Paul Carruthers | June 27, 2010
Aprilia’s Max Biaggi completed a perfect day of World Superbike racing in Misano today, the Italian riding his Italian motorcycle to a second victory on Italian soil – this one coming fairly easily in the sunshine of the Adriatic Coast.Biaggi grabbed the holeshot at the start of the 24-lap race, but BMW’s Troy Corser and Althea Ducati’s Carlos Checa quickly relegated the race-one winner to third. On the second lap, Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio also moved past Biaggi and it looked as though the former 250cc World Champion wasn’t going to be able to match his race-one performance. But then he started to move forward, going back to third on the fourth lap, then second on the sixth lap and into the lead on the ninth. From there he would steadily pull away, leading by almost seven seconds before slowing on the final lap to win by four seconds.Alstare Suzuki’s Leon Haslam was able to stop the bleeding from race one to finish second, the Brit holding off a five riders in what was basically a race long duel for the podium finishes. At the line, Haslam was .6 of a second ahead of Fabrizio, the Italian having passed Sterligarda Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow with two laps to go. He would beat the Brit to the line by .4 of a second.Corser looked to have fifth place, but he ran off the track on the last lap while battling for position with Checa and dropped all the way back to 10th.Checa was fifth, about a second clear of Alstare Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli, the Frenchman having his best day of World Superbike racing. Seventh went to Althea Ducati’s Shane Byrne with Ducati rider Luca Scassa, Ducati Xerox’s Noriyuki Haga and Corser rounding out the top 10.The most notable of the non finishers was Sterligarda Yamaha’s James Toseland, the Brit crashing out of the race early.Biaggi now holds a 37-point lead over Haslam, 307-270, with Checa holding down third with 172 points.
Race Two
1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
5. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
7. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
8. Luca Scassa (Ducati)
9. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)
10. Troy Corser (BMW)
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
