2012 Moscow WSBK Race Two: Attrition Takes Its Toll

Race two was another high-attrition battle with riders crashing out throughout the race.

Marco Melandri, who missed the post-race press conference after race one due to a bee of all things, took the victory ahead of Tom Sykes, with Melandri having taken the lead from Sykes ten laps from the end. Behind them, however, a tightly fought battle between Max Biaggi, Leon Haslam, Jonathan Rea, Eugene Laverty, Carlos Checa and Chaz Davies.

The first of the fallers at the front were Biaggi and Haslam, with Biaggi clipping Rea overtaking down the straight, forcing him to release the brakes into the last corner, ploughing into the side of Haslam's BMW. Both riders walked away from it, but neither could restart.

The second big crash was Laverty, freed from team orders when Biaggi crashed, high siding his Aprilia into Rea, mid corner. Rea being the unfortunate victim of three other riders' crashes this weekend, this one finally put him on the floor.

The outcome of these crashes was that Chaz Davies, in spite of what looked like a faulty gearbox, picked up the pieces and took third place ahead of Carlos Checa. Jonathan Rea wrangled what was left of his battered Fireblade across the finish line in 7th, missing at least a footpeg and parts of carbon fairing.

Marco Melandri now leads the championship by 18.5 points and Tom Sykes closes the gap to Max Biaggi in second place to 22.5 points.

Results: