Monza, Italy

World Superbikes leaves the uncertain conditions of Assen and heads to the historic track of Monza, just north of Milan, Italy. World Superbikes has been racing here since 1990 and have provided us with some thrillingly close high-speed duels and hard-fought victories. Unfortunately, the weather looks like it could once again be damp on Saturday and Sunday.

FIM Superbike & Supersport World Championships
FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup

2012 Calendars

The FIM today released an updated version of the provisional calendar it put out four weeks ago. The changes are few and far between, and though one round has been dropped, generally, the calendar is good news for fans. The round tentatively scheduled to take place on March 4th has been dropped, but that should hardly come as a surprise, as Infront, the WSBK series' organizers, were in talks with the Sepang ciruit in Malaysia to stage that race. Cost and a lack of agreement scuppered plans for an Asian round of World Superbikes. The second round marked To Be Announced on the provisional calendar has been confirmed, and as expected, it will take place at Imola, always a fan favorite.

The final change to the calendar is the rescheduling of the Portimao round of World Superbikes. No longer will the season end at the Portuguese circuit in late October, but instead, Portimao has been moved four weeks earlier to September 23rd. This means that the season will end two weeks earlier at Magny-Cours, but the advantage is that the final rounds are all much closer together, with Moscow, the Nurburgring, Portimao and Magny-Cours taking place every second weekend.

Below is the official calendar released by the FIM:

FIM Superbike & Supersport World Championships
FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup

Motorcycle racing fans can finally start to plan their vacation time for 2012. Just 10 days after the provisional 2012 MotoGP calendar was announced, today, the FIM issued a press release containing the provisional 2012 schedule for the World Superbike series.

Like the MotoGP schedule, the WSBK dates are still rather tentative. The calendar contains two rounds marked TBA or to be announced; one in Europe and one unmarked altogether. The March 4th TBA is widely rumored to be a return to Asia for the WSBK series, with negotiations believed to be underway with the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. The second TBA is most likely Imola, the track having once again been dropped from the provisional schedule, just as it was initially for 2011 before being added again.

The last of the press releases issued by the teams after the 2011 World Superbike round at Monza, from Yamaha and Paul Bird Motorsport's Kawasaki team:

Winning a world championship requires several key ingredients: talent, skill, hard work, intelligence, courage, and a little bit of luck along the way. The ratio of each of those ingredients may vary for each individual champion - with the exception of hard work, the level of dedication to the sport remaining the same for everyone - but the factors involved are always the same.

That skill, talent and bravery are necessary is obvious to even the most casual observer. But the most underestimated of all these qualities is surely intelligence. Yet intelligence is the difference between a race winner and a champion: bravery, skill and luck may win you the odd race, but only intelligence applied over the course of a season will secure you a championship.

The necessity of intelligence in motorcycle racing was manifest during the Monza World Superbike round. For in both the Superbike and the Supersport races, decisions were made which could end up having a profound effect on the championships, and in both cases, the question boils down to a lapse of judgment, and a lack of intelligence used in the decision making process.

Press releases from the teams after the World Superbike and World Supersport races at Monza:

Results and summary of World Superbikes race 2 at Monza:

Results and summary of the World Supersport race from Monza:

Results and summary of World Superbike Race 1 at Monza:

Three hundred and thirty-four point eight kilometers per hour. Two hundred and eight miles per hour. By any conceivable measure, that's fast, and the fact that Max Biaggi's lap time of 1'41.745 is nearly two-thirds of a second faster than the man in second place, Eugene Laverty, and four-tenths faster than anyone else has ever gone at Monza merely underlines the Roman Emperor's dominance at the Italian circuit, which sits in the suburbs of Milan.

A large part of the credit for that lap must go to the Aprilia RSV4; the combination of big HP numbers, a tiny frontal area and a small rider mean that the Aprilia has a serious advantage at the high-speed Monza circuit. But that does not do justice to Max Biaggi's role in the lap, the Italian putting in a clean, precise lap to take pole. Given the fact that Biaggi took the double here on the Aprilia last year, you would be forgiven for pronouncing Biaggi the winner before the race has even been run.

Press releases issued after qualifying by the World Superbike and World Supersport teams at Monza:

Results: