After the Monza debacle, round five of the World Superbike championship at Donington Park was just what the doctor ordered for any red blooded racing fan.
Five spectacular riders battling it for the victory in both races, some hard overtaking passes, the celebration of the first ever win for a manufacturer, some costly errors and a bit of controversy to spice up an already action packed weekend.
BMW tried to lodge a protest regarding the last corner incident in Race 2 involving Jonathan Rea, Marco Melandri and Leon Haslam, but the Race Direction deemed it just some hard ‘macho’ racing and the Honda rider came away with no disqualification or penalty, so the witch hunting on who to blame can be laid to rest.
Max Biaggi continues to lead in the standings with 128,5 points despite having only victory ( race 1 at Phillip Island) followed by Tom Sykes with 123,5 points (one half points victory at Monza) and Jonathan Rea is third with 108 points.
After a Assen, Monza and Donington, the slumping reigning World Champion Carlos Checa finds himself in fourth and 23 points from rival Biaggi.
The Althea Ducati rider will have to pull out another double at Miller Motorsports if he wants to stay in the title hunt.
Marco Melandri (1st and DNF)“It is an awesome feeling for me to put my name in the history books of a factory like BMW Motorrad.
I could not have dreamt of this when I was young.
I just want to say thank you to BMW Motorrad in Germany, to the team at the track and to everybody involved in the project.
We have been working so hard and we have never been close to giving up, even when we have had some difficulties.
We will keep pushing, and I am more than happy.
I am disappointed with the result of the second race.
I was trying to pass Leon in the final corner, although I knew it would be difficult but I am a racer and I had to try.
I ran a little wide and expected Leon to pass me back – finishing second would have been ok for me.
Then Leon was hit and he crashed.
His bike hit me and I crashed too.
I feel sorry for both of us but that’s racing.
We now have to keep our heads up high and look forward to Salt Lake City where we hope to be fighting for wins again.
” Jonathan Rea (4th and 1st)It’s nice to win and, in that second race, everybody wanted to win so bad.
It was a crazy race and I made it hard work because I dropped off the group again in the middle stage and then, when I caught the group, I made a big mistake and ran wide at the last corner.
To catch up with five laps to go and make up some places and then cap it off with the win was unbelievable.
I was quite happy with the fourth in race one as well – the guys gave me a great bike and Chris [Pike – crew chief] and his team were on it all weekend.
It’s nice to come here and get a good result because it’s never happened in the past with Superbike.
I got on the podium in Supersport but this is nice for the British fans and there were quite a lot of guys out there.
On the slowing-down lap everyone was clapping and it’s nice to have a British winner at a British round.
Leon Haslam (2nd and 15th)“I had a good pace in race one.
In the end, I have to say that I am kind of disappointed with the second place.
I had a big wobble out of Coppers and it actually put me on the right hand side of Marco instead of the left, and he braked a bit earlier that lap.
I had nowhere to go, so I opted for the gravel.
It was kind of a combination of things that caught me out but fair play to Marco.
A BMW 1-2 result is just fantastic.
Right now I just want to forget race two.
I feel a bit frustrated because I was going for my first win for BMW Motorrad – at my home round, but we were denied that well deserved victory.
The crash was not my fault at all… Anyway, that’s racing, and we’re now looking forward to the next round.
Hopefully we can turn things around at the next race meeting at Salt Lake City.
I want to dedicate my race one result to Robert Fearnall, who was a close friend of the family.
”Tom Sykes (3rd and 3rd)“Race one was a fantastic race, I really enjoyed it and it certainly felt like a long one as it seemed to go on for many laps.
Overall I think we had a very good show, lots of passing and a little bit too much at some corners, especially at the Foggy Esses, which seemed to claim a few victims.
Unfortunately we seemed to struggle at one particular part of the track and that definitely affected our race performance.
Yet again we got the holeshot and led for a number of laps in race two, but I was missing a bit of feeling with the wind, which was unfortunate.
I managed to stay out front but made one mistake and all the other guys came past at a rate of knots.
We didn’t quite have the best setting this weekend but a pole position and two podiums are great for myself and the Kawasaki team.
I had the best seat in the house for the last couple of laps of race two, but for me five minus two equals a podium so I’m very happy!”Max Biaggi (5th and 2nd)“Two thrilling races.
In the first race I had a bit more difficulty.
We were losing ground to BMW and Kawasaki coming out of the curves even though we were fast in the straight stretches.
In race two things went better.
