WSBK – Haslam confirms, Haga is back! – Second Superbike race

Posted on by admin

Haslam confirms, Haga is back !

WSBK - Haslam confirms, Haga is back! - Second Superbike race

Third round of the World Superbike this weekend in Valence: for the first time this season, the two Superbike rounds have given us two very distinct scenarios while in Supersport, the local of the stage has won.. Reports.

Second Superbike race

The second round of Superbike is turned upside down by a double fall that occurred from the riders’ 4th passage in the straight line…

Simon Andrews – Chris Vermeulen’s replacement on the official Kawa ‘- and Vittorio Iannuzzo both fall while passing in front of the pits: the intervention of the marshals and the concern over the impressive fall of the Kawa’ driver require the interruption of the race.

Iannuzzo comes out of it almost unscathed and, miraculously, Andrews has "only" two fractures of his left foot to mourn. Poor Simon does not remember his fall but is lucid enough to thank the Kawa ‘team for giving him the opportunity to "have fun" – Editor’s note – in the SBK World Cup.

The 24 other drivers set off a few minutes later to cover the 20 additional laps. The starting grid is set up according to the order of passage of the last complete loop and the differences observed on the 3rd passage will be counted to establish the results of this strange second race….

After the first three laps, Checa had a lead of 0.658 seconds over Rea, 0.750 over Biaggi, 0.980 over Guintoli, 1,257 over Haga, 1,396 over Haslam, 1,902 over Camier, 2,153 over Corser, 2,428 over Crutchlow, 2,563 over Toseland, etc. . To remember !

Once again, Max Biaggi got out of the starting grid the best and took the lead in the first left. The Italian is followed by his own teammate Leon Camier on the Aprilia n ° 2. Behind the two RSV4 are two other Italians, but these come from Bologna and not from Noale: these are the 1198 from Haga and Checa !

"Before the race we made some changes and went back to the settings we were using during the warm-up and it worked", confirmed Noriyuki Haga, finally back at the forefront in 2010 !

In the first loop, Camier offers himself the luxury of beating Biaggi himself while Haga loses two places to the benefit of Checa and Rea. However, cumulatively – that is to say by adding the lap times of the first three laps – Checa is at the top of this 2nd round ahead of Biaggi, Rea and Camier…

But on the track, it is indeed the young English champion who spins far ahead of his opponents! From the third round, a trio is made up of Camier, Biaggi and Checa, and a second tries to form between Rea, Haga and Byrne. But Corser, Haslam and Toseland hang on while they can !

In the two following loops, Nitro Nori causes the powder – inevitably – and irresistibly separates from the peloton in which Toseland and Haslam sows a real discord. The second is however the victim of a technical problem…

"My brake lever came up against the handlebars which meant that I couldn’t get close to the other riders to pass them", Leon will reveal …"I was no longer confident and after three or four laps I prayed for the race to end or for someone in front to stop so that I could get on a new podium" !

In front of the atmosphere is just as hot since Checa overtakes Biaggi on the 7th lap and instantly threatens Camier. For three laps, the temperature drops somewhat but Biaggi stokes the fire by passing Checa at the end of the straight line !

"I think that the people who came to Valencia today really enjoyed themselves"El Torro n ° 7 concludes. Site confirms 100%…

Camier, very generous and lively in his driving, gets carried away a little too much in the final curve of the 10th lap and loses the rear! The Englishman gets up and runs to his RSV4 but must face the facts: she will not leave. For sure, the rookie will have other opportunities to win this year.

Aprilia still remains at the top of this course thanks to its stainless Max Biaggi which is ahead of the no less rot-proof Carlos Checa and Noriyuki Haga !

The three men find themselves wheel in wheel on the podium with nine laps to go: their pursuers are relegated to more than 4 seconds and the times of the first part of the race do not allow any of them to fight for the Top3 !

Against all expectations, Haga attacked at the very start of the 13th lap and passed Checa. A few turns further, Ducati n ° 41 does it again and climbs in front of Aprilia n ° 3. For the first time this season, the Japanese rider is leading the way. However, to win the race, Haga must be ahead of Biaggi by more than half a second and Checa by more than 1.257 sec..

Haga applies herself but fails to pull away from Biaggi and Checa in any notable way. Following a big heat in a pif-paf however, Max Biaggi offers a little air to Noriyuki who climbs – cumulatively – on the 2nd step of the podium…

And two laps from the end, the official Ducati is 12 hundredths of a second ahead of Checa and his private Ducat ‘! The last lap is carried out at an infernal pace, in times barely higher than at the start of the race.

"I don’t know where the guys in front got their pace in the race", will remark the double world champion James Toseland, installed in 7th place,"lap times in ’34 and a half after the second start, it was a second faster than during the 1st race".

Finally Haga crosses the finish line 8 tenths ahead of Biaggi and 1.282 seconds ahead of Checa … The score is good for Noriyuki Haga, who wins the cumulative for 25 thousandths: Nitro Nori is indeed back !

Carlos Checa, on the strength of his lead acquired during the first three laps, climbed to the second step of the podium completed by Max Biaggi. Leon Haslam limits the damage by placing 4th in this second race, while Sylvain Guintoli finishes in sixth place, half a second behind Jonathan Rea.

In the provisional classification, Haslam now has 123 points and Biaggi 105. Checa pays dearly for his downfall in the first round: he is only one point ahead of Haga (80 against 79). Rea is 5th (60 points), then Toseland and Guintoli are tied on points (50), as are their pursuers Fabrizio and Corser (46).

In the constructors’ championship, Suzuki increased its lead over Ducati and Aprilia: respectively 123, 107 and 105 points. Honda follows with 61 points, Yamaha 57, BMW 47 and Kawasaki 13.

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *