Haslam Takes The First In Spain

Paul Carruthers | April 11, 2010

Alstare Suzuki’s Leon Haslam won his second race of the World Superbike season today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, the Brit extending his lead in the World Championship to 21 points over Max Biaggi after his victory in the first of the two races.Haslam got the better of Aprilia’s Biaggi in the final laps with the Italian stuck in a brawl with Sterligarda Yamaha’s James Toseland until close to the end. Haslam ended up with his second win of the year by 1.7 seconds – an eternity as far as this year’s races thus far – over Biaggi. Toseland was 3.6 seconds behind Haslam with his best result of the season and his best since joining the Yamaha team. It was the 58th podium of the former World Superbike Champion’s career.Fourth went to Troy Corser and the BMW – the German factory’s best-ever World Superbike result with the S1000 RR. Corser fought hard and kept Ducati Xerox’s Noriyuki Haga behind him – by a tenth of a second – in their battle for fourth.Jonathan Rea was sixth on the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda, almost a full second ahead of Sterilgarda Yamaha’s pole sitter Cal Crutchlow. DFX Corse’s Lorenzo Lanzi and Alstare Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli were eighth and ninth, respectively. Guintoli was with the leaders until Aprilia’s Leon Camier crashed on the eighth lap and forced Guintoli off the track in the process. That put the Frenchman well back, but he came through to finish ninth.Jakub Smrz was 10th on his privateer Ducati, beating the factory Kawasaki of Tom Sykes by 4.4 seconds.Roger Lee Hayden was a season-best 16th after barely besting his Pedercini Kawasaki teammate Matteo Baicco by .096 of a second.Althea Ducati’s Carlos Checa had been at the front in his home race until almost crashing, running off the track and calling it a day after leading a few laps of the race. It was a bad race all around for the Althea team as Checa’s teammate Shane Byrne also crashed out. Ditto for factory Ducati man Michel Fabrizio, who was one of the favorites to take the title this season. He is now 61 points behind Haslam after five races.The six different brands in World Superbike were all in the top six – Suzuki, Aprilia, Yamaha, BMW, Ducati and Honda.

Race One

1. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)

2. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)

3. James Toseland (Yamaha)

4. Troy Corser (BMW)

5. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)

6. Jonathan Rea (Honda)

7. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)

8. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)

9. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)

10. Jakub Smrz (Ducati)16. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)