2012 Aragon WSBK Race Two - Exciting Race To The End

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sun, 2012-07-01 14:42

World Superbikes at its best is close physical racing between determined riders on near-equal machinery, and race two was exactly that.

Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty both passed Tom Sykes very early on, and were joined by Marco Melandri to make a break away pack for the top three. This pack put some distance between themselves and the second group led by Leon Haslam who held up Sykes, Davide Giugliano, Jonathan Rea, Carlos Checa and Chaz Davies. As the front three swapped places, the second group had to put up with Chaz Davies forcing his way to the front, intent on crossing the gap to the front three.

At the halfway mark, Eugene Laverty passed his team mate for the lead in a very clean and tidy overtake that was set up over three corners. The gap back to Chaz Davies from Marco Melandri was around two seconds at this point, as the Welshman put a second's gap between himself and Sykes in fifth.

Five laps from the end, while Marco Melandri led the race, Davies joined the front three and at the end of the long straight, going into the hairpin, Biaggi and Melandri messily passed each other, letting Laverty take first, bringing Davies with him. The lap after, Laverty lost the front baking heavily into the hairpin but managed to somehow save it and keep his first place. Melandri started making hard passes, pushing his way to the front, while Max Biaggi swapped back and forth with Davies. At the flag, Davies managed to clinch the last step of the podium from Biaggi, behind Melandri and Laverty.

Marco Melandri was very agressive in his passing, and this was what was needed to win on the BMW ahead of three very fast Aprilias. Chaz Davies got his first podium in World Superbikes, a fraction of a second ahead of Max Biaggi.

Three Aprilias in the top four, with Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam rounding out the top six, this race showed that having a fast bike helps at Aragon.

Result:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff
1	33	MELANDRI M	BMW S1000 RR	1'58.950
2	58	LAVERTY E	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1'58.969	0.042
3	19	DAVIES C	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1'59.186	0.446
4	3	BIAGGI M	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1'59.068	0.484
5	65	REA J	Honda CBR1000RR	1'59.565	6.611
6	91	HASLAM L	BMW S1000 RR	1'59.343	7.491
7	7	CHECA C	Ducati 1098R	1'59.441	9.325
8	66	SYKES T	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1'59.345	10.444
9	86	BADOVINI A	BMW S1000 RR	1'59.659	10.828
10	34	GIUGLIANO D	Ducati 1098R	1'59.505	10.925
11	84	FABRIZIO M	BMW S1000 RR	2'00.009	21.955
12	121	BERGER M	Ducati 1098R	2'00.264	22.046
13	50	GUINTOLI S	Ducati 1098R	2'00.283	22.486
14	87	ZANETTI L	Ducati 1098R	2'00.674	42.801
15	4	AOYAMA H	Honda CBR1000RR	2'00.917	49.144
16	44	SALOM D	Kawasaki ZX-10R	2'01.586	50.961
17	59	CANEPA N	Ducati 1098R	2'01.932
18	36	MERCADO L	Kawasaki ZX-10R	2'01.859
19	64	BRIGNOLA N	BMW S1000 RR	2'04.091
20	76	BAZ L	Kawasaki ZX-10R	2'00.259	1 Lap
21	2	CAMIER L	Suzuki GSX-R1000	1'59.996	2 Laps
22	21	HOPKINS J	Suzuki GSX-R1000	2'01.644	16 Laps

Round Number:

2012

Comments

Superbikes rule again

Submitted by Powervalve58 on Sun, 2012-07-01 16:38.

After a rather procession-like MotoGP race yesterday, these two Superbike races again were a welcome thrill! Brilliant championship again this year!

More than just this round

Submitted by briga on Sun, 2012-07-01 19:12.

SBK has been more interesting for a while now. And Pirelli lately seems to be safer than Bridgestone!

6 kilos

Submitted by redax on Sun, 2012-07-01 20:50.

with 3 Aprilia's in the top 4 and a speed difference of around 35 klms/hr down the back straight are race direction or whoever controls the rules in SBK going to take back the 6 kilo's of extra weight from the Ducati's.
They don't stand a chance anymore and no, I am not a Ducati fan but do support Checa.

Top racing, pleasure to watch, have enjoyed the close racing in SBK over MotoGP for a few years now, no wonder Dorna are having trouble attracting sponsers and teams.

Wrong track

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sun, 2012-07-01 21:01.

Yet Checa was 3rd in race one. This track was always going to show the Ducati's straight-line weakness, much like Monza would have. Other tracks favour the nimble red bikes more.

WSBK twins VS 4s regulations

Submitted by frenchie on Sun, 2012-07-01 21:10.

I know it's determined by very precise calculations from race results but I forgot the details, how long until they lift these 6 kilos, is it happening if Checa finishes 4th or worse in the next couple of races?

Top speed figures

Submitted by Powervalve58 on Sun, 2012-07-01 23:12.

Again I must say that the top speed measurements that we got at Aragon were unreliable. Several times we got showed differences of over 20 km/h between bikes that were clearly staying close together on the straight. I suspect the speed trap was just about in the braking zone, so that late brakers get much higher measurements. This is only too often the case, at various tracks. They should place the speed traps earlier. I want to know the realistic speed differences between the bikes, not necessarily that last 1 km/h.
Maybe the speed trap is often set up for cars, that have either much lower top speeds or demon braking like Formula One.

Data loggers

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sun, 2012-07-01 23:51.

Some riders, like Chaz Davies, mentioned the speeds recorded by their data loggers. The Aprilias were seriously fast, approached only by the BMWs.

Top Speeds

Submitted by Powervalve58 on Mon, 2012-07-02 13:45.

I would like to see those speeds from the data loggers! That would be interesting stuff! Please!
Clearly even the tall Chaz Davies had a lot of steam on the straight. Impressive work from Aprilia.