamente.


Las Kawasaki estuvieron a buen nivel y Tamada estuvo en el grupo que peleaba por la sexta posición hasta que se quedó sin neumáticos, mientras que su compañero de equipo B. Parkes (Kawasaki) acabó en la décimo segunda posición.


Fonsi Nieto (Ducati) tuvo un buen debut con la Ducati del Team DFX Corse al acabar en la décimo primera posición y Salom (Kawasaki) y D. Checa (Yamaha) se quedaron en las puertas de los puntos.


CLASIFICACIÓN PRIMERA CARRERA
1) Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 2) Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 3) Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR4) Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 5) Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 6) Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 7) Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 8) Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 9) Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 10) Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 11) Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 12)Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 13) Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 14) Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 15) Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 17) Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 18) Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1


Segunda carrera: Spies no perdona


Spies (Yamaha) pudo tomarse cumplida venganza de la mala suerte que tuvo en la primera carrera y ganó la segunda pese a la presión a la que le sometió Biaggi (Aprilia) en las últimas vueltas.


Fue líder desde la tercera vuelta después de que Fabrizio (Ducati) saliera primero seguido de Corser (BMW) y Biaggi (Aprilia).


Una vez Biaggi superó a Corser (BMW), el piloto de Aprilia tuvo una bonita lucha con Fabrizio (Ducati) al que también superó y a partir de entonces trató por todos los medios de dar alcance a un inspirado Spies (Yamaha).


Rea (Honda), compañero de C. Checa en el Team Ten Kate, siempre fue cuarto y Checa quinto con más problemas que en la primera carrera.


Haga (Ducati) supo deshacerse de un grupo formado por Sykes (Yamaha), Byrne (Ducati) y Smrz (Ducati), mientras que los japoneses Tamada (Kawasaki) y Kagayama con la única Suzuki del Team Alstare en la pista se fueron por los suelos.


Nakano (Aprilia) consiguió acabar la carrera después de retirarse en la primera con problemas técnicos en su Aprilia.


Fonsi Nieto acabó en la décimo séptima posición.


"Hemos hecho unos cambios en la moto que no han funcionado, después de que en la primera carrera las cosas hayan ido más o menos bien teniendo en cuenta que adaptarse a esta moto no es fácil después de muchos años con una cuatro cilindros".


CLASIFICACIÓN SEGUNDA CARRERA
1) Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 2) Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 3) Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 4) Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 5) Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 6) Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 7) Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 8) Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 9) Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 10) Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 11) Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 12) Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 13) Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 14) Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 15) Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 17) Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 19) Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1


Supersport: Lascorz tercero


El francés F. Foret (Yamaha) ganó la carrera de supersport que estuvo dominada por su compañero de equipo Crutchlow (Yamaha), hasta que su motor se rompió a dos vueltas para el final. Lascorz (Kawasaki) acabó tercero. El piloto de Cunit pudo ganar su primera carrera con Kawasaki pero en la octava vuelta su neumático trasero se giró sobre la llanta. En la última vuelta cuando luchaba por la victoria con West (Honda), tuvo que aflojar para evitar impactar con el australiano, situación que Foret supo aprovechar. En la general debido a que Sofuoglu (Honda) acabó noveno, Lascorz (Kawasaki) se coloca a seis puntos de la tercera posición.


"Ha sido una lástima porque tenemos muchas ganas de ganar nuestra primera carrera con Kawasaki y hoy hemos estado a punto de conseguirlo. De nos ser por el problema con el neumático trasero primero y el hecho de que West haya cortado gas inesperadamente pues pensaba pasarlo en la última curva, podríamos haber ganado" declaró el piloto del Team Provec.


CLASIFICACIÓN CARRERA
1) Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2) West A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 3) Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 4) Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 5) Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 6) Morais S. (RSA) Yamaha YZF R6
7) Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 8) McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 9) Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 10) Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 11) Veneman B. (NED) Honda CBR600RR 12) Dell'Omo D. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 13) Laverty M. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 14)Vizziello G. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 15) Gunther J. (GER) Honda CBR600RR 19) Guerra Y. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R6


Superstock: Forés segundo


Simeon (Ducati) ganó la carrera de Superstock 1000, la segunda desde que esta en Ducati, y el francés Berguer (Honda) se cayó en la última vuelta con lo que el piloto belga se pone líder del campeonato con una ventaja de 26 puntos con respecto a Corti. La segunda posición del piloto valenciano Javier Forés (Kawasaki) le permiten colocarse tercero en la general a 46 puntos de Berguer. S. Barragán (Honda) acabó décimo, Tutusaus (KTM) décimo séptimo y Ismael Ortega (Kawasaki) no acabó la carrera.


