|
World Superbike Donington Results
amaha's Ben Spies closed to within 14
points of the World Superbike championship points lead by sweeping
both races, while points leader Nori Haga (Xerox Ducati) crashed
heavily out of race two at Donington Park in England.
"It was a picture perfect
weekend," Spies said before expressing concern for Haga. "I
hope he's OK, because that's not the way you want to do it, but we've
got to capitalize when things do go wrong.
By winning his tenth race, and Haga
not finishing, Spies now has 294 points to Haga's 308 after nine of 14
rounds. Ducati Marlboro's Michel Fabrizio, third in race two, is third
with 257 points.
Spies not only swept both races, but
he set the fastest lap in both, only the 18th time that had been done
in World Superbike history. The last time was when Spies did it at
Miller Motorsports Park at the end of May.
"The first race was not easier,
but easier to concentrate," Spies said. "In the second race
I was almost having to do one lap at a time pretty hard to kinda keep
my rhythm going and it's hard racing with those big of gaps, because
you can't just stop and you don't want to push and do something
stupid. So, it was quite difficult, but we managed through it and,
yeah, I can't thank the Yamaha guys enough. We changed a lot of things
around and they came and delivered me two great bikes."
Spies didn't get the holeshot-that
went to Aprilia's Max Biaggi-but was in the lead by the turn two
Hollywood corner and for the duration.
The Texan was able to stretch his
advantage with ease, unbothered by what would be mayhem behind him.
The first rider out was Aprilia's
Shinya Nakano, whose day ended on lap two with a vicious high-side
coming out of the Old Hairpin, the Japanese coming off at about 90 mph
and falling onto his back. Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea,
one of the local favorites, lost the rear at the apex of Goddard's,
the hairpin left leading onto the front. He was able to continue.
Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking was out on the same lap.
Haga took over third on the second
lap behind Spies and Biaggi, with Haslam fourth and Fabrizio fifth.
Then Biaggi crashed in the Melbourne Loop, picked up his Aprilia, and
bumped into another rider as he got going. He would finish out of the
points.
On the fifth lap, Haga took himself
off with a heavy fall into the left-hand Redgate, the Ducati beating
him up as they both tumbled into the grass and into the gravel.
Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa was out on that lap, as was
his brother, David.
With many of the top runners out,
Spies was off and flying on his way to a 6.622 secs. victory.
"It was a good race for us. The
track was definitely hot in the second race and it was a little bit
slick," he said. "We made some changes to the bike that made
it better. Fortunately, we didn't have to push it to the absolute
limit, but it worked great.
"The bike was excellent, no
mistakes, and I'm pretty happy now."
Fabrizio battled Stiggy Racing
Honda's Leon Haslam from the start and on the ninthlap when they were
joined by Sterilgarda's Shane Byrne (Duc). Byrne made his way past
Fabrizio, but the Italian countered on lap 20 of 23 to secure third
behind Haslam, who earned a podium in his home race. The trio was
covered by .7 secs.
"Yeah, it's been a few
rounds" since he was on the podium, Haslam said. "We've been
struggling these last few rounds, circuits we've not known. Obviously,
the home race we really wanted to get on that podium. So, yeah, it
feels good. Obviously, felt sorry for Haga; he was pushing hard and it
was a big crash there. So fair play to Ben (Spies). He had it dialed
in today and I was pretty happy to get second to him today."
Following the battle for the podium
there was a gap to Spies' teammate Tom Sykes, another of the British
contingent, who beat wild card Leon Camier (Yam) for fifth, with Ten
Kate Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari seventh.
Airwaves Yamaha's wild card James
Ellison rebounded from a first race crash to finish eighth, one up on
BMW's Ruben Xaus.
Blake Young finished 17th riding the
Alstare Suzuki Brux bike in place of the injured Max Neukirchner.
Stiggy Racing Honda's John Hopkins chose not to race after finishing
eighth in the first race.
Race Two:
1. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
2. Leon Haslam (Honda)
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
5. Tom Sykes (Yamaha)
6. Leon Camier (Yamaha)
7. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
8. James Ellison (Yamaha)
9. Ruben Xaus (BMW)
10. Simon Andrews (Kawasaki)
...from CycleNews
|
