Carlos Checa usually doesn’t make mistakes, especially since he’s been riding a Ducati for Althea Racing, but when he does – as it happened in race 1 at Phillip Island – it was a real doozy.
An unexpected and spectacular spit off highside left the reigning World champion who had been leading at that point with zero points, but his comeback in race 2 awarded him the agonized 25 points and a fourth in the standings, candidly admitted he had been under pressure.
“In race one I had the worst crash that I’ve ever had with the Ducati.
I was under pressure and pushed a little too hard.
It’s extremely difficult to find the exact limit with the bike, the track, and with myself and today I exceeded that limit and fell.
The team made a fantastic job of preparing a bike that allowed me to win in race two.
In that race, I started strong and when I saw that Max had gone off track, I pushed hard to get ahead and win the race.
Max made a good recovery but I was able to maintain a strong pace and bring home what is a very important win for me and for the team.
”While debuting team mate Davide Giugliano scored a respectable 9th and a 13th position in the double header with some aggressive riding in race 1 (ask Leon Camier about it) said “Race 1 I used to gain experience, not knowing exactly how it would go.
It went quite well and I was able to use what I learned in this race to go on the attack in the second.
I started strong in the second race and was up with the front group.
I was able to pass those a little slower than me and was, I think, seventh.
I planned to race behind Melandri and Haslam and conserve the tyres as best I could and that seemed to be working but unfortunately, five laps from the end, I started to suffer pain in my left arm and had to slow down in the final laps.
It was a pity because if it hadn’t been for that, I could have finished in the front group which wouldn’t have been at all bad! I have to solve this problem before Imola where I am sure I can do better.
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