Biaggi doubles up in Monza
Added on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Biaggi doubles up in Monza
Max Biaggi transferred his first World Superbike pole position into a double win at Monza today, leaving him very much in the championship running.
After starting from pole following a strong quaulifying yesterday, Biaggi got the jump at the very beginning of race one to hold station at the front of the pack. Despite keeping control of the race for the full eighteen laps, the Italian was not without pressure, with his rivals breathing down the neck of his Aprilia Alitalia machine for the duration.
It was an extremely close race, as ever, with British hero James Toseland fighting his way through the field from seventh at the start to second at the chequered flag. After pressuring Biaggi time just ran out for Toseland, with the Sterilgarda Yamaha team finishing just 0.247 seconds behind the Italian.
The podium was completed by Toseland’s teammate Cal Crutchlow, giving the podium a strong British presence once again.
Behind Crutchlow, championship leader Leon Haslam brought his Suzuki Alstare home in fourth, just ahead of Biaggi’s teammate, Leon Camier in fifth. Ruben Xaus was the highest BMW Motorrad Motorsport finisher in sixth, just ahead of Michel Fabrizio, Troy Corser, Tom Sykes and Sylvain Guintoli.
Commenting on his home win, Biaggi told the WSB website: “That was a special result, because it is special to win at Monza and because this is a special track with a very high top speed. We worked very hard for this race weekend so it was a perfect performance by all the team. The Yamaha guys running together means they could be quicker than me in the final lap but we held it together and took our first win here at Monza.”
After another strong finish, Toseland told the WSB website: “Another second place, it’s a bit frustrating, but it was a good strong race. I want to congratulate the team for getting two bikes on the podium. Congratulations to Max, he didn’t put a foot wrong. On that last lap I was hoping he was going to make a slight mistake to allow me to get alongside but he didn’t. They were strong round here, but we’re getting better all the time, but as I said second and third all the time is a bit frustrating.”
Crutchlow added: “I felt like I put together a solid race, but we never got the best of starts again, the bike is hard to get off the line, but all credit to Yamaha, we came to their home round and second and third for me and James is a strong result.”
As the second race of the day got underway, Biaggi was again in dominant form, controlling the pace from start to finish.
After a good first race, Crutchlow continued his pace by being Biaggi’s nearest challenger for much of the race, until an oil leak ended his race prematurely. The problem first came about in race one, with the Yamaha rider struggling to change gear and suffering from a leaky engine oil cover. When the issue resurfaced in race two it resulted in Crutchlow crashing out.
Haslam eventually finished second, 4.5 seconds adrift of Biaggi, allowing him to just hang onto his championship lead. The final podium spot was filled by Troy Corser, with the experienced rider gaining the very first podium finish for BMW in the WSB series.
Camier enjoyed another top finish in fourth, with Sykes in fifth, yet again in a strong finishing position. Noriyuki Haga rode to sixth, with Guintoli and Jakub Smrz behind in seventh and eighth. Shane Byrne and Luca Scassa completed the top ten, finishing ninth and tenth respectively.
A high speed first corner accident saw Toseland, Xaus and Jonathan Rea involved in a collision. This resulted in Rea suffering a sprained ankle, while Toseland was taken to hospital for a CT scan after suffering concussion. Xaus was luckily uninjured.
Speaking about his second win of the day, Biaggi told the WSB website: “I’m happy with the result, it was a close race. I’m happy for me and my team. It’s an unbelievable result, it looks like we are achieving our goal.”
Commenting on his strong finishing position, Corser told the WSB website: “I’m so happy, the team has put a lot of hard work into the project not just this year but last year and sometimes it’s been difficult and frustrating. But this weekend we’ve worked really hard and have been progressively getting better and better, just struggling a bit with braking, but we made a change for the second race and it made the bike easier to stop.
“We had the speed, our bike was as fast as anything out there, and it just took me a few laps to get used to the brakes in the second race. Thanks to all the boys at BMW, it’s been a long time coming, let’s hope it’s not going to be the last one!” He added.
Haslam is now just three points ahead of Biaggi, with the WSB contingent heading to Kyalami on the 15/16th May (next weekend).
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