WSBK - Round 2: Donington Park

[NinjaMaster]

Round 2 of the World Superbike Championship is on this week (hurrah, the gap was too long!) from sunny Donington Park in England. Chris Vermeulen is said to be back which would be fantastic for him after an extended time on the sidelines recovering from knee surgery. However, whilst his would be a welcome return, James Toseland will be unfortunately missing. The 2-time WSB world champ broke his wrist in testing (badly too, it sounds) and won't be available to ride for this round and possibly the next one too.

So I guess the question is whether Checa can maintain his dominance or whether (as I think) others will rise to challenge for the win? Can the Yamaha boys maintain their impressive debut seasons and how has Jonathon Rea pulled up after a bruising opening round at Phillip Island? Will it be possible for BMW to finally crack it for their first win, which I'd prefer in the hands of Corser but for Haslam to win would be special too. Can Kawasaki improve to push closer to the pointy end and achieve a top 5 and how long will Fabrizio be able to remain competitive without the support of Suzuki? Will Biaggi close the title gap and has Camier been able to heal up some from his illness to be competitive at his home race.
So many questions for an intriguing and exciting championship.

A preview from Castrol Honda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h51Wzptxldg

[NinjaMaster]

First qualifying went down like this:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff
1 1 M. BIAGGI Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'28.794
2 33 M. MELANDRI Yamaha YZF R1 1'28.841 0.047
3 7 C. CHECA Ducati 1098R 1'29.194 0.400
4 58 E. LAVERTY Yamaha YZF R1 1'29.379 0.585
5 96 J. SMRZ Ducati 1098R 1'29.397 0.603
6 91 L. HASLAM BMW S1000 RR 1'29.472 0.678
7 11 T. CORSER BMW S1000 RR 1'29.476 0.682
8 111 R. XAUS Honda CBR1000RR 1'29.613 0.819
9 17 J. LASCORZ Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'29.637 0.843
10 2 L. CAMIER Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'29.639 0.845
11 41 N. HAGA Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'29.814 1.020
12 121 M. BERGER Ducati 1098R 1'29.851 1.057
13 66 T. SYKES Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'29.860 1.066
14 50 S. GUINTOLI Ducati 1098R 1'30.008 1.214
15 86 A. BADOVINI BMW S1000 RR 1'30.169 1.375
16 4 J. REA Honda CBR1000RR 1'30.348 1.554
17 84 M. FABRIZIO Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'30.383 1.589
18 44 R. ROLFO Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'30.680 1.886
19 8 M. AITCHISON Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'31.117 2.323
20 77 C. VERMEULEN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'31.485 2.691

Biaggi was fast as always, though embroiled in controversy again as he ran Fabrizio off the track. He went to the Alstare garage to apologise but Michel has already gone to his motorhome.
The Ducatis of Checa and Smrz, the Yamahas and BMWs are all showing very good speed.
Jonathon Rea had some tire problems but also just some mystery handling problems to see him in a surprising 16th place, well behind his teammate, Xaus, who is in a competitive 8th place.
Joan Lascorz has continued to surprisingly (for me at least) outpace his teammate in Tom Sykes. Speaking of team green, Chris Vermeulen is back, returning from his knee injury and unsurprisingly is last after no racing and bugger-all testing in the last 8 months. Hopefully he can have a clean, uneventful round to build from as his knee recovers.

[NinjaMaster]

Superpole has been run and won:

1. Carlos Checa ESP Althea Ducati 1098R 1min 28.099s
2. Leon Haslam GBR BMW Motorrad S1000RR 1min 28.365s
3. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki RTS ZX-10R 1min 28.556s
4. Jakub Smrz CZE Effenbert Liberty Ducati 1098R 1min 28.561s
5. Noriyuki Haga JPN PATA Aprilia RSV-4 1min 28.673s
6. Max Biaggi ITA Aprilia Alitalia Racing RSV-4 1min 28.702s
7. Leon Camier GBR Aprilia Alitalia Racing RSV-4 1min 28.737s
8. Jonathan Rea GBR Castrol Honda CBR1000RR 1min 39.514s
9. Marco Melandri ITA Yamaha WSBK YZF R1 1min 28.803s
10. Troy Corser AUS BMW Motorrad S1000RR 1min 28.836s
11. Michel Fabrizio ITA Suzuki Alstare GSX-R1000 1min 29.135s
12. Joan Lascorz ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1min 29.422s
13. Eugene Laverty IRL Yamaha WSBK YZF R1 1min 29.312s
14. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Effenbert Liberty Ducati 1098R 1min 29.879s
15. Maxime Berger FRA Supersonic Ducati 1098R 1min 30.002s
16. Ruben Xaus ESP Castrol Honda CBR1000RR 1min 30.076s
17. Ayrton Badovini ITA BMW Italia S1000RR 1min 30.169s
18. Roberto Rolfo ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1min 30.680s
19. Mark Aitchison AUS Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1min 31.117s

It seems Biaggi is still making friends, this time with Marco Melandri after an 'altercation' on track during superpole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbDhWcBVwc


In Supersport qualifying, Luca Scassa continued on his Phillip Island form:

1. Luca Scassa ITA ParkinGO Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 31.232s
2. Chaz Davies GBR ParkinGO Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 31.250s
3. Sam Lowes GBR Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 1min 31.368s
4. Broc Parkes AUS Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R 1min 31.645s
5. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R 1min 31.963s
6. Gino Rea GBR Step Racing Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.080s
7. Robbin Harms DEN Harms Benjan Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.136s
8. James Ellison GBR Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.153s
9. Florian Marino FRA Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.210s
10. Massimo Roccoli ITA Lorenzini Kawasaki ZX-6R 1min 32.338s
11. Vladimir Ivanov UKR Step Racing Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.694s
12. Fabien Foret FRA Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.707s
13. Roberto Tamburini ITA Bike Service Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 32.917s
14. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Lorenzini Kawasaki ZX-6R 1min 32.935s
15. Alexander Lundh SWE Cresto Guide Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.187s
16. Danilo Dell'Omo ITA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1min 33.527s
17. Ondrej Jezek CZE SMS Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.528s
18. Ronan Quarmby RSA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1min 33.587s
19. Pawel Szkopek POL Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.658s
20. Miguel Praia POR Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.711s
21. Jack Kennedy IRL Colin Appleyard/Macadam Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 33.836s
22. Robert Muresan ROM PTR Romania Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.906s
23. Balazs Nemeth HUN Team Hungary Toth Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.192
24. Bastien Chesaux SUI Moto-Academy Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.316s
25. Mitchell Pirotta AUS Kuja Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.574s
26. Imre Toth HUN Team Hungary Toth Honda CBR600RR 1min 35.183s
27. Marko Jerman SLO MD Jerman Triumph Daytona 675 1min 35.829s
28. Luca Marconi ITA Bike Service Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 36.846s

[Allyc85]

Ive never liked Biaggi but his on track behaviour riding slowly on the racing line and then slapping another rider is well out of order and I hope he gets caught out today!

Still on a positive note its great to see Sykes on the front row

[NinjaMaster]

It's nice to see WSBs gamble of running Donington early paying off with fine weather. Although, raceday morning warmup was run in balmy (barmy?) 6°C conditions with a track temp of 3°C! Yikes!

[NinjaMaster]

Still on a positive note its great to see Sykes on the front row

I'm enjoying it!

[Allyc85]

Bet Tom didnt enjoy his crash though, things had been well until that point

Cracking first race though!

[NinjaMaster]

Tom was riding sooo well. I think he got a bit excited at the prospect of a podium as he was catching Haslam. Was stoked and disappointed at the same time for Smrz, would love nothing more than to see him win a race. Well, I'd love to see a Kwak win more but Jakub would be a close second!
Also, it appears that Biaggi has officially lost the plot! Can't seem to handle another competitive Italian.

[NinjaMaster]

The supersport race was pretty good. The Yamahas are proving to be the class of the field with a 1-2 whilst the Parkalgar team seem to be experiencing reliability problems again. Gino Rea had a ripper ride given his thumb injury and Broc Parkes was solid when he clearly looked to be feeling more pain that he was letting on. Oh, and Robbin Harms is having a good season on his privateer Honda and is showing a bit more maturity than in previous seasons.

Did anyone see race 2? Unfortunately I wussed it and went to bed at 1am, half an hour before the race started.

Also, this will probably be the most amazing motorcycle racing photo you will ever see!

[gids73]

Think those races where more interesting than Moto GP!
Melandri is a definite championship threat. Surely Checa cant keep this riding up all season - can he?
Kwaka are on the pace if the form shown by Sykes in race 1 & Lascorz in race 2 is anything to go by... Why didnt Vermeulen race - still not fit?