WSBK – WSBK: Checa wins the Battle of Britain! –

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WSBK: Checa wins the Battle of Britain !

WSBK - WSBK: Checa wins the Battle of Britain! -

By winning both World Superbike races at Silverstone, Checa is getting closer to the 2011 title! Laverty and Melandri follow him on both podiums while Biaggi stumbles but does not admit defeat yet. In Supersport, Davies wins when Foret and Marino miss the boat…

By winning both World Superbike races at Silverstone, Checa is getting closer to the 2011 title! Laverty and Melandri follow him on both podiums while Biaggi stumbles but does not admit defeat yet. In Supersport, Davies wins when Foret and Marino miss the boat…

First Superbike race

Eugene Laverty took off the starting grid the fastest and took the lead ahead of John Hopkins, Carlos Checa, Noriyuki Haga, Marco Melandri, Leon Haslam, Leon Camier, Max Biaggi, Maxime Berger and Ayrton Badovini. Sylvain Guintoli is in 15th place.

Michel Fabrizio falls on the first lap: the Suzuki Alstare rider, beaten in testing by guest John Hopkins and his Suzuki Crescent, did he give in to the pressure? ?

Laverty sets the pace as Hopkins must contain Haga’s assaults. Behind, Checa grew impatient and tried to overtake the Japanese but came up against Aprilia n ° 41. Marco Melandri takes more of his time and remains stuck behind Carlos, followed closely by Leon Haslam.

Leon Camier tries to stay in contact with the leading group. His teammate Max Biaggi on the other hand cannot keep pace and fights in the second group against Mark Aitchison and Maxime Berger! The little Frenchman, 2nd in the warm-up this morning, is in the Top 10 !

From the 3rd round, a quartet composed of Laverty, Hopkins, Haga and Checa split slightly from Melandri, Haslam and Camier. Nitro Nori puts on a show and starts the 4th lap in 2nd position! Checa climbs on the podium a few turns later and takes over Haga’s aspi.

In the background, our dear Berger is manhandled and retrograde in 13th position behind Troy Corser, Mark Aitchison, Ayrton Badovini and Sylvain Guintoli.

In the 5th loop, Checa takes 2nd place and sets off to hunt Laverty. Behind the two men, the chasing group immediately recomposes: Haga leads, Melandri and Hopkins fight for 4th place and Camier doubles Haslam.

Max Biaggi is already more than 5 seconds behind the BMW n ° 91 and must ward off the attacks of rather unusual adversaries: the BMW n ° 86 of Badovini, the Kawa ‘n ° 8 of Aitchison, the Ducati n ° 50 by Guintoli and the BMW n ° 11 by Corser.

In the 6th lap, while Alex Lowes crashed heavily from his # 22 CBR1000RR and had to retire, Carlos Checa passed Eugene Laverty and went overdrive! The Ducati n ° 7 then completed an almost record lap – "El Torro" already had the best time in the race – and false company to the Yamaha n ° 58.

The peloton is more than two seconds from the two leaders and does not stop bickering! Hopkins takes the reins of the small group in the 7th loop ahead of Camier, Melandri, Haslam and Haga. The second group is equally agitated: Biaggi is dominated by Badovini, Aitchison, Lascorz and Guintoli. Corser and Berger also put pressure on him !

Meanwhile, the Spaniard Checa flew over the debates and at halfway had a two second lead over the Northern Irishman Laverty and more than four over the chasing peloton now led by the Englishman Camier. The Anglo-American Hopkins, the Italian Melandri and the English Haslam still follow, the Nippon Haga loses the front, falls and cannot restart…

A lap later, the Australian Atchison also slips on the asphalt under the eyes of Romain Biaggi. The Emperor therefore inherits 11th place, just ahead of our compatriot Berger. The two men lose contact a little more on the second group comprising Lascorz, Badovini, Guintoli and Corser.

Twelve seconds ahead of his four men roll the trio Melandri, Hopkins and Haslam who are fighting for 4th place. The first two thirds of the race are over and the podium already seems frozen: Checa runs alone in the lead, Laverty and Camier are also riding solo..

With five laps to go, our "Mad Max" Berger overtook "Sad Max" Biaggi then Ayrton Badovini! The 2010 Champion must boil under his helmet: his driving is particularly rough and the n ° 1 Aprilia lets his young comrades slip away…

The suspense in the race increases as Camier goes up on Laverty! "Lione" grabs many tenths from "Yudjin" and will not be long in threatening him directly. Unfortunately for Camier – his team and Biaggi! – Aprilia n ° 2 suddenly slows down in the straight line at the start of the 16th lap !

Marco Melandri is therefore virtually on the podium and thus nibbles three additional points to Biaggi in the provisional classification. The Hedgehog must not however cut the gas: Leon Haslam and his S1000RR based on the R1 n ° 33…

Carlos Checa rolls up to the checkered flag and takes a ninth victory this season! Eugene Laverty takes the second step of the podium, accompanied by his teammate Marco Melandri. Haslam and Hopkins complete the Top 5 while Guintoli finishes 6th just ahead of Joan Lascorz and Maxime Berger.

Max Biaggi crosses the finish line in a disappointing 11th place and is now 25 points behind Carlos Checa in the provisional! Marco Melandri limits the damage against the Spaniard and gets back on his compatriot: Max’s mechanics will have work this afternoon…

Supersport Race

Gino Rea takes the lead just ahead of Florian Marino, Chaz Davies, Sam Lowes, Robbin Harms, Broc Parkes, Davide Salom, Fabien Foret, Massimo Roccoli and Roberto Tamburini. Our n ° 21 took the lead from the first lap: the young driver Ten Kate lacked neither speed nor style and competed with the hot Rea and Davies !

Chaz Davies jumps to 2nd place in the next loop and quickly lodges under the pot of the lead CBR. Behind the Yamaha n ° 7, the Honda n ° 4 does not yield a millimeter any more while Harms and Lowes move away from the peloton. Salom and Foret on the contrary, go back to the two Honda riders.

Sam Lowes fell on the 3rd lap and failed to drag his compatriot Rea down in his downfall … Poor Gino got off the track and lost several places. The hunting party is suddenly scattered but quickly recomposes! Davies hoists his R6 in the lead of the race, Marino does not let go and Davide Salom tries to get back into contact, Fabien Foret lodged in his wake.

A second fall, that of Robbin Harms, broke the leading group a little more. Marino returns to Davies, the two men wanted to isolate themselves at the end of the first quarter of the race but Foret, passed in front of Salom, decides to get back on his teammate and the leader of the championship…

Fabien takes advantage of a tiny gap from Florian to steal 2nd place from him and lets him fight with Salom! Almost three seconds behind the leading quartet, Rea struggles and goes up the entire peloton. The n ° 4 Honda does not relax its effort and tries to come back to Salom, accompanied by Roccoli. Tamburini and Parkes on the other hand are dropped.

At the forefront, Chaz Davies and his official Yamaha are unable to part with Fabien Foret and his Honda Ten Kate. Davide Salom and his Kawasaki remain in the game as Florian Marino and his Ten Kate give up some ground to the top three.

Shortly before the halfway point, Fabien Foret turned around for the first time to establish a quick assessment: lodged in Davies’ aspi, the Frenchman was followed like his shadow by the Spaniard Salom. His teammate Marino is no longer quite in the rhythm, unlike Gino Rea who always goes back and points to two small seconds from Florian !

It’s seven laps from the end that Fabien brakes hard to overtake Chaz and his Yam ‘. Honda n ° 99 then embarks on a fast lap but the Welshman and the Spaniard Salom remain stuck! Behind, Rea makes short work of Marino and storms the podium.

Two laps later, Salom attempted an attack on Davies but had to bow in the next corner. Fabien Foret turns around again and is overtaken by his two rivals! Florian Marino slips quickly in the standings: he is 7th behind Tamburini and Roccoli.

Much faster than the three leading men in the 11th lap, Rea is one second behind Foret with three laps from the end of the race: the Englishman wants to win at home ahead of the Welsh, the Spaniard and the French !

Elbows practically on the ground, Gino Rea flirts dangerously with the limits of his Pirelli at the very end of the race. The n ° 4 slides from the front as from the back and hits our favorite n ° 99 … Chaz Davies and Davide Salom have respectively two and one seconds ahead of Fabien Foret.

While the leading Yamaha and Kawasaki complete a relatively leisurely final lap, the No. 99 and No. 4 Honda’s slide, hop and skid in all directions! So much so that Rea goes out in the gravel two bends from the finish line !

Chaz Davies therefore won his fourth race of the season, ahead of Davide Salom and Fabien Foret. Florian Marino finished in 9th place having nevertheless set the third fastest time in the race, the hot Gino Rea finished in 11th place…

In the general classification, Davies takes advantage of his 25 points to move away from his rivals: the Briton has 146 points, against 104 for Salom and 101 for Foret. Parkes continues to give way (95 pts) while Scassa scores only 4 small points (83 in all).

On the constructor side, Yamaha (176 points) is also increasing its lead over Honda (149) and Kawasaki (134). Triumph brings up the rear with 23 points.

Second Superbike race

Eugene Laverty starts again in front of John Hopkins while Joan Lascorz, James Toseland and Alex Lowes go off the track in the first corner! Carlos Checa quickly took 2nd position ahead of Leon Camier, Marco Melandri, John Hopkins, Noriyuki Haga, Max Biaggi, Michel Fabrizio, Troy Corser and Ayrton Badovini. Our Frenchies are at the heart of the peloton: Guintoli is 11th, Berger 13th.

Leon Camier passed Carlos Checa on the second lap and set off in pursuit of the No. 58 Yamaha posted a third of a second ahead. The other two Aprilia are competing for 6th place, not far from Melandri and Hopkins who are eyeing the podium … But bad luck seems to be pursuing Noale’s company since Nitro Nori returns to the pits !

On the track, Hopkins climbed ahead of Melandri and retained the advantage despite counterattacks from No.33 Yamaha. The fight benefits Max Biaggi who gets closer to them, while moving away from the rest of the peloton dominated by Fabrizio and Haslam. In the 5th round, the world No.1 joins the leading group and teases his best enemy Marco…

Still in the lead, Laverty maintains his three-tenths lead over Camier and Checa. Behind Hopkins, the battle between Melandri and Biaggi intensifies and gives rise to superb overtaking! The two Italians therefore lost ground on the Suzuki n ° 211, as well as on the Ducati n ° 7 leader in the provisional…

Carlos Checa was not wasting his time, moreover: he passed Leon Camier properly and chased Eugene Laverty. The chase only lasts a few seconds: the championship leader quickly takes control of the race and tries to escape alone in the lead..

Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri installed at the back of the first group must react in order not to give up too many points to their Spanish rival! But the Yamaha n ° 58, the Aprilia n ° 2 and the Suzuki n ° 211 block the road of the two Italians.

Shortly before the halfway point, Biaggi snatched his 4th place from Hopkins. As Max gets back on his teammate Leon, Marco blocks more on "Hopper". But suddenly, the Roman Emperor loses his footing and is passed by Hopkins !

Up front, Checa and his 1098R are one second ahead of Laverty and his official R1, and more than two seconds over the chasing pack. The second group, fighting for 7th place, is more than six seconds behind: Haslam ahead of Fabrizio and Guintoli. Maxime Berger is on the aspi ‘of Smrz and occupies 12th place.

Melandri and Biaggi fight again, allowing Hopkins to breathe a bit and focus on Camier who still rolls in 3rd position. The first two steps of the podium seem to have been won by Checa and Laverty. The Spaniard especially, turns half a second faster than his comrades and flies towards a fourth double this year !

The Irishman Eugene must be wary of the Englishman Leon, often very fast at the end of the race. Behind, Melandri – perhaps the best on rinse-out gums! – and Biaggi passed Hopkins again. The drifts of the Yamaha n ° 33 prove that the tires are suffering but Marco does not let go: he must stay in front of Max !

Also, four laps from the end, the two great transalpine enemies find themselves in Leon Camier’s wake! The Yamaha rider unleashes his attack on the next lap and takes 3rd place, leaving the two official Aprilia riders to explain themselves.

Checa is far from this tumult and imperceptibly returns the hand, far ahead of Laverty, also almost assured of his 2nd place. Unable to find the flaw on Camier, Biaggi sees Melandri slowly moving away.

12 seconds behind Checa, Guintoli got the better of Haslam and Fabrizio and rolled in 7th position. Two seconds faster than Hopkins, Sylvain can dream of stealing 6th place in the last kilometers !

Pirate Biaggi passes Camier in the very last loop and launches a final assault on Melandri. But the Macho Marco does not make a quarter and keeps its 3rd place until under the checkered flag! Carlos Checa therefore pockets 25 additional points and takes advantage of Laverty’s two 2nd places to increase his lead over Melandri and Biaggi !

Camier finished 5th … and Guintoli 6th: our Ducati rider n ° 50 has indeed benefited from the big drop in form of Hopkins and his Suzuki Crescent! Haslam, Fabrizio and Badovini complete the Top 10 of this second round, Maxime Berger finishes 12th.

After his fall in the first round in Aragon, Checa preferred to secure three 3rd places behind Biaggi and Melandri. This time at Silverstone, the Spaniard showed himself to be imperial and took off again in the championship: he totaled 343 points, against 281 for Biaggi and 272 for Melandri..

Twice 2nd at home in Great Britain, Eugene Laverty also moved away from the rest of the peloton and allowed Yamaha to join Aprilia in the constructors’ championship: the two brands had 320 points, 35 less than Ducati. BMW is 4th with 194 points, followed by Suzuki (158), Kawasaki (137) and Honda (113)

The next meeting for the World Superbike and Supersport is set for the start of the school year: it will be in Germany on the small track of the Nurburgring, on Sunday, September 4 … and on the Site live: stay tuned !

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