Submitted by David Emmett on
Results and summary of World Superbike race 2 at Donington:
Carlos Checa has returned to winning ways at Donington Park, taking victory in the second World Superbike race of the day by a very comfortable margin. The Althea Ducati rider has now won three out of the four WSBK Races so far this season, and already has a 19 point lead in the championship.
Checa's race 2 went much more smoothly than race 1. Unlike the first race at Donington, where he got off the line badly and got boxed in, the Althea Ducati rider rocketed off the line, only beaten into the first turn at Redgate by the BMW of Leon Haslam. Checa was not to be denied for long however, passing Haslam on lap 3 as they entered the Melbourne loop, then quickly pulling a gap. The race was essentially over at that, Checa soon building a cushion over the chasing group which would never be challenged, posting record lap times seemingly at well. The Althea Ducati rider would cruise home to take his third win of the season and extend his championship lead.
Behind Haslam, a fierce battle unfolded for the remaining podium positions. Leon Haslam once again fought like a terrier to hold on to 2nd, then 3rd, but both Camier and the charging Marco Melandri were past the BMW rider by lap 7. The extent of Haslam's fight was exemplified on lap 8, when Haslam ran wide at Coppice and raced across the grass at high speed, finally losing touch with the podium battle and dropping a couple of places.
A tight battle unfolded for 2nd between Camier and Melandri, with Melandri appearing to have the upper hand for most of the race. Once Melandri had passed both Camier and Haslam, it looked like the Yamaha rider would just disappear and catch Checa, much as he had done in race 1. But Camier was made of sterner stuff, and the two duked it out until lap 19. Camier had put a pass on Melandri with 7 laps left to go, then fought bravely to hold off the Italian for two more laps. On lap 19, though, Melandri was through, diving under the Aprilia of Camier at the Old Hairpin, the Italian's favorite passing spot of the weekend. Drained after his battle with Melandri, and still recovering from the after-effects of Glandular Fever, Camier was forced finally to conceded defeat, allowing Melandri to secure 2nd place, Camier settling for 3rd.
After his mistake earlier on in the race, Leon Haslam fought his way back forward again to secure 4th place, his second of the day, finishing ahead of a very impressive Joan Lascorz on the Motocard.com Kawasaki. Castrol Honda's Johnny Rea secured 6th after a slugfest with Alstare Suzuki's Michel Fabrizio and Effenbert Liberty Ducati's Jakub Smrz.
Max Biaggi's nightmare weekend came to a fitting end. The Roman Emperor's Alitalia Aprilia lurched forward before the red lights dimmed, and though Biaggi stopped his bike again befre the lights went out for the start, he was still technically in infringement of the jump start rules, and was called in for a ride through. For whatever reason, Biaggi did not come in on time to take the ride through, and the Italian was shown the black flag and disqualified from the race. Biaggi's title defense suffered serious damage as a result, and though there are still 22 races left to go, and everything left to play for, Biaggi is now 42 points behind Checa, with Checa looking just about unstoppable.
The next round is in three weeks' time, at the Assen circuit in the Netherlands.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Country | Bike | Diff |
| 1 | 7 | C. CHECA | ESP | Ducati 1098R | |
| 2 | 33 | M. MELANDRI | ITA | Yamaha YZF R1 | 3.397 |
| 3 | 2 | L. CAMIER | GBR | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 5.902 |
| 4 | 91 | L. HASLAM | GBR | BMW S1000 RR | 13.842 |
| 5 | 17 | J. LASCORZ | ESP | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 14.253 |
| 6 | 4 | J. REA | GBR | Honda CBR1000RR | 19.413 |
| 7 | 84 | M. FABRIZIO | ITA | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 20.278 |
| 8 | 96 | J. SMRZ | CZE | Ducati 1098R | 21.160 |
| 9 | 86 | A. BADOVINI | ITA | BMW S1000 RR | 24.298 |
| 10 | 111 | R. XAUS | ESP | Honda CBR1000RR | 24.907 |
| 11 | 50 | S. GUINTOLI | FRA | Ducati 1098R | 32.440 |
| 12 | 66 | T. SYKES | GBR | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 32.679 |
| 13 | 11 | T. CORSER | AUS | BMW S1000 RR | 34.070 |
| 14 | 58 | E. LAVERTY | IRL | Yamaha YZF R1 | 36.418 |
| 15 | 44 | R. ROLFO | ITA | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 44.037 |
| 16 | 8 | M. AITCHISON | AUS | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 52.412 |
| 17 | 41 | N. HAGA | JPN | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 56.634 |
| RET | 121 | M. BERGER | FRA | Ducati 1098R | 22 Laps |
| EX | 1 | M. BIAGGI | ITA | Aprilia RSV4 Factory |
Comments
FIM Scoring?