CLASIFICACIÓN CARRERA
1) Simeon X. (BEL) Ducati 1098R 2) Fores J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 8.022 3) Jezek O. (CZE) Honda CBR1000RR 4) Barrier S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 95) Beretta D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 6) Corti C. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 7) Lundh A. (SWE) Honda CBR1000RR 8) Mahr R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 9) Giugliano D. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 10) Barragan S. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 11) Savary M. (SUI) Honda CBR1000RR 12) Sandi F. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 13) Lowes A. (GBR) MV Agusta F4 312 R 14) Sacchetti D. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 32.616 15) Massei F. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R117) Tutusaus P. (ESP) KTM RC8 R.


En Superstock 600 el belga Lombois (Yamaha) ganó una emocionante carrera por delante de Petrucci (Yamaha), La Marra (Honda) y Guarrnoni (Yamaha), que entró a sólo tres décimas de Lombois. Nuestro único representante N. Calero (Yamaha9 acabó en la décimo tercera posición.

Wins for Biaggi and Spies at Brno, Haga keeps points lead

Max Biaggi (Aprilia) and Ben Spies (Yamaha) scored a win apiece in round 10 of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Brno in front of a record 75,000 crowd. In race 1 the 25 points went to Biaggi after Spies had been wiped out by Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), giving Aprilia its first win in its return season to WSB. The second race saw Spies take a deserved victory, after the American managed to hold off Biaggi in the final stages. Fabrizio finished third, while points leader Noriyuki Haga, still not in the best of physical condition, limited the damage and managed to hold on to his championship lead by seven points.

Race 1

Biaggi scored his first win of the season and his first win since Vallelunga 2007 in the opening race at Brno in the Czech Republic. It was also Aprilia's first win in the category since Régis Laconi's victory at Imola in 2001. Second and third went to the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda duo of Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea. Biaggi actually had a lonely run to the chequered flag after the other two favourites Spies and Fabrizio were eliminated when the Italian crashed in a fast left-hander, taking down his American rival with him. It was a great day also for the other new manufacturer to the series, BMW, who had the satisfaction of seeing Troy Corser lead the opening two laps, the Australian eventually finishing fifth to score the team's best result this season. Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) got another good result for the Italian team in sixth. It wasn't all good news for BMW however as Ruben Xaus crashed out on the opening lap, fracturing the femur bone in his right leg in the process. Sixth place went to Czech rider Jakub Smrz (Guandakini Ducati), who recovered well to score a good result in front of his home crowd. Seventh was Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda) and eighth Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), who ran a defensive race to try and score as many points as possible. Makoto Tamada took home a good result for Kawasaki, the Japanese rider finishing in tenth place.


Max Biaggi: "It's great! What can I say! When I crossed the start-finish I was so happy to be winning this race and I had so many flashbacks of Brno, I can feel that it is one of my favourite circuits. Of course I don't want to take anything away from Spies and Fabrizio, they were both very fast, but I remember Barry Sheene used to say ‘To finish first, first you have to finish' and this is a part of the deal. I put my head down and did not make any mistake, so a big thanks to all my crew, Aprilia and in particular Gigi Dall'Igna, the ‘papa' of our bike!."


Carlos Checa: "It's a good result for the team to get two riders on the podium and I think we did a very good job. At a certain point I thought maybe I could catch Max, but in the end I had to preserve my tyres as the right side in particular was not so good, and I could see there was no way. I settled for second as I could see that Johnny was 4 seconds behind."


Jonathan Rea: "Well, in Superpole we had to ride through the problems and get a good result and we did the same here in the race, so I feel quite fortunate to get a podium. We didn't quite have the pace of Max , but my team have done a really good job. I really love this place, but I can't understand why I had a slow start to the weekend."


