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World Superbikes 2nd Round
29/3/10
The World Superbikes took to Portimao in Portugal for Round 2 of the Championship on Sunday 28th March.
Aprilia Alitalia rider Max Biaggi took a double win, but his team mate Leon Camier – reigning British Superbike Champion and 1 Degree Sports Personality of the Year 2009 – was equally impressive. Securing 5th in both races, Leon now lies 8th in the series standings with 32 points.
At the start of the first 22 lap race, Leon not know for his starts made up a couple of places from 11th on the grid, continuing to forge his way up to 6th. With just three laps to race, a fall by Cal Crutchlow, gained Leon a place. He continued to push hard, but missed out by just 0.1s to Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) who worked hard to take fourth.
Leon had an even better start to Race Two, finishing the opening lap in 6th. He enjoyed a number of battles during the first half of the race and by the mid-point, was sitting comfortably in 5th once again. Lapping significantly quicker than the leaders ahead of him, Leon chased down the top 4, but ran out of time to make up any more places. Interestingly, and encouragingly, he beat his former BSB Ducati team mate Shane Burne, who finished 6th and 7th respectively on his Ducuati 1098R.
After the two races Leon said, “First I want to congratulate my teammate Max and the whole Alitalia Aprilia team on their double win today. They really deserved it.
Today’s been pretty hard work, coming from 11th on the grid to finish 5th meant passing a lot of fast riders. It’s a little frustrating as in both races I had good pace towards the end, I was getting faster and faster and could see I was reeling in the guys out front. Going forward, I know I need to improve on my qualifying performance and my race starts in order to be right up there with them. I’m now really looking forward to the next Round in Valencia. The plan will be to piece it all together, and hopefully we should be really strong.”
1 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1000 F. 38'06.128 (159,084 kph)
2 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Suzuki GSX-R1000 0.191
3 35 Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 0.658
4 7 Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1.015
5 2 Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 1000 F. 3.123
6 52 Toseland J. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 9.131
7 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 11.033
8 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 13.452
9 50 Guintoli S. (FRA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 13.964
10 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 16.377
11 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 26.351
12 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 27.964
13 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX 10R 33.566
14 57 Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 33.823
15 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Honda CBR1000RR 37.372
16 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 45.611
17 95 Hayden R. (USA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 56.512
18 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 58.980
19 49 Tamada M. (JPN) BMW S1000 RR 1'15.819
20 88 Pitt A. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1'41.672
RET 32 Morais S. (RSA) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R
RET 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 31 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR
