Sykes and Rea battle it out
The 2012 World Superbike season started with a bang this weekend at Phillip Island - quite a large bang in the case of defending champion Carlos Checa. The Spaniard fired himself out of race one with a monster of a highside while under pressure from Max Biaggi, who went on to take the win. Ride of the race was mini-Italian master Marco Melandri who stuck the fickle BMW on second spot, hinting that the German company's struggles to turn the S1000RR into a race winner could soon be over. Better than that though, Marco's girlfriend got some more airtime - something we have all missed over the winter break...
Race two saw Checa stamp his authority and clear off into the distance, so either that bang on the head in race one did some good or the Ducati is still the bike to beat. Ride of the race (and weekend) went to Mad Max, who after trying (unwisely) to muscle it out with Tom Sykes in turn one ended up grass tracking, rejoining the race dead last before eventually fighting through to second spot.
The Brits had a bit to cheer about in Australia. Tom Sykes looked strong on the Kawasaki in both races and, while Jonathan Rea had technical issues in race one, he looked good in race two and provided the battle of the day with Sykes. Rea eventually surrendered the last podium spot to Sykes, but did anyone else spot the cloud of tyre smoke as he drifted onto the start/finish straight? Top stuff. Eugene Laverty hit a false neutral in race one before retiring and Leon Haslam dug deep to get solid results despite riding with broken feet. Hard as nails. Leon Camier's race results were hampered by poor starts.
Race 1:
1 Biaggi
2 Melandri
3 Guintoli
4 Sykes
5 Smrz
Race 2:
1 Checa
2 Biaggi
3 Sykes
4 Rea
5 Haslam
Championship Points:
1 Biaggi 45
2 Melandri 30
3 Sykes 29
4 Checa 25
5 Rea 22
Brit watch (Race 1, Race 2):
Jonathan Rea: (7, 4)
Leon Haslam: (12, 5)
Eugene Laverty: (RET, 8)
Tom Sykes: (4, 3)
Leon Camier: (17, 12)