Monday 22nd June 2015

WSB Misano: PH2

Return of the Emperor!

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With the WSB series becoming a bit of a one make championship, the Misano round needed a bit of spicing up. And who better to throw a spanner in the works than former multiple WSB champion (and pretty handy GP rider) Max Biaggi? Could the Roman Emperor's return from retirement be a triumphant one?

Lights to flag in race one from Sykes

In practice Biaggi actually managed to top the timing sheets, however come qualifying the Aprilia rider put his bike on a very creditable fifth spot with Sykes on pole and Haslam alongside him on the other Aprilia.

Race one saw Sykes make the most of his pole position, leading all 21 laps of the race with team mate Rea behind him. Chaz Davies gave the Italian crowd something to cheer about when he put his Ducati on the remaining podium slot, securing the firm's 800th WSB podium. But in truth it was more of the same with the Kawasakis once again dominating the race. Would race two be a bit more competitive?

Thankfully for race fans, Davide Giugliano stepped up to the mark in race two, giving Rea a run for his money and stirring up a bit of excitement. It wasn't until five laps from the end that the loopy Italian surrendered his race lead to Rea, but at least a red bike was ahead for a good few laps. Rea's double podium matched Troy Corser's record from 2005 of 16 on the bounce. It's pretty fair to assume he will beat it at the next round.

Not a bad return for Biaggi!

In the end Max Biaggi secured a very creditable fifth in race one and sixth in race two. However what does this say about the state of WSB? Yes, Max has extensively tested the Aprilia, knows Misano like the back of his hand and he is a former multiple world champion. But still, he has retired and gets two top six places on returning. Is WSB lacking a bit of depth in its field or is the Aprilia (and Kawasaki) that good?

In Supersport a technical issue on the sighting lap ruled Smith out of even starting the race while Rea finished a strong fourth. Cluzel took the win while championship leader Solfuolu crashed out of third on the last lap, remounting to take 11th.

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Results:

Race 1:
1. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
3. Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team)

Race 2:
1. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team)
3. Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils)

Brit watch:

Leon Haslam (Aprilia) - 5, 3
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) - 2, 1
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) - 1, 5
Alex Lowes (Suzuki) - 12, DNF
Chaz Davies (Ducati) - 3, 4
Leon Camier (MV Agusta) - 13, 16
Gino Rea (Honda WSS) - 4
Kyle Smith (Honda WSS) - DNS

Previous rounds:
WSB Spain
WSB Thailand
WSB Assen
WSB Imola
WSB Donington

[D200]

I used to think Rea was vastly over rated, couldn’t understand why Honda kept him for so long [and paid him so well!] as he never won much ever in his career.

But now I can see it was all to do with the position he was in, and now he is on a decent bike he is showing how good he is, totally blitzing Sykes with 10 wins and 4 second places out of 14 rounds, amazing stat!

And goes to show you how well he rode on the Blade when you see how far down the fields it is without him on it.

Plus when he stood in for Stoner on the RCV at the time I thought he should have done much better, as it was a potential race winning bike. But in hindsight he rode really well. As he has zero testing on it, it’s completely different [esp. the tires and brakes] and didn’t want to risk his WSB season for one off race. Plus look how terrible Pedroza stand-in ride done when he stood in and he has loads of experience with the RCV but Rea had none.

He just needs to stop using the word 'awesome'

Honda need a new bike and its good Yamaha will be back next year with Melandri

A shame BMW pulled out as when they had a works team they were up there

It’s not even a 2 horse race now as Rea is hammering Tom, only an injury will stop rea from winning.

It is still good racing all the same and worth watching

Can't wait until BSB returns, it’s still the best races series to watch - better than both WSBK and MotoGP.

[D200]

neelyp said:

BSB was on at the weekend.

Dammit, I forgot!

Too many things on this weekend, F1 [boring snorefest] WSBK and [which I completely forgot about] BSB