WSBK – An almost perfect weekend for Haslam! – Second Superbike race

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An almost perfect weekend for Haslam !

WSBK - An almost perfect weekend for Haslam! - Second Superbike race

Author of the pole and the fastest lap in the race, winner of the first round and second of the second: Leon Haslam was able to tame the Ducatis yesterday at Phillip Island! In Supersport, Eugene Laverty was intractable. Report of the three races.

Second Superbike race

Michel Fabrizio takes the best start but Leon Haslam overtakes him in the first corner! Noriyuki Haga is 3rd just ahead of Chris Vermeulen, determined to erase his blunder in the 1st round! Follow Sylvain Guintoli, Leon Camier, James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow…

As in the first round, Haslam tried to separate from the peloton in the first laps but the official Ducatis and the Suzuki of his teammate Guintoli remained stuck. Sylvain in particular seems very comfortable at the start of the race: in one lap, he overtook the two Italians and hoisted his Gex to 2nd position. !

The Frenchie signs in the 3rd lap the best lap of the second heat (1’34.236) and does not take long to join the winner of the 1st race.

Behind the two Suzuki and the two official Ducatis, the peloton is led by Toseland. The Englishman, like the Australian Vermeulen, is looking to register his first points of the season, the biggest possible. He dominates Leon Camier, Carlos Checa, Chris Vermeulen and Jakub Smrz.

At the end of this 3rd lap, Suzuki n ° 50 – yes, Sylvain’s! – take control of the race! "I really enjoyed this day, it was very pleasant", will rejoice later our compatriot.

"I don’t remember the last time I led an international race (Le Mans in 2007 with Randy de Puniet?, Editor’s note), so leading the second run for a while was a great feeling and I want to relive it !"Just like us !

Guintoli’s poor motorcycle moves a lot but holds the track, followed closely by the Gex n ° 91 and the Ducati n ° 84, 41 … and 7. Indeed, Carlos Checa got rid of Camier in quick succession and Toseland and background on the leading men !

"In the 2nd round, we selected a better tire that allowed me to brake much harder, I had a good pace and I could overtake the pilots quite easily.", will detail El Toro at the end of his race.

Three laps later – the 7th overall – Chris Vermeulen’s race ended precipitously: the pilot and his ZX-10R left the track at high speed and were only stopped by the safety barrier … luckily comes out with only a few bumps and bruises.

"The first x-rays did not reveal any breakage, but as a precaution I am going to Melbourne to have an MRI", he will nevertheless point out before leaving the circuit."I’m happy to have a full month before joining Portimao, I can make sure I’m back in great shape".

Kawasaki also has to hope for a return of Chris in full possession of his means: among the Greens this weekend, only Sykes scored 3 points in the first round. In the second round, a "ten centimes seal"faulty prevented the English from defending its chances…

At the halfway point, Haslam and Guintoli are still fighting for the lead under the noses of Fabrizio and Haga. The show is superb and also allows Checa to bring back the leading group definitively: the fight for victory promises !

Behind, Toseland, Corser and Crutchlow are also engaged in a remarkable battle for 6th place. But if this situation satisfies the Australian and his young S1000RR – she has just blown out her first candle! -, she does not satisfy at all the substitutes of Ben Spies !

Cal Crutchlow, in particular, will castigate the lack of grip of his Yamaha: "we need to get back to the drawing board and find solutions", intends even the official driver, 9th of this race in front of his new teammate Toseland…

While the two Suz ‘continued to take turns leading the race, the n ° 7 Ducati made its way to the podium: Checa slipped his bike under Haga’s on the 14th lap. As alerted by his 6th sense, Fabrizio then overtakes Haslam in the next lap…

Checa momentarily downgrades to 5th place but is much faster than Haga and again takes up position under Fabrizio’s pots, freshly doubled by Haslam! In the same pin, Leon takes the lead by overtaking Sylvain and Carlos climbs on the podium by overtaking Michel !

Always so easy, Checa dispossessed Guintoli of his 2nd place after the difficult braking Lukey Heights. One loop later, in the same sloping and slightly overhanging passage, our Sylvain was forced to get off the podium, overtaken by a Fabrizio again over-charged !

The last lap is carried out in apnea: Leon Haslam holds on until Lukey Heights but there again, Checa shifts on the outside to melt under the Suzuki in the following right! Carlos won the second round just ahead of Leon Haslam and Michel Fabrizio.

"I’m obviously delighted with this result, it’s my first race with the Althea team and on the Ducati 1198: we have a good assortment to fight for this year.", noted Checa, who climbed to 3rd place in the provisional classification with 34 points, just behind Fabrizio (36) and ahead of Haga (27).

The big winner of the weekend remains Leon Haslam, who has had an almost perfect weekend. "It’s fantastic to lead the World Superbike Championship", rejoices the n ° 91 of the Suzuki Alstare team !

His teammate n ° 50 finished the second round in a promising 4th place ahead of vice world champion Haga. But Syl ‘will quickly console himself for not having savored the champagne from the podium: "it was nice to get a trophy (for the fastest lap in the second run) and hope it’s the first in a long streak".

In the provisional, Guintoli appears in 5th position with 23 points, a score he shares with Jonathan Rea, whom we must be wary of this year despite his relative discretion in Australia. Biaggi, Corser, Camier and Lanzi complete the Top 10 that Crutchlow, Toseland, Neukirchner, Vermeulen or Xaus – among others – will be keen to join in a month, during the 2nd round of the World Superbike in Portimao! To be continued on Site: stay connected !

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