Max Biaggi took his first ever double victory in Superbikes at Portimao, winning the 2nd race in a very similar way that he took the victory in race 1, finishing again ahead of Leon Haslam by 0.
191s.
Getting the holeshot again, the Italian rider was closely followed by Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow.
The Northern Irishman got past Biaggi on lap 2 almost scraping the Alitalia livery paint from Biaggi’s Aprilia, but had to concede the first position back to the Italian on the straight and to the Aprilia’s superior speed.
Leon Haslam continued to study the duo in front of him until he pounced and got past Rea who ran wide, letting Cal Crutchlow take third.
Carlos Checa soon joined the leading group in 5th, but his Ducati 1198 F10 couldn’t quite keep up the speed of the four cylinder bikes ahead of him and the Spanish rider moved into fourth and kept the position till the end of the race after Rea’s Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR engine blew during lap 8 leaving him with a DNF.
With just five laps remaing in the race, Biaggi who was still leading, ran wide and both Haslam and Crutchlow came through, but Biaggi wasn’t going down easy, he passed both Crutchlow and Haslam on the straight and then went on to win, leaving the second spot on the podium to Haslam and third to Crutchlow.
Fifth place went to Biaggi’s teammate Leon Camier, his second fifth place of the day.
James Toseland took sixth after his 15th place start, Althea Ducati’s Shane Byrne came in 7th .
In a totally forgetable weekend for theXerox Ducati team, Noriyuki Haga came in 8th ahead of Sylvain Guintoli and BMW’s Troy Corser who once again faded on the race distance and finished the race in 10th, but showed the strength of German bike on the straight.
Portimao Race 2 Results:1 3 Biaggi M.
(ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1000 F.
38′06.
1282 91 Haslam L.
(GBR) Suzuki GSX-R1000 0.
1913 35 Crutchlow C.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 0.
6584 7 Checa C.
(ESP) Ducati 1098R 1.
0155 2 Camier L.
(GBR) Aprilia RSV4 1000 F.
3.
1236 52 Toseland J.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 9.
1317 67 Byrne S.
(GBR) Ducati 1098R 11.
0338 41 Haga N.
(JPN) Ducati 1098R 13.
4529 50 Guintoli S.
(FRA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 13.
96410 11 Corser T.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RR 16.
37711 84 Fabrizio M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R 26.
35112 111 Xaus R.
(ESP) BMW S1000 RR 27.
96413 66 Sykes T.
(GBR) Kawasaki ZX 10R 33.
56614 57 Lanzi L.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R 33.
82315 76 Neukirchner M.
(GER) Honda CBR1000RR 37.
37216 99 Scassa L.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R 45.
61117 95 Hayden R.
(USA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 56.
51218 15 Baiocco M.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 58.
98019 49 Tamada M.
(JPN) BMW S1000 RR 1′15.
81920 88 Pitt A.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1′41.
672 RET 32 Morais S.
(RSA) Honda CBR1000RRRET 96 Smrz J.
(CZE) Ducati 1098RRET 65 Rea J.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RRRET 31 Iannuzzo V.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RRGoing into round three (Valencia, April 11th) Haslam leads the championship with 85 points, Biaggi is second with 69 and Checa third with 60.
