Max Biaggi Gets His First
Cycle News Staff | June 19, 2011
It’s hard to believe that it took 14 races for Max Biaggi to win his first World Superbike race of the season, but Biaggi was finally able to break through today, beating race-one winner Marco Melandri in race two at Motorland Aragon in Spain.This time the World Superbike Champion didn’t err and instead took full advantage of Marco Melandri’s miscue with four laps to go to win his 15th career World Superbike race and the first in his title defense year. In race one it was Biaggi making a mistake that allowed Melandri to pass and eventually win.
At the finish the margin of victory was 4.8 seconds but it was closer than that for almost the entire race – until it was Melandri’s turn to make a mistake, the Italian blowing turn one to allow Biaggi to escape.From there Melandri was forced to settle for second, besting championship leader Carlos Checa by some two seconds. Checa, who crashed out of race one, finished third – allowing Biaggi to take 29 points out of his substantial points lead on the day.Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio held off the Kawasaki of Joan Lascorz to finish fourth. After a gap of almost three seconds, Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty was next across the line in sixth, less than a second ahead of PATA Racing Aprilia’s Noriyuki Haga.Aprilia’s Leon Camier, who finished third in race one, slipped down to eighth in the second race in Spain, but was well clear of a battle for ninth between factory BMW’s Leon Haslam and BMW privateer Ayrton Badovini. Haslam got the nod by half a second over the BMW Motorrad Italia rider.Non-finishers included crashers Tom Sykes, Jakub Smrz (for the second time today), Troy Corser and Maxime Berger. Ruben Xaus went out on the 10th lap with a mechanical issue on his Castrol Honda.After seven rounds and 14 races, Checa leads Biaggi by 43 points, 261-218. Melandri is third with 195 points. Both of the Italians scored 45 points today to Checa’s 16.
Race 2
1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2. Marco Melandri (Yamaha)
3. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
4. Michael Fabrizio (Suzuki)
5. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki)
6. Eugene Laverty (Yamaha)
7. Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)
8. Leon Camier (Aprilia)
9. Leon Haslam (BMW)
10. Ayrton Badovini (BMW)
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