I rode well and was fighting for the podium.
The last few laps were just mad.
With tyres worn everyone was trying to gain positions, shooting through at every braking zone.
The last curve gave us second place which is an important result: now we’ll go to Miller to confirm our performance, but we need to improve on acceleration.
” Carlos Checa (6th and DNF)“After the result of race 1, which wasn’t bad, I thought I’d be able to do more in the second.
I tried to start strong and found a good position but when I got to the apex I saw Laverty in front of me and he braked suddenly, maybe there was a rider in front of him I don’t know.
I did everything I could to brake, to stop the bike, but there were riders all around me and I couldn’t avoid a fall.
My leg is a bit sore and a little swollen but I’m ok.
I need a couple of days to get over this result and then I’ll start preparing for Miller.
”Davide Giugliano (7th and DNF)“It’s a shame because the day had started out fairly positively.
We had seen in race 1 that we had a strong pace and we were certain that we could do better in the second.
I started race 2 convinced that I could be up there with the top four but unfortunately what happened at the first corner penalized me too.
We have however demonstrated that we have good pace and now we go on to America, a track that I don’t know, to see what we can do there.
”Leon Camier (9th and 4th)“I had the pace this weekend to be with the top guys and it felt good fighting and catching them today.
In race one, there was a problem with the brakes and I couldn’t get into the turns the way I wanted and that prevented me from catching the guys at the front.
We changed to a softer rear tyre for race two.
My start was OK and if I hadn’t been held up for so long by Laverty and Guintoli I’m sure I would’ve been challenging for the podium at the end.
It was a really enjoyable race and great fun catching people and passing them.
”Michel Fabrizio (10th and 13th) “In race 2 my start was quick, maybe too quick as I got a ride-through.
While I was riding into the pit-lane there was a misunderstanding with a marshal.
I thought that they wanted me to stop but it was not so, and I lost 5 more useful seconds.
It’s a shame about the jump-start.
Without that I would have had the chance of a good race.
I’m not demoralised.
I will be more charged up than ever for the US round.
”Ayrton Badovini (11th and 6th) “Race 1 started uphill after the collision at the start.
That cost me a lot of time and forced me into a catch-up race.
For race 2 we tried a soft front tyre but it wore out as soon as we got into the second part of the race, so I raced conservatively to get the best result possible.
We come out of this weekend with a clear view of what we have to work on for Miller”.
Loris Baz (16th and 8th)“Race two was really good, to be eighth is a result even if there were some crashes from other riders.
I think it would have been about 13th or 14th without those and that is really positive for a first race.
But crashes are part of racing and I took some good opportunities.
If you look at my lap times I did nearly all my laps alone in front of a group and if you take off the first lap I was about 0.
9 seconds from the pace of the fastest riders, like Tom, Rea or Melandri.
Less than one second from the top riders in my first race at this level is pretty good.
”Eugene Laverty (15th and DNF)“The crash was the worst possible way to end this weekend.
After struggling in Race 1 with a technical problem and finishing fifteenth, in the second race I didn’t want to lose contact with the lead pack.
Just as I was pushing hardest I lost the back end, demolishing my RSV4.
Physically I’m fine, so all we can do is take a lesson from these problems and get back on track with the next round in America”.
Hiroshi Aoyama (17th and 10th)It was a race track that I know and I was expecting a little bit more result.
The first day we started in a good way but on the second day we could not improve in qualifying so we were 17th and missed Superpole.
This was a little bit disappointing but for the race we tried to improve the set-up.
Somehow, in the first race, we went in the wrong direction, so I was fighting but could not make it.
In the second race, we went to the opposite set-up and it seems like this was positive and I could fight for tenth position.
Also, as a team, Johnny won the race, so it was not so bad a weekend.
Of course I want to be better but I have never ridden at Miller so I have to learn the racetrack but I am thinking positive.
Peter Hickman (NC and 9th)“I had an electrical problem in race one and had to pull into the pits after just two laps.
The guys fixed it and I went out again, but by then I had lost too much time to make any impact on the top 15.
Fortunately there were no problems in race two and I was able to run consistently fast and chip away at the people in front of me one by one.
My fastest lap was on lap 17 and I am really, really happy with how much I’ve learnt this weekend – getting ninth today was like a win for me! I would like to give huge credit to the team for building such a brilliant bike and working so hard to help me this weekend and I would also like to say a big thank you to everybody at FIXI Crescent Suzuki for giving me this chance.
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