Max Biaggi decided to dominate and win Race 2 at Brno to celebrate the announcement that his girlfriend Eleonora is expecting their second child. The Roman Emperor with this race, took his 9th victory of the season and a massive 68 points advantage on his nearest rival, Leon Haslam in the championship standings.

Jonathan Rea, after his splendid win in Race 1, once again took the lead and managed to hold off hard charging Biaggi until the sixth lap, when the Aprilia rider passed him at turn 4, taking the head of the race. Biaggi would then put in several laps under the two minute mark, putting a big space between himself and the rest of the field, with a best lap of 1′59.763 that also set the new Brno race record.

Jonathan Rea had to settle for a distant second place, more than four seconds back, but seemed happy with his podium and his return to form. Michel Fabrizio gained the third spot on the podium after Ruben Xaus, loosing the front of his BMW crashed out of third on lap fourteen at the first turn.

James Toseland finished in fourth. The Yamaha rider had a bad start from ninth on the grid and was 15th at the end of lap one, but steadily reeled in all his rivals to pass Noriyuki Haga for the fourth spot on the penultimate lap. Team mate Cal Crutchlow, who was on the podium in race 1, had problems with a defective tire and pitted to change the tire and rejoined the race to finish 14th and picking up a couple of precious points.

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: Max Biaggi Runs Away with Race 2 - Ducati's to Shed Another 3 kilos

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Four Ducati’s in the top five spots with a lonely Aprilia in second spot. Michel Fabrizio headed the top of the timesheets in this morning’s QP2 at Brno with an impressive 1′58″695 lap grabbed in the dying minutes of the session leaving Max Biaggi just 0.257s behind him.

Noriyuki Haga who finished first in yesterday’s QP1 had to settle for third and unable to better his lap times. Two privateer Ducati riders were fourth and fifth, Luca Scassa (Supersonic Racing) and Lorenzo Lanzi (DFX Corse) - making it four Italians and two Italian manufacturers inside the top five.

Cal Crutchlow took sixth ahead of Ruben Xaus and Jakub Smrz who certainly looks like he’s been riding an Aprilia all season instead of making the switch just two days ago. Jonathan Rea managed a ninth place and James Toseland closed out the top ten.

Leon Haslam was able to make a small step forward from yesterday, but still unable to crack the top ten with his 13th position.

Out of the Brno Superpole are Broc Parkes and Roger Lee Hayden

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: Michel Fabrizio Returns to the Top in QP2

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More surprises during today’s QP1 at Brno, Noriyuki Haga headed the timesheets for the first time this season with a perfect lap of 1′59.277 that set him to the top spot. Cal Crutchlow’s took second with a last lap lunge that propelled him from 13th to 2nd, while Michel Fabrizio took third and was the last rider under 2 minute mark.

Carlos Checa took fourth, but is 0.876s from the factory Ducati rider, while Max Biaggi made a big jump forward to take fifth. Ruben Xaus dropped to sixth in the QP1 after his third spot in the earlier free practice.

Troy Corser had a very bad crash on his last attempt to move up the charts. The Australian remained unconscious for several minutes and had trouble breathing so he was airlifted to the Brno hospital. We’ll keep you updated with the news on Corser’s conditions when we have it.

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: NitroNori on Top in QP1, Corser Crashes Sent to Hospital

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Cal Crutchlow finished on top in the second of the two day World Superbike test session at Imola, posting a best lap of 1.47.478 in the afternoon session, that also shattered last year’s race record on the Italian circuit.

Michel Fabrizio with his best morning lap of 1′47.854 put him second overall, but he was off 0.376s on Crutchlow’s time. Jonathan Rea took third overall and was last rider inside the 1’47s, but the first rider to finish, having tested all the tires that Pirelli allotted him.

Noriyuki Haga and Carlos Checa finished 4th and 5th overall. While Leon Haslam who finished on top on Tuesday had a horrid day. The Alstare Suzuki crashed twice, once in the morning and a second time in the afternoon, when he got tangled up with Shane Byrne. Haslam got off with no injuries, but the Althea Ducati rider ended up with a deep cut on his left hand and a suspected broken second metacarpal bone following the collision, but Byrne’s fastest time before the crash, put him in eighth.

Continue reading: WSBK Imola Test: Cal Crutchlow fastest on Day 2

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The first day of World Superbike testing at Imola took off with a bang when Leon Haslam posted a hot lap of 1′47.966 on the Santerno of Imola circuit, using the new Pirelli tires that the Italian manufacturer brought in to test.

Pocket Rocket is looking to find something that will help him stop the domination of Max Biaggi and his Aprilia RSV4, before the Brno round in two weeks time, putting in over 40 laps just in the afternoon session in torridly hot weather conditions.

Cal Crutchlow came in second and was a mere 0.010s off Haslam’s best time, but he did it only in the final minutes of the session. Following the two Brits were the Ducati Xerox duo, Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga, with the Italian rider ending up more than five tenths of second faster than his Japanese team mate. Jonathan Rea seems to have gotten over most of his chatter problems, because he just 0.004s slower than Haga.

Continue reading: WSBK Test Imola: Leon Haslam Fastest on Day 1

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Max Biaggi took another win in Race 2 at Misano, his fourth double of the season (Portimao, Monza, Miller and now Misano) and after breaking away from the rest of field on lap ten, imposing an almost impossible rhythm for the rest of field taking a seven second lead before slowing down on the final lap to win by four seconds.

