Cycle News Staff | May 9, 2010
Max Biaggi did the double today at the Autodromo di Monza in Italy, the Aprilia man pulling away to victory after his closest on-track rival Cal Crutchlow crashed the factory Yamaha when it blew up and oiled its rear tire with a handful of laps remaining.
That left Biaggi to an easy win, the Italian romping away and beating championship points leader Leon Haslam to the line by 4.5 seconds. The double victory was Biaggi’s second of the season, the Roman having also won both races at Portimao in Portugal.
Haslam had been in the fight for the lead with Biaggi and Crutchlow until a big moment on the Alstare Suzuki allowed the lead duo to get away. From there Haslam had his hands full with the BMW of Troy Corser, the Aussie ending up settling for third, less than a second behind Haslam, for BMW’s first-ever World Superbike podium finish.
Biaggi’s win and Haslam’s second-place finish closes things up at the top of the points table with Biaggi now just three points behind the Brit in the championship point standings.
Fourth place today went to Biaggi’s teammate Leon Camier, the Brit some five seconds ahead of a battle that went to the line between Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes, Ducati Xerox’s Noriyuki Haga and Alstare Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli. Sykes got the nod over Haga by .255 of a second with Guintoli even closer than that to Haga. The result was easily Sykes’ best on the Kawasaki.
The Ducatis of Jakub Smrz, Shane Byrne and Luca Scassa rounded out the top 10 finishers.
American Roger Lee Hayden scored the first World Superbike points of his career, the Kentuckian pushing the Kawasaki to 14th.
Among the non-finishers were lap-one crashers James Toseland, Jonathan Rea, Ruben Xaus and Michel Fabrizio.
Race 2
1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
3. Troy Corser (BMW)
4. Leon Camier (Aprilia)
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
6. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)
7. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
8. Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
9. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
10. Luca Scassa (Ducati)
