Biaggi Finishes Season With a Win
Cycle News Staff | October 3, 2010
Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) won the tenth race of his championship season, narrowing fending off race one winner Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda) by 0.087 secs. in the last World Superbike race of the season in Magny-Cours, France.Biaggi chased early leader and home country favorite Sylvain Guintoli for the first eight laps before passing the Frenchman on the ninth. Crutchlow took second from Guintoli and set out for Biaggi.
The Englishman closed by very small amounts every year until on the penultimate lap the gap was .118 secs. Crutchlow made one final dash, but missed out on doing the double by .087 secs.”Race two was really hard,” Biaggi said. “We were a lot stronger than in the first race and yet the competition was always right their snapping at our heels. My cold didn’t let up at all and after the halfway point of the race I was struggling to breathe and sincerely couldn’t wait to get to the last lap.”It’s nice to end this season with a win after the first place in the rider and manufacturer standings: the celebration was for me at Imola, but today it’s my team’s turn. They have worked hard and they deserve this success from the mechanics to the engineers from Noale who follow me track after track.”Guintoli lost third to Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) on the 16th lap. It was the final race for the Ducati factory team and Fabrizio sent them off with a podium by finishing third. Guintoli was a close fourth.Nori Haga, in his last race as a factory Ducati rider, finished a distant fifth, alone and in front of Jakub Smrz.Luca Scassa (Supersonic Racing Team Ducati) was next, with Shane Byrne eighth on the Althea Racing Ducati.Biaggi ended the season with 451 points, 75 more than Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare), who finished the second race in tenth. Haslam is moving to BMW next year. First privateer Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) finished third with 297 points.Race Two:
1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
5. Nori Haga (Ducati)
6. Jakub Smrz (Aprilia)
7. Luca Scassa (Ducati)
8. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
9. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
10. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
