FRENTUBO Brake lines: marzo 2011

lunedì 28 marzo 2011

Carlos Checa wins at Donington to extended World Superbike lead

Carlos Checa wins at Donington to extended World Superbike lead Press Association guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 March 2011 21.12 BST Althea Racing Ducati's Carlos Checa celebrates after winning race two during the World Superbike meeting at Donington Park. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Carlos Checa extended his lead in the World Superbike championship to 19 points after finishing in third and first in the two races at Donington Park. The Althea Racing Ducati rider fought his way up to third in race one and then won second time out as reigning champion Max Biaggi was disqualified. The Aprilia Alitalia rider was excluded for jumping the start and dropped to fourth in the overall points standings. The Yamaha rider Marco Melandri moved up to second in the championship after winning the first race and taking a fighting second in race two. Britain's Leon Haslam fought hard to finish fourth in both races to move above Biaggi to third in the points on his BMW. Melandri won race one from the Effenberg Ducati of Jakub Smrz and Checa, with the championship leader winning from Melandri and the Aprilia Alitalia of Leon Camier in race two. Camier was the only home rider to make it on to the podium and was relieved to recover from illness which had dogged him in Australia. He said: "I started the year with glandular fever for the first race. To come here and to have a podium at my home race is awesome." Melandri took the first race win after a poor start which saw him down in ninth place at the end of the first lap. But the Italian worked his way through the pack to claim top spot as he passed Smrz on lap 21 of 23. Smrz was able to finish a comfortable second for the best result of his career after he had taken over first place on lap seven from Haslam. It was a poor race for the British rider after a good start which had seen him lead for the first six laps. Checa was another rider to have a bad start and had to rise from 11th on lap one to claim the final podium spot on the final lap. Haslam looked set for third but was overtaken by the Spaniard at the Melbourne Hairpin and the championship leader held on to the position through the final corner. Behind Haslam came Jonathan Rea, Nori Haga, Biaggi, Camier, Troy Corser and Joan Lascorz. Tom Sykes was lying fourth when he crashed on lap 12 and Eugene Laverty went out on the fourth lap when lying 12th.