Results 1. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 40'18.306 (160,863 kph); 2. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 3.631; 3. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 9.948; 4. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 12.952; 5. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 14.599; 6. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 19.359; 7. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 19.680;8. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 20.731; 9. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 21.923; 10. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 27.807; 11. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 35.263; 12. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 36.535; 13. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 38.586; 14. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 40.061; 15. Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 40.280; 16. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 40.641


Race 2


Spies powered into the lead shortly after the start to head towards his eleventh win of the season. It wasn't easy however as the Texan had to keep Biaggi at bay, and the Italian took second at the end. Third went to Fabrizio, who lost contact with the leading pair in the last few laps. Despite his win, Spies was unable to overtake Haga at the top of the table. The Japanese rider ran a heroic second race to finish in sixth place, holding off a trio of Tom Sykes (Yamaha), Byrne and Smrz in the final stages. Just off the podium were the Ten Kate pairing of Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa, their positions inverted from race 1. Once again Corser was up at the front in the early stages, but this time the Australian finished in tenth.


Ben Spies: "It was a tough race, Fabrizio was there and I had to push and make good lap times. When I saw Max was there, he arrived quite quick and I had to start braking very late and stopping almost in the middle of the corner to get good drive so he couldn't come by me. The first race obviously wasn't so good but we rallied together for the second race. That pass attempt was not the best move in the world, but that's how racing goes sometimes. A big thanks also to the Clinica Mobile guys because I wasn't feeling so good this weekend."


Max Biaggi: "It's a great result, I'm quite pleased, it's not a victory but we proved that we have a lot of muscle and could fight with Fabrizio and Spies all the time. I stopped behind Fabrizio for quite a time, while Spies managed to pull away. In the end I passed him and went to catch Spies. I tried to brake very late, but I didn't want to take him out like it was in the first race. We got a good result and it was a very good weekend here for Aprilia."


Michel Fabrizio: "It was really difficult to fight against Aprilia and Yamaha today. The only problem we had was coming out of the turns where I never quite managed to stay behind first Ben and then Max, but we should be happy with this third place and now we must look ahead."


Results 1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 40'15.420 (161,055 kph); 2. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 0.213; 3. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 0.657; 4. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 8.311; 5. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 8.915; 6. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 21.175; 7. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 21.384; 8. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 21.599; 9. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 21.726; 10. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 25.180; 11. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 25.612; 12. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 25.622; 13. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 26.246; 14. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 31.098; 15. Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 32.706; 16. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 33.173


Points (after 10 of 14 rounds): 1. Haga 326; 2. Spies 319; 3. Fabrizio 273; 4. Rea 206; 5. Biaggi 200; 6. Haslam 180; 7. Sykes 150; 8. Checa 145; 9. Byrne 134; 10. Smrz 132. Manufacturers: 1. Ducati 412; 2. Yamaha 362; 3. Honda 306; 4. Aprilia 207; 5. Suzuki 133; 6. BMW 87; 7. Kawasaki 53


World Supersport


There was a sensational end to the Supersport race as Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) had to retire with a mechanical problem two laps from the flag as he was heading for another dominant victory, thus re-opening the title battle. His closest rival Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) had been struggling all weekend and could only finish fifth. The win, after the four-way battle for second turned into the fight for first, went to his team-mate Fabien Foret, who returned to the top slot for the first time since last year, the Frenchman thus wiping out all memories of his nasty crash here on this track twelve months ago. In the sprint finish, the runner-up slot went to Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda), who managed to get the better of the two increasingly competitive Kawasakis of Joan Lascorz and Katsuaki Fujiwara. South African Sheridan Morais put in a good run for sixth place, ahead of Italian Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Honda) and Garry Mc Coy (ParkinGo Triumph), while the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team again had a disappointing day, their two champions Kenan Sofuoglu and Andrew Pitt only finishing ninth and tenth respectively.


Results 1. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 37'14.367 (156,695 kph); 2. West A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 0.148; 3. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 0.289; 4. Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 0.400; 5. Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 6.823; 6. Morais S. (RSA) Yamaha YZF R6 14.896; 7. Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 15.092; 8. McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 15.634


Points (after 10 of 14 rounds): 1. Crutchlow 185; 2. Laverty 168; 3. Sofuoglu 128; 4. Lascorz 122; 5. West 95; 6. Foret 88; 7. Pitt 85; 8. Mccoy 63; 9. Aitchison 61; 10. Fujiwara 52. Manufacturers: 1. Honda 211 2. Yamaha 210 3. Kawasaki 133; 4. Triumph 77; 5. Suzuki 30


Superstock 1000


The Superstock 1000 FIM Cup round produced a real thriller. After leading for almost the entire race, Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda) crashed two turns from the chequered flag, throwing away a certain victory. The man who raised the winners' champagne was Belgium's Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox), who took his second win in a row and has now increased his overall points lead to 26 over Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare). The Italian could only finish sixth, because of vibration problems on his Suzuki right from the start. Second place went to Spain's Javi Fores (Kawasaki Pedercini), who held off the Czech rider Ondrej Jezek (MS Racing Honda) in the final stages. In fourth place finished Frenchman Sylvain Barrier (Garnier Yamaha) ahead of Daniele Beretta (Ducati Xerox).


Results : 1. Simeon X. (BEL) Ducati 1098R 24'52.839 (156,353 kph); 2. Fores J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 8.022; 3. Jezek O. (CZE) Honda CBR1000RR 8.079; 4. Barrier S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 9.607; 5. Beretta D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 9.666; 6. Corti C. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 9.922; 7. Lundh A. (SWE) Honda CBR1000RR 18.270; 8. Mähr R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 19.494


Points (after 6 of 10 rounds): 1. Simeon 130; 2. Corti 104; 3. Fores 84; 4. Berger 82; 5. Barrier 67; 6. Beretta 56; 7. Jezek 48: 8. Baz 33; 9. Giuliano 25; 10. Savary 23. Manufacturers: 1. Ducati 130; 2. Honda 108: 3. Suzuki 104; 4. Kawasaki 84, 5. Yamaha 75; 6. MV Augusta 21; 7. Aprilia 12


Superstock 600


The outcome of the Superstock 600 race was decided on the last lap, with a seven-rider sprint to the chequered flag. In the end the win went to Belgium's Vincent Lonbois (MTM Racing Yamaha), who held off points leader Danilo Petrucci (Yamaha Trasimeno). With second place the young Italian confirms his leadership in a hard-fought championship battle that sees five riders separated at the top by 22 points. Third place went to Italian Eddi La Marra (Honda Lorini), with France's Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Yamaha), Norway's Fredrik Carlsen (VD Heyden Yamaha), Gino Rea (Ten Kate Honda) of Britain and Italy's Marco Bussolotti (Yamaha Trasimeno) making up the top 7.


Results 1. Lonbois V. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 19'19.920 (150,922 kph); 2. Petrucci D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 0.191; 3. La Marra E. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 0.247; 4. Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 0.315; 5. Karlsen F. (NOR) Yamaha YZF R6 1.087; 6. Rea G. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 1.207; 7. Bussolotti M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1.262; 8. Kerschbaumer S. (AUT) Yamaha YZF R6 5.86


Points (after 6 of 10 rounds): 1. Petrucci 102; 2. Lonbois 89; 3. Rea 88: 4. Guarnoni 83; 5. Bussolotti 80; 6. La Marra 55; 7. Kerschbaumer 51; 8. Guittet 47; 9. Litjens 38; 10. Chmielewki 30

SUPERBIKES: Haga ready for big comeback

After some worrying times after his big crash at the Donington round last month, Noriyuki Haga returns to action at Brno ready to defend his championship lead. The Japanese star was cleared of initial fears that he had injured his vertebrae in the race two fall in England, and has now had almost a month to heal after suffering arm and shoulder fractures.

Speaking of his chances in the upcoming races in the Czech Republic, he said, "After the crash at Donington I've been doing a lot of physiotherapy in order to get back into shape as quickly as possible and in time for Brno. It's a pity I couldn't take part in the Imola testing as that would have been very useful but it was just too soon and it's more important to be fit to race. I'm not sure that my arm and shoulder will be 100% by the weekend but I'm confident I'll be ready for the races and will fight to take as many points as possible."

Haga needs all the points he can muster as Ben Spies is now only 14 points behind him in the championship chase.