2012 Philip Island WSBK Race 1 - Tight Podium Battle Behind Dominant Winner

Submitted by Austin Lindberg on Sun, 2012-02-26 02:07

Aprilia's Max Biaggi took the first race win of the 2012 World Superbike season from Philip Island by a margin of just more than seven seconds over BMW's Marco Melandri and Effenbert Liberty Ducati's Sylvain Guintoli.

Biaggi cruised to a comfortable victory after Carlos Checa crashed his Althea Ducati in the final corner after 17 laps. Rain was spitting at the time, which could have led to the highside. Checa was taken to the medical center to be treated for an elbow injury. There's no word on Checa's status for today's second race.

Pole man Tom Sykes came home in a lonely fourth aboard his Kawasaki ZX-10R, followed distantly by Guintoli's Effenbert Liberty Ducati teammate Jakub Smrz.

Results:

Pos	No.	Rider	Country	Bike	Diff
1	3	M. BIAGGI	ITA	Aprilia RSV4 Factory
2	33	M. MELANDRI	ITA	BMW S1000 RR	7.104
3	50	S. GUINTOLI	FRA	Ducati 1098R	7.378
4	66	T. SYKES	GBR	Kawasaki ZX-10R	12.189
5	96	J. SMRZ	CZE	Ducati 1098R	16.424
6	84	M. FABRIZIO	ITA	BMW S1000 RR	20.200
7	65	J. REA	GBR	Honda CBR1000RR	20.223
8	4	H. AOYAMA	JPN	Honda CBR1000RR	24.108
9	34	D. GIUGLIANO	ITA	Ducati 1098R	28.072
10	67	B. STARING	AUS	Kawasaki ZX-10R	34.232
11	87	L. ZANETTI	ITA	Ducati 1098R	34.450
12	91	L. HASLAM	GBR	BMW S1000 RR	35.648
13	121	M. BERGER	FRA	Ducati 1098R	36.392
14	44	D. SALOM	ESP	Kawasaki ZX-10R	41.500
15	17	J. LASCORZ	ESP	Kawasaki ZX-10R	42.086
16	25	J. BROOKES	AUS	Suzuki GSX-R1000	42.605
17	2	L. CAMIER	GBR	Suzuki GSX-R1000	43.366
18	18	M. AITCHISON	AUS	BMW S1000 RR	45.225
19	20	D. JOHNSON	AUS	BMW S1000 RR	1'08.782
20	59	N. CANEPA	ITA	Ducati 1098R	1'10.440
RET	58	E. LAVERTY	IRL	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	3 Laps
RET	86	A. BADOVINI	ITA	BMW S1000 RR	8 Laps
RET	7	C. CHECA	ESP	Ducati 1098R	17 Laps
RET	35	R. DE ROSA	ITA	Honda CBR1000RR