Max Biaggi has further lengthened his lead in the World Superbike standings as he took a dominating and comfortable win in Race 2 at Misano.
The Aprilia rider had another excellent start and coming from 10th on the grid was up to fourth at the first turn and third by the end of lap one, he then smoothly picked off with two high precision overtakes Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes to take the lead on lap four and clear out putting more than a seven second margin between himself and the rest of the field and then coast to a 5.
5 second and his second victory of the day.
None of the field was able to match Biaggi’s impressive race pace as the higher track temperatures in Race 2 slowed lap times down, but this time tire choice played a less an important part in the final finishing order, as front end crashes from Sylvain Guintoli, Carlos Checa, Davide Gugliano, Eugene Laverty and Chaz Davies eliminated some of the expected battles in their rush to catch some of the front runners.
Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam took the second and third place on the podium, after chasing each other for almost the entire race distance, with Honda rider managing to skillfully avoid the unwanted attentions of Pocket Rocket.
Marco Melandri finished in a decent fourth after his DNF in race 1 after keeping an excellent Ayrton Badovini at bay – who took his best result of the season on the BMW satellite machine.
Melandri also went under investigation after he was accused of causing Carlos Checa to crash out on lap 4 at the Curva del Rio.
The Italian tried to punch his way through with an aggressive overtake on the unhappy Althea rider, but the Race Direction after reviewing the footage deemed it to be a normal racing incident and decided not to take any action.
The Goldbet BMW Italia team was also happy as Michel Fabrizio scored one of his best results so far this season finishing in sixth and keeping at bay Kawaski duo Tom Sykes who faded to seventh after leading the race and an excellent Loris Baz who charged up to eighth to try to engage in a battle with his team mate and Fabrizio.
Jakub Smrz finished in 9th ahead of wildcard rider Matteo Baiocco who closed out the top ten.
WSBK Misano Race 2 results:01- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 24 laps in 39’01.
86902- Jonathan Rea – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 5.
35503- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 5.
73104- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 7.
00405- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 7.
92106- Michel Fabrizio – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 17.
29107- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 17.
35108- Loris Baz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 17.
63009- Jakub Smrz – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 18.
21110- Matteo Baiocco – Barni Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 28.
13111- Maxime Berger – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 28.
40712- Hiroshi Aoyama – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 38.
06013- Niccolò Canepa – Red Devils Roma – Ducati 1198 – + 49.
00314- John Hopkins – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 51.
88115- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 55.
50216- Leandro Mercado – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 1’06.
36117- Federico Sandi – Grillini Progea Superbike Team – BMW S1000RR – + 1’29.
918