Biaggi and Spies dominate in Brno
Added on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Biaggi and Spies dominate in Brno
Max Biaggi and Ben Spies were the dominant forces in the duet of World Superbike Championship races from Brno this weekend, taking one win a piece.
Biaggi roared to victory in race one, seizing success as the leading duet crashed off simultaneously. Having inherited the lead as second placed Michel Fabrizio slid into then leader, Ben Spies, Biaggi never looked back.
“It’s great! What can I say! When I crossed the start-finish I was so happy to be winning this race and I had so many flashbacks of Brno, I can feel that it is one of my favourite circuits. Of course I don’t want to take anything away from Spies and Fabrizio, they were both very fast, but I remember Barry Sheene used to say ‘To finish first, first you have to finish’ and this is a part of the deal. I put my head down and did not make any mistake, so a big thanks to all my crew, Aprilia and in particular Gigi Dall’Igna, the ‘papa’ of our bike.” Commented an elated Biaggi.
Race two was a different story for Spies and Fabrizio; despite immense pressure from Biaggi, Spies powered through the twenty laps, courtesy of his Yamaha, to take his sole win of the weekend ahead of the Italian. Fabrizio completed the podium, finishing 0.657 seconds adrift.
After a well deserved victory Spies said: “It was a tough race, Fabrizio was there and I had to push and make good lap times. When I saw Max was there, he arrived quite quick and I had to start braking very late and stopping almost in the middle of the corner to get good drive so he couldn’t come by me. The first race obviously wasn’t so good but we rallied together for the second race. That pass attempt was not the best move in the world, but that’s how racing goes sometimes. A big thanks also to the Clinica Mobile guys because I wasn’t feeling so good this weekend.”
WSB veteran, Troy Corser, enjoyed a superior start in both race one and race two. The first race saw the Australian progress immediately into the lead, giving his BMW Motorrad Motorsport team their best showing to date, before dropping back to fifth. Race two was much of the same for the S1000 RR rider, enjoying the scenery at the front of the field for the opening stages, before eventually finishing tenth at the flag.
Championship leader, Noriyuki Haga, struggled through the pain of his shoulder injury to grasp two strong finishes, with eighth in race one and sixth in race two. This enabled him to hang onto his lead, with Spies now seven points behind.
There was much for the Brits to cheer about in each of the two races with strong finishes throughout. The opening race saw Jonathan Rea claim a strong podium finish, while Shane Byrne collected fourth and Leon Haslam transformed his seventeenth place start into a seventh place finish. Tom Sykes, having started eighth on his Yamaha retired towards the end of the race following a difficult showing.
Rea again demonstrated his strong performance in the subsequent outing with a fourth place finish, while Sykes and Byrne prevailed with seventh and eighth, respectively. Haslam, this time, had less luck only managing twelth position.
Honda’s Carlos Checa rounded off the podium in the first race, which he backed up with fifth in the second outing.
Brit Cal Crutchlow almost had reason to celebrate his Brno experience in the World Supersport race, however a mechanical problem damped his hopes of another victory as he was on his way to the chequered flag. He still has a hold on the championship battle, despite Ireland’s Eugene Laverty keeping a close eye on things in second.
�
