2012 Brno WSBK Race Two: Exciting Duel In The Dry

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sun, 2012-07-22 14:34
in

Race Two at Brno would be a dry race with no risk of rain and World Superbikes gifted us with a great race to the flag.

The start would have Eugene Laverty overtaking turn-one leader Tom Sykes but Sykes would fight back and make an early break. Race one winner, Marco Melandri, fought dirty with his BMW team mate Leon Haslam, showing him the edge of the tarmac, costing Haslam four places, but putting Melandri behind second-place runner Laverty. Carlos Checa and Max Biaggi would both also get to the top six early on, with Davide Giugliano, but Giugliano wouldn't make the best of his position, eventually finishing 11th. Once Biaggi dispatched Laverty, settling behind third placed Carlos Checa, the top five positions would be rather static for a good ten laps. Marco Melandri looked ominous on his BMW but took a lot longer to catch the on-form Sykes who was riding the race of his life at the lead.

With five laps to the end, the inevitable happened and Melandri took the lead from Tom Sykes, after stalking him lap after lap. Sykes immediately passed back, surprising Melandri and setting the scene for a duel that would last to the end of the race.

Melandri tried another pass at his favourite spot, but Sykes had it covered. Five laps from the end, Melandri took the lead but couldn't shake the Kawasaki behind him. Melandri, pushed by Sykes, made an error, allowing Sykes to push past. For the next two laps, Sykes would lead as Melandri regrouped and closed back up.

On the last lap, Melandri powered past Sykes into turn one and Sykes tried the entire lap to pass him back, but Melandri timed his run perfectly and took the chequered flag under two tenths of a second ahead of Sykes. Checa finished in third, a good six seconds back.

BMW has its first double win with Marco Melandri while Tom Sykes showed that he can fight a race to the end.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff
1 33 MELANDRI M BMW S1000 RR 1'59.748  
2 66 SYKES T Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'59.728 0.140
3 7 CHECA C Ducati 1098R 1'59.802 6.801
4 3 BIAGGI M Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'59.966 9.840
5 58 LAVERTY E Aprilia RSV4 Factory 2'00.329 11.775
6 19 DAVIES C Aprilia RSV4 Factory 2'00.414 11.950
7 91 HASLAM L BMW S1000 RR 2'00.298 12.547
8 76 BAZ L Kawasaki ZX-10R 2'00.081 13.088
9 2 CAMIER L Suzuki GSX-R1000 2'00.726 18.141
10 84 FABRIZIO M BMW S1000 RR 2'00.429 25.332
11 34 GIUGLIANO D Ducati 1098R 2'00.385 28.458
12 65 REA J Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.057 29.254
13 96 SMRZ J Ducati 1098R 2'00.888 29.513
14 21 HOPKINS J Suzuki GSX-R1000 2'01.273 34.875
15 121 BERGER M Ducati 1098R 2'01.319 41.861
16 87 ZANETTI L Ducati 1098R 2'01.304 42.139
17 64 BRIGNOLA N BMW S1000 RR 2'03.136 1'15.743
18 13 KISPATAKI V Honda CBR1000RR 2'04.630 1'41.325
RET 53 POLITA A Ducati 1098R 2'01.784 10 Laps
RET 86 BADOVINI A BMW S1000 RR 2'01.190 11 Laps
RET 44 SALOM D Kawasaki ZX-10R 2'01.756 13 Laps
RET 4 AOYAMA H Honda CBR1000RR 2'01.277 16 Laps
           

 

Round Number: 
9
2012

Comments

Good race

Submitted by frenchie on Sun, 2012-07-22 17:53.
Site Supporter

First double win for BMW (Melandri still the only rider to win on this bike) and a very strong showing from Kawasaki with Sykes finally able to battle for the win until the very last lap and Loris Baz improving every time he rides the green machine.
It's only his 5th WSBK round and after scoring a podium with a bit of luck in race 1 he's already fighting with Laverty, Davies and Haslam ending 13 seconds from the win in race 2.

Total votes: 22

Baz

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sun, 2012-07-22 19:59.

A few of us have been singing his praises for a while, but today was an outstandingly mature ride from the kid. Kawasaki had a good day.

Total votes: 24

STK1000 VS WSBK

Submitted by frenchie on Mon, 2012-07-23 06:58.
Site Supporter

Loris clearly has a huge potential but what's a bit surprising to me is that he's almost equaling his STK1000 performances in WSBK.
What I mean is that he wasn't setting the world on fire in STK1000, with a string of top6 finishes and 1 second place to his name, yet within a few races he could be regularly in WSBK top6 while clearly the riders level is not the same (as demonstrated by Badovini for example).
I guess he was still finding his feet in STK1000 when he was drafted to WSBK in those unfortunate circumstances, I love the rider but still I'm amazed.

Total votes: 21

EXCELLENT!

Submitted by TheBaron on Sun, 2012-07-22 22:37.

This weekend again highlighted everything that is great about the Superbike World Championship, and makes that other series of prima donnas seem rather lame. Melandri looks like he might even be able to cut it on an AMA miler, such was his pace into turn one late in the race, with the rear-end hanging out. And Tom Sykes! Well, at last his team seems to have found that little extra ingredient and doubtless this has also been good for Sykes' self-belief. Great riding from Carlos on a bike with a six kilogram handicap, not to mentioned a big bung in its intake system. So unfair. Remove the restrictors and equalise the weights. Take issue with Jared Earle re.: "Marco Melandri fought dirty with his BMW team mate Leon Haslam, showing him the edge of the tarmac, costing Haslam four places." Actually, Leon had been up to second (past Laverty), got passed back by Laverty then was a little wide when Melandri was driving hard up the hill. Melandri got the inside line, the two barely bumped but from then on Leon was out of it. Surprising really. Thought he'd have fought back. Perhaps he is dispirited by the BMW news. Will he be back with Suzuki in 2013? Meantime, fingers crossed for Tom Sykes at Silverstone. Perhaps if he misses out on the Tissot he will win a race? And Baz? Let's hope he qualifies better at Silverstone and gets away with the leading bunch. That could be interesting.

Total votes: 24

Tissot

Submitted by Jared Earle on Mon, 2012-07-23 07:59.

He missed out on the Tissot at Monza and won.

Total votes: 24

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