WSBK – WSBK: Sykes wins the last race 2012, Biaggi the title! –

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WSBK: Sykes wins last race 2012, Biaggi the title !

WSBK - WSBK: Sykes wins the last race 2012, Biaggi the title! -

By taking fifth place in the second round this afternoon at Magny-Cours, Biaggi won his sixth world title in motorcycle speed. Sykes, winner of the race, fails half a point from the title … Damn !

By taking fifth place in the second round this afternoon at Magny-Cours, Biaggi won his sixth world title in motorcycle speed. Sykes, winner of the race, fails half a point from the title … Damn !

At noon, the first French round of the WSBK took place on a wet track (read below). Stunned, the spectators saw Biaggi fall, Guintoli shine and Melandri and Sykes maintain the suspense by remaining in contention for the title…

In the 600 cc class, Cluzel offered Honda the constructors’ title in World Supersport by winning "its" French round. Third on the track behind Lowes, Sofuoglu receives a penalty: Linfoot deserved his first podium !

First Superbike race

Carlos Checa took off the grid earlier but Tom Sykes, Jonathan Rea and Eugene Laverty took the lead in the first curve. Max Biaggi is already in fifth place! Follow Leon Haslam, Sylvain Guintoli, Marco Melandri, Leon Camier and Maxime Berger.

Checa goes to third position before completing the first lap: the world champion does not want to let Sykes and Rea slip away! Guintoli is in the wheel of Biaggi, Shepherd in that of Haslam. Biaggi overtook Laverty on the 2nd braking lap of Adelaide and Haslam passed Guintoli. Chaz Davies falls and gives up !

In front, Tom "Lascorz" Sykes cannot let go of Jonathan Rea. The two Britons have two good seconds ahead of Checa, himself placed two seconds ahead of Biaggi … who loses before Adelaide! His RSV4 spins in the gravel trap and prevents the Roman Emperor from returning to the track. !

Sykes is warned of the abandonment of Biaggi from the next loop. Ninja # 66 needs to stay focused despite the pressure from Fireblade # 65. Behind, the atmosphere is excited: Laverty, Haslam, Berger, Guintoli and Melandri roll in package and do not hesitate to brake more than three abreast !

Johnny Rea took control of the race, passing Sykes at the end of the pit straight at the start of the 5th lap. Carlos Checa is still third two seconds behind the Kawa driver while Guintoli fights neck and neck with Marco Melandri !

Well started, Eugene Laverty tumbles in the standings. Leon Camier executed an unstoppable "block pass" on the Irishman and his Aprilia n ° 58 to climb to ninth position. No.2 Suzuki is now aiming for Leon Haslam’s place, posted a small second in front of him.

In the 8th lap, the Ducati n ° 7 finds itself on the ground at Estoril … This fall benefits Marco Melandri who climbs in fourth position and mathematically finds himself again in the fight for the championship !

Sylvain Guintoli inherits the third step of the podium. Our Frenchie and his 1198 n ° 50 find themselves sandwiched between the two rivals of Max Biaggi, more than 7 seconds behind Tom Sykes and a small second ahead of Marco Melandri…

Suzuki n ° 2 in turn made a mistake: Camier was violently thrown to the ground and then partially trapped under his Gex in the gravel pit … The English giant was fortunately quickly rid of his mount by the marshals..

Melandri went on the attack at the very start of the 12th lap and took third place so far occupied by French star Sylvain Guintoli. The Hedgehog # 33 is four seconds behind the English Ninja Sykes who long let go of Rea’s wheel !

Johnny Rea beats lap record on lap record and his lead reaches nine seconds … but the replacement of Casey Stoner in MotoGP ends up reaching the limits of his rear Pirelli! The Northern Irishman leaves the Top 10 again and finishes the 14th loop in slow motion before joining the pits.

Tom Sykes takes over the reins of the race, 1.5 seconds ahead of Marco Melandri, 2 seconds ahead of Sylvain Guintoli and twelve seconds ahead of Maxime Berger! Loris Baz, our third national representative, closes the Top 10.

The three leading men find themselves wheel in wheel with nine laps to go! Guintoli launched the first attack at the Lycee and took second place under the cheers of "his" audience. The Drôme pilot even takes the lead in Adelaide and allows Melandri to pass Sykes.

Sylvain escapes, Melandri tries to follow and Sykes has no choice but to give up his hand, his rear tire not allowing him to accelerate as hard as his two opponents. The No.50 Ducati sets a new race record and builds a lead of more than two seconds over the No.33 BMW.

The two leading men set a hell of a pace: in just three laps, Sykes lost five seconds to his championship rival Melandri. Fortunately for the Kawasaki rider, Berger does not turn faster than him and is about ten seconds away. Haslam, on the other hand, is only two seconds behind the Ducati n ° 121 du Dijonnais…

A superb fight between Laverty and Badovini for sixth place. Giugliano, Corti and Baz complete the Top 10. Behind them, Brignola and Fabrizio are the last two drivers still on the track, after the successive retirements of de Davies, Biaggi, Zanetti, Aoyama, Checa, Camier and Rea.

Sylvain Guintoli continued his superb race and secured a lead of more than five seconds over Marco Melandri two laps from the checkered flag. Tom Sykes is 16 seconds, Maxime Berger 24 and Leon Haslam 26…

The last lap is only a formality for Sylvain: the Frenchman turns around several times and ends quietly greeting even his relatives by negotiating the final pin. "Guinters50" takes home a third victory this season, this time riding the Ducati Pata Racing !

Marco Melandri tumbles into second position, ten seconds ahead of Tom Sykes: the two men get on the podium and, thanks to that, remain in contention for the 2012 title more than ever! Max Biaggi is actually 14.5 points ahead of the Kawa driver, 18.5 over the Behème driver … Stay tuned !

Supersport Race

For once, Fabien Foret started very well and passed the first curve in third position ahead of Jules Cluzel who left a small comma when going around! Kenan Sofuoglu is in the lead accompanied by Broc Parkes. In Adelaide Fabien exceeds Broc.

At the end of the first loop, however, Cluzel let go and climbed back to second position. The Briton Linfoot made a thunderous start to the race and posted his ZX-6R n ° 4 in third position ahead of Parkes and Foret! The latter lose contact with the three leading men in the 2nd lap and are overtaken by Lowes, Leonov and Talmacsi.

Jules Cluzel continued to attack and rose to the top of "his" French round from the third loop. Dan Linfoot is holding on to the controls of his Kawa ‘, unlike 2012 world champion Kenan Sofuoglu whose No. 54 ZX-6R is in fourth place, three seconds behind Sam Lowes.

Unperturbed, Jules is more than two seconds ahead of Linfoot in the 6th loop. Our Coq Supersportif must however be wary of Lowes who gradually climbs up to his compatriot placed in second position. Sofuoglu is nine seconds from Cluzel, Foret is just under 15…

The track remains mostly wet and allows the pilots to continue to attack on their wet tires! Sam Lowes thus manages to plant a big braking at the exit of the Lycee to climb on the second step of the podium, 12 laps from the end.

Jules Cluzel still holds the reins of the race and has 3.5 seconds ahead of Sam Lowes and Dan Linfoot. Broc Parkes, author of the pole on the handlebars of the Honda Ten Kate, is already taken a ride! Meanwhile, Maurin and Lanusse are fighting for 24th place, Marino occupies 11th place and Foret 5th. Debise unfortunately fell at the start of the race…

The halfway mark is crossed and our n ° 16 is only 2.6 seconds ahead of Sam Lowes, who in the wake of his Honda n ° 11 drives Dan Linfoot’s Kawa ‘n ° 4. . Kenan Sofuoglu, already titled, cannot offer the constructor title to his Green brand since he is 11 seconds behind Jules’s CBR…

Certain portions of the circuit are starting to dry out and the machines move more and more, their Pirelli struggling to cope with the pace imposed by the pilots! Lowes is doing a little better than Cluzel and Linfoot in this perilous exercise: Sam slows his delay on our favorite Rookie by a second. There are still seven laps to go…

Kenan Sofuoglu sets the fastest time in the race in the next loop and is only five seconds behind Linfoot. By continuing like this, the Turk can still hope to reach the podium. Jules Cluzel for his part drives home the point: he has a lead of 2.8 seconds with four laps of the checkered flag.

Kenan rejoins Linfoot at the very end of the 20th lap while the backward numbers are more and more numerous … The Turk tries a first attack on the Englishman while braking Adelaide but Kenan widens and has to let Dan pass again. The n ° 54 made another small gap and stayed behind Linfoot at the start of the last lap.

Sofuoglu launches a new attack on Linfoot under Adelaide’s braking and pushes the poor Englishman whose ZX-6R spreads slowly but surely on the tarmac! No.4 is naturally furious with No.54. He still leaves in fourth position just in front of Fabien Foret.

Jules Cluzel is running towards his fourth victory this season – as much as the champion Sofuoglu! – while Sam Lowes finished second ahead of Kenan Sofuoglu. The Turk is however penalized by 25 seconds following his nasty maneuver and fails at the foot of the podium, for two tenths !

Dan Linfoot clearly deserved to give his first podium to the new Indian team MSD R-N Racing Kawasaki which also drives Florian Marino. However, the 16 points obtained by the manufacturer of Akashi do not allow him to win the "double" in 2012: Honda is crowned Superport world champion this year, in particular thanks to our Super Jules !

 

Second Superbike race

The track may still be wet and the race officially declared "Wet", the drivers start with slick tires! Tom Sykes draws the fastest again and turns the lead ahead of Eugene Laverty, while Carlos Checa, Jonathan Rea, Sylvain Guintoli, Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri literally fight fairings against fairings !

Sykes held on despite Laverty’s attacks, Melandri then took sixth place ahead of Loris Baz and Max Biaggi cautiously finished the first lap in tenth position, just behind Checa. In the 2nd loop, our n ° 50 jumps on the second place of Laverty.

Sykes and Guintoli isolated themselves slightly at the head in the third loop and preceded another duo composed of Laverty and Haslam. Two seconds later Rea, Melandri and Giugliano appear. Checa, Baz and Biaggi roll around five seconds behind the leaders.

While Sykes breaks the lap record on the track, his young teammate Baz gives Biaggi a hard time! The Roman Emperor had to do it twice to steal from our "Bazooka" his ninth place … In the following lap, however, Giugliano posted an even better time: the Ducati rider n ° 34 was in 7th position, just behind Melandri.

Tom Sykes gets hot on the sixth lap as he exits the water tower. The English Ninja, however, remained on his two-wheelers and kept the lead. Baz and Melandri do not have the same luck and fall heavily in the previous sequence. The Kawa ‘n ° 76 and the BMW n ° 33 are still on the track in the next lap but the race continues…

Biaggi therefore inherits sixth place: all he has to do is overtake a rider to win his second world crown in World Superbike … But the n ° 3 momentarily leaves the track and is overtaken by Giugliano! Sykes on his side is imperial: he remains out of reach of Guintoli, followed closely by Laverty and Rea.

Max Biaggi continues to attack and bites beyond the vibrators again while trying to get back on the two Ducati Althea posted in front of him. Leon Haslam and his BMW n ° 91 thus remain in contact with the Aprilia n ° 3 which then occupies the second place in the championship behind the Kawasaki n ° 66. !

At the halfway point, Rea placed a good attack on Laverty. He decides not to give up gas in Château d’Eau and almost gets catapulted by his official RSV4! The Irish rider therefore loses contact with the Fireblade n ° 65 placed a small second from the Kawa n ° 66 and the Ducati n ° 50.

Ten seconds behind a Tom "Lascorz" Sykes always first – but still threatened by Guintoli! -, Biaggi has finally passed in front of Giugliano and is now chasing Checa. The Roman Emperor finds himself again half a point away from his second WSBK title…

Max makes a decisive attack under Adelaide‘s braking. By overtaking Carlos Checa, Max virtually recovers the orders of the championship: he has half a point more than Tom! There are still seven laps to go and Sykes is in first place. Leon Haslam falls in turn: the official BMW team has a third nightmarish weekend…

Sykes widened his lead slightly with six laps to go. Unlike at the start of the season, the Kawasaki does not lose its pace at the end of the race, but that will probably not be enough as Max Biaggi clings firmly to his fifth place.

Sylvain Guintoli and Jonathan Rea are just one second behind Tom Sykes, four laps from the end. Eugene Laverty, on the other hand, gives way more and more and turns around frequently but does not see his teammate six seconds behind him. !

In the next loop, Johnny and his CBR surprise Guinters and his 1198! "JR" stays a second from Sykes and doesn’t let go. Laverty is fourth at over eight seconds, Biaggi fifth at over 13 seconds. Max certainly feels the world crown approaching his head. In the paddocks, his friend Jorge Lorenzo does not take his eyes off the TV screen !

Tom Sykes finished his race perfectly and came first under the checkered flag with more than a second ahead of Jonathan Rea and more than two over Sylvain Guintoli. Eugene Laverty for his part finished in slow motion and is in the front row to see his teammate win his sixth world title, his second in the WSBK !

Never has a Superbike World Championship been so tight: Max Biaggi appears at the top of the standings with a total of 358 points, against 357.5 (!) For Tom Sykes. Marco Melandri’s counter remains stuck at 328.5 points: the Italian will have scored only 20 points in the last six races…

On the constructors’ side, Aprilia’s dominance is a little more marked: the Noale brand ends 2012 with 444.5 points, or 23.5 more than BMW and 28.5 more than Ducati. Kawasaki is fourth at 47 points behind Aprilia, Honda fifth at 151 points and Suzuki last at 308 points.

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