Cooler air and track temperatures during today’s World Superbike race 1 at the Motorland Aragon circuit and the incognita of which tires to choose turned the race into a two rider duel between Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri who set a punishing rhythm that the rest of the field couldn’t even begin to match.
Biaggi was the first to clear away after taking the lead from his team mate Eugene Laverty during the fourth lap, while Melandri was in third and still had to pass Tom Sykes and Laverty but after taking care of the two riders starting chasing after the Aprilia rider who already had 1.
3 second lead and was posting record race laps in his attempt to put as much room between himself and the following BMW rider who lowered his lap time to 1’58.
251 and reel in Biaggi.
After studying Biaggi for a few laps Melandri made his move on lap 16 and passed the Roman Emperor who regained the lead on the next lap and the two traded traded passing manoeuvres several times and both making mistakes at the braking marks of some of the blind turns as their tires were started to drop.
On the penultimate lap Biaggi passed Melandri on the long straight and started to defend his position as the BMW rider tried to no avail a counter pass at the first turn with the two almost touching but the Aprilia rider held his position to the finish line to take his third consecutive victory.
The two Italians finished ahead of the rest of the field by over nine seconds to testify the extraordinary pace that they had.
Ayrton Badovini who had been riding impressively and aggressively up to the last lap decided to try pass Tom Sykes on the inside at turn 4 and lunged at him but he touched the Kawasaki’s rider’s rear tire and sent them both crashing.
With both riders out, Carlos Checa gratefully inherited the third spot on the podium.
Chaz Davies was graced a fourth spot after spending a big part of the racing passing and fending off attacks and the rest of the field was strung out.
Eugene Laverty took fifth after having lead the race and he was four seconds from the satellite Aprilia rider.
Michel Fabrizio had an excellent run to sixith after escaping lap 1s first corner crash between Jakub Smrz and Jonathan Rea who had a bad start.
The Czech rider ended up in the medical center with a bruised knee and elbow, while the Honda rider was able to rejoin but he finished 16th.
Rea was previously second in the standings and his first lap incident gave Biaggi a 60 point advantage on Melandri who is now second.
Seventh went to Leon Haslam as he got shuffled down the field in the inital laps, while Davide Giugliano ended up 8th after making some costly mistakes and then faded, he was 10 seconds from the BMW rider.
Closing out the top ten was Leon Camier and Maxime Berger.
WSBK Aragon Race 1 results:1.
Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 39′51.
188 2.
Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 39′51.
466 3.
Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 40′00.
650 4.
Chaz Davies (ParkinGO MTC Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 40′02.
015 5.
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 40′06.
896 6.
Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 40′18.
785 7.
Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 40′20.
220 8.
Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 40′30.
562 9.
Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 40′32.
075 10.
Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 40′32.
628 11.
Niccolò Canepa (Red Devils Roma) Ducati 1098R 40′33.
244 12.
Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 40′33.
557 13.
Lorenzo Zanetti (PATA Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 40′33.
857 14.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 40′39.
198 15.
John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 40′40.
940 16.
Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 40′45.
778 17.
Norino Brignola (Grillini Progea Superbike Team) BMW S1000 RR 41′50.
841 RT.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 37′59.
942 RT.
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 38′00.
256 RT.
David Salom (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 37′42.
556 RT.
Leandro Mercado (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 20′25.
914 RT.
Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 17′07.
882 RT.
Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) Ducati 1098R