I also read that Biaggi was shown as -14 laps.
Is this so? That it took the FIM Nine laps to get their stuff together.
Congrats Carlos! On a "privateer" Ducati.
fast race
It took a few laps to get the penalty announced and then you get something like 2 or 3 passes of the main straight to see it and then they black flag. So I could easily imagine that he was out there for over 6 or 7 laps. The whole race seemed like it was over very quickly. Well under 40 minutes.
Biaggi
Max has pulled this more than once, yes? He seems to be unraveling pretty early on. Messing with Fabrizio, Haga and Melandri all in one weekend smacks of someone who is feeling a bit insecure. Every time I start thinking Biaggi might be ok he pulls out the jerkiness.
Happy Melandri did well, I thought the end of his MotoGP career was unfortunate and unrepresentative of his talent.
I hope the ex-Melandri race
I hope the ex-Melandri race " engineers (!??) " from his Gresini and Ducati seasons observed his display and are maybe thinking ......." oops, where did we go wrong ? "
Time to change the rules
Max may not have acted in a rational way this weekend past, however I have to say that the penalty of a 'ride through' for a jump start is totally ridiculous. Essentially it takes the rider totally out of contention and the spectator is robbed of his entry money, and the television spectacle spoilt as well.
If the rider jumps the start but then comes to a stop, perhaps within a certain distance, then the advantage he will have achieved is certainly only a bike length or so, and more probably is a disadvantage because by the time he stops most other riders will be in motion. Regardless, a time penalty of a few seconds is more than enough, still provides the rider with incentive to continue and we still get to see a decent race.
Come on officials, get real!
I disagree..
There's an old saying.."you can't win it at the first corner.." or in Maxs' case even earlier. Everybody knows the rule and he should know better. If he'd taken his medicine voluntarily and come in at the end of the first lap, pre-empting race control, the field would have still been close and maybe we'd have been treated to an epic fightback through the field. If the penalty was as you say, to allow riders to continue if they stop within a bike length, I bet it wouldn't be long before race starts became a complete farce with the majority po-going around like demented kangeroos trying to gain an advantage.
There was NO doubt in his mind he jumped the start, he knows the penalty so why didn't he come in? To say he was distracted and didn't see the flag is a cop-out and telling fibs at best..What if he'd made one of those daft lunges, as in the first race, and taken out another rider or two while they were waiting for him to come in and serve the ride-through? Would that be fair?
It can be difficult to see a flag on pit wall at some tracks, especially if the rider is not looking for it because he thinks he's done nothing wrong, but in this case I don't think that argument works..perhaps they should look at changing the system and use the lights, or if they want to continue with the flags, give the marshalls another flag or two to wave at the same time with a box of numbers to indicate the rider at fault.
Not always the rider
Fair points, but sometimes the clutch is to blame for a mis-start.
The flag system works reasonably well, but it's certainly time to bring it into the 21st century. Put a black box on each bike that has a few alert lights - or one multi-function LED - so that race control can trigger the appropriate light and the rider is left in no doubt of what is required of him. You could have lights to replicate black flag, oil flag, red flag etc. It should even be possible to have triggers for different sectors, or even corners, which would be good for yellow and blue flag conditions. In fact a blue flag condition could be triggered directly from a transponder on the bike that is coming up to make a pass.
Interesting
but I don't think these guys look their dashboard that often. They know excactly what rpm they run without looking at it so they are more likely to catch a flag around the corner, where they look all the time, than a light on the dashboard in my opinion.
Also, Biaggi is seen clearly shaking his head after the jum start (before the lights go green) so clearly he knew he messed up and HAD to check if he was handed a penalty or not.
It's completely fair he got one, everybody knows the rules and they apply to everyone.
Biaggi looks beaten already.
All these old nerve driven habits... not a good sign.
Biaggi
Only got to see the highlights posted by World SBK on youtube. But, Biaggi is back to some of his old ways. Funny, I thought he had moved past much of that. I am with wosiedog. Biaggi missing the black flag and making several mistakes in the first race sounds like he is getting rattled. I he starts blaming the bike then there will be nothing anyone can tell me to prove he is not on an ego trip again.
In saying all that. He will keep me watching, just to see Melandri beat him, or try to beat him. Great drama!
Sorry for him...
To see someone make that many wrong moves in a weekend, makes me think something outside might have rattled him. One dumb mistake might be arrogance, 5 or 6 seems like a real problem. I'm not going to cheer against him because he had a melt down...