CARLOS!

Carlos Checa extends world championship lead with win in Assen• Carlos Checa wins second race ahead of Max Biaggi
• Althea Ducati rider seals fourth victory of the season


Carlos Checa increased his lead in the Superbike World Championship with his fourth win of the season from six races.

The Althea Ducati rider now leads on 132 points to the 89 of Alitalia Aprilia's Max Biaggi, the reigning champion, after taking the second race win at Assen in the Netherlands. Marco Melandri, on the factory Yamaha, lies in third place on 85 points with Castrol Honda's Jonathan Rea, who won the first race today, moving up to fourth on 79.

Rea took his first win of the season in race one ahead of Biaggi and Checa. Fourth went to Melandri, with Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) fifth and Troy Corser (BMW) in sixth. Leon Haslam, Corser's team-mate, survived a fast early crash to recover to finish 12th but saw his title hopes take a bad hit.

Checa and Biaggi fought it out for the victory in race two and it looked as if the latter would win it after passing the long-time leader late on. However, Checa reclaimed the lead on the final lap to extend his points advantage to 43 with his fourth win in the season's six races.

Rea won the contest with Melandri for third when the Yamaha rider fell, with Biaggi's team-mate Leon Camier claiming fourth ahead of Haslam and Eugene Laverty on the second factory Yamaha

(guardian.co.uk)