Leon Haslam turned around his fortunes in Race 2 after his 8th spot in Race1, the Brit held off several riders who were fighting for a podium to take second and was ahead of Fabrizio by 0.4o9s.

The third spot on the podium went to Michel Fabrizio, who despite a well deserved podium after taking the spot from Cal Crutchlow at the “Quercia” on the penultimate lap, did a ’sour grapes’ interview at the parc ferme, stating that the bike that won is a MotoGP and the rest are Superbikes and that rules have to be changed.

Continue reading: WSBK Misano: Max Biaggi Runs Away with Race 2

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Troy Corser took his first pole position for the BMW team in today’s Superpole shoot-out at Misano. The Australian pole specialist (his 43rd) and two times World Superbike champion blazed a lap around the Misano Adriatico circuit to finish in a stratospheric 1′35.001 in the the third stint.

No other rider could come close to this lap time, infact Max Biaggi, who was celebrating his 39th birthday took second place on the grid, but was five tenths slower, but has an excellent race pace that bodes well for tomorrow’s races.

Third went to Michel Fabrizio, who is trying to raise the bar on his dismal season but he didn’t finish well when he crashed after the chequered flag on the warm down lap.

Continue reading: WSBK Misano: Troy Corser takes maiden pole for BMW

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Testing at Mugello and Misano seem to have paid off for Troy Corser. The BMW rider took first place in today’s free practice at the Misano World Circuit finishing ahead of Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio and Alstare Suzuki’s Leon Haslam.

The Australian put down a best lap of 1′37.362 (which is still more that 1 second higher than Cal Crutchlow’s best lap during the Misano test) while Fabrizio was off 0.268s from Corser’s best time and Haslam was just o.069 from Fabrizio.

James Toseland who’s still chasing his first win this season took fourth, followed by an amazing Luca Scassa who is riding Noriyuki Haga’s former 1198 F09 bike, while Haga himself took sixth, despite suffering a technical problem during the session.

Continue reading: WSBK Misano: Troy Corser draws first Blood in FP

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On Saturday at the WDW Troy Bayliss confirmed that that he wouldn’t come out of retirement because he realized that “when I tested here I found out that things weren’t going that good and we ended up going around in circles. That’s when it hit me and it was hard things like that that I didn’t miss about racing. That completely I changed my mind and I spoke too early.” but the Aussie pensioner concluded the Ducati private test yesterday, riding the development bike and finishing ahead of both Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio. Bayliss set a best unofficial time of 1′35.6, while Fabrizio lapped in 1′36.0 and Haga in 1′36.4.

All the WSBK Ducati teams were present, including private teams Althea Racing, DFX Corse and Supersonic.

Here’s what the three riders and the team manager had to say:

Continue reading: Troy Bayliss Faster than Fabrizio and Haga in Ducati Test

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The removal of 3kg from the twins (read Ducati) have proved a blessing in disguise during today’s free practice at Miller Motosports Park, because five out six 1198 R’s were in the top ten, with three Ducati’s in the top three, and Michel Fabrizio hitting the top of the chart pipping out Carlos Checa in a last minute lunge.

Fabrizo put in a best lap of 1′49.756 leaving Checa in second and off by a little more than one tenth of second while Checa’s team mate Shane Byrne was third and 0.551 from Fabrizio’s 1st spot.

Max Biaggi was floundering in the back of the field and in the last minutes pulled out a fast lap with his Aprilia RSV4F to take fourth, while points leader Leon Haslam finished the hour long session in fifteenth.

Continue reading: WSBK Miller: Ducati Domination, Fabrizio On Top in FP1

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A Superbike weekend can’t be complete without highlight videos of the two races from Kyalami so you can see Michel Fabrizio and Leon Haslam ride to victory.

If you missed the races you can see Race 1 here and Race 2 here. The commentary is in Italian by LA7’s Luigi Vignando and Mauro Sanchini, former WSBK rider (rides motocross with Rossi, Simoncelli and Pasini) and the pitlane commentator is Fabrizio Calia.

Round 7 wil be held at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, USA, on May 31, but the race weekend will start on Saturday with Superpole on Sunday and raceday on Monday.

Continue reading: WSBK Kyalami Race Highlights (w/videos)

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Michel Fabrizio took his Ducati Xerox to fourth win of his career and the first win of this World Superbike season in race 1 at Kyalami. The Italian rider took the victory in almost flag to flag race grabbing the lead at the first turn on lap 1.

Fabrizio pushed hard on the first laps opening a big gap between himself and the rest of the grid and would maintain this advantage over Carlos Checa who would take second on his Althea Ducati.

In a processional style race, points leader Leon Haslam took third place, who lost precious time getting bottled up in trying to pass a very tough and defensive riding James Toseland, who almost didn’t get to race this weekend when the circuit doctors examined his swollen neck after Friday’s practice sessions.

Fourth under the chequered flag was Max Biaggi, who first was stuck behind his team mate Leon Camier until lap 9 when from the Aprilia box came the order for Camier to let Biaggi through. Once free from Camier, Biaggi tried to get past Toseland and it took the Italian four laps and once he’d shaken off the pesky Brit, Biaggi tried to hunt down Haslam and despite a race pace that was often under 1′40 is was just too late.

Continue reading: WSBK Kyalami: Michel Fabrizio Cruises to Victory in Race 1

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