2012 Misano WSBK Race One - Poor Qualifying Makes Great Racing

With the championship favourites qualifying poorly, there was a lot of uncertainty going into this race. Tyre choice was predicted to be a major factor, with Carlos Checa saying yesterday “the tyre choice will be key.” He was proved right.

The first half of the race was the front qualifiers managing their lead with Jonathen Rea at the front ahead of Tom Sykes, Davide Giugliano, Leon Haslam and Ayrton Badovini. The first of the poor qualifiers to break to the front was Marco Melandri, where he gave his team mate a good scrap before unfortunately retiring after an off-track excursion three laps from the end.

However, as the race progressed, with plenty of front-pack scrapping, tyre wear started to rear its ugly head and the real race started afresh. Carlos Checa made some wild attempts to pass that failed and succeeded in equal measures while Max Biaggi sneaked through the leaders to show that he too was not afraid of hard overtakes and measured risks.

While Rea dropped back slowly, Davide Giugliano took the lead with the charging duo of Biaggi and Checa in an incredible third and fourth. Then, Biaggi took Rea and then Giuglinano, followed by Carlos Checa. The 2010 World Champion and the 2011 World Champion raced fast and cleanly to the flag with Max Biaggi taking his second win of the year decisively. Carlos Checa was a very close second with newcomer to the series this year Davide Giugliano filling the last step while Sykes held Rea off for valuable championship points. Chaz Davies managed to pull a valiant 6th place from a 6th row start.  

Experience shone through at Misano.

Results: