WSBK Portimao: Marco Melandri says good-bye to Yamaha Racing with a win in race 2

The final race of the final round of the 2011 World Superbike season at Portimao was a sort of slap in the face towards Yamaha who announced in August that they would pulling out of the series, as the win went to Marco Melandri, who took his fourth victory of the season, while team mate Eugene Laverty was second.

Jonathan Rea again the holeshot with Eugene Laverty, Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa hot behind him.

The Castrol Honda tried to put a distance between the rest of the field, but the Yamaha riders wouldn’t let him escape as the Irishman caught both Melandri and Rea on lap 2 and lead the race for almost its entirety, until Melandri with a lighter tank began to hunt him down and then passed him with four laps to go and ultimately would cruise to victory, while Laverty had his hands full with an aggressive Rea.

The Castrol Honda rider made a couple of hard moves, but Laverty fended him off with his own hard moves and kept him at bay to the finish line to take second and three tenths of second ahead, however Laverty’s efforts weren’t enough to keep his third place in the standings which returned to Max Biaggi, as the Italian took seventh under the chequered flag.

Reigning World Champion and race 1 winner Carlos Checa, just didn’t have the fast race pace of the three front runners as he trailed them for the 22 lap race to finish fouth, Sylvain Guintoli who put in amazing performance in the earlier race also didn’t have the pace to stay with Yamaha’s and Honda and he took fifth.
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Leon Camier not only managed to keep his hard charging and now ex-Aprilia teammate Biaggi behind him, he finished two seconds ahead of the recovering Italian.
Joan Lascorz came home in eighth, followed by rookies Ayrton Badovini and Maxine Berger.
WSBK Portimao Race 2 results:01- Marco Melandri – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R1 – 22 laps in 38’11.
32602- Eugene Laverty – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R1 – + 1.
07503- Jonathan Rea – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 1.
36304- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 2.
64805- Sylvain Guintoli – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 3.
35506- Leon Camier – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 4.
70907- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 6.
51408- Joan Lascorz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 14.
44109- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia – BMW S1000RR – + 19.
12810- Maxime Berger – Supersonic Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 25.
52711- Noriyuki Haga – Pata Racing Team Aprilia – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 26.
40012- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 26.
64613- Jakub Smrz – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 26.
96314- Michel Fabrizio – Team Suzuki Alstare – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 30.
02915- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 30.
95116- Troy Corser – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 31.
05717- Karl Muggeridge – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 57.
94118- Josh Waters – Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 58.
57719- Javier Fores – BMW Motorrad Italia – BMW S1000RR – + 1’04.
01120- Mark Aitchison – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 1’04.
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