Carlos Checa gave himself a great birthday gift (he turned 39 yesterday) by taking another victory, his 15th of the season by taking the win in race 1 at Portimao.
The Althea Ducati rider who still has announce where he’ll be in 2012, had to hunt down a surprisingly fast Sylvain Guintoli to claim the win.
Polesitter Jonathan Rea got the holeshot followed by Guintoli coming off the second row, but the French rider was riding aggressively and on the third lap took the lead from the Castrol Honda rider who couldn’t match his pace.
Guintoli was running in the front with more than a 2 second lead, while the reigning World Champion began to dispose first of Marco Melandri and then of Jonathan Rea as he started to hunt down the his fellow Ducati rider.
With just three laps to go Checa caught the Effenbert Liberty rider and just went around him with a slight leg wave, and then cruised to a 2.
860 second margin victory, leaving the impressive and much disappointed Guintoli with second place.
Rea completed the podium in a lonely third, while Max Biaggi who starting in lowly 17th was already 9th before the end of lap 1, and finished in fourth after passing rival Marco Melandri who was fastly fading with tire issues and then Joan Lascorz in the final laps.
Rookie Maxine Berger impressed with 7th position finish which included a double pass on Noriyki Haga (15th) and Leon Haslam who concluded his race in 9th behind Tom Sykes.
Jakub Smrz rounded out the top ten.
Eugene Laverty who will be on a Aprilia next season was riding in third when his Yamaha gave a big wobble and almost running into team mate Melandri and had to pit and then re-joined to finish in 19th, 2 laps down.
WSBK Portimao Race 1 results:01- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – 22 laps in 38’13.
29302- Sylvain Guintoli – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 2.
86003- Jonathan Rea – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 8.
48104- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 11.
96305- Joan Lascorz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 13.
33306- Marco Melandri – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R1 – + 18.
96007- Maxime Berger – Supersonic Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 20.
48908- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 25.
32009- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 26.
69510- Jakub Smrz – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 26.
80111- Michel Fabrizio – Team Suzuki Alstare – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 27.
11512- Leon Camier – Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 28.
56313- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia – BMW S1000RR – + 31.
76514- Troy Corser – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 31.
82215- Noriyuki Haga – Pata Racing Team Aprilia – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 31.
86616- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 47.
69417- Mark Aitchison – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 47.
73718- Karl Muggeridge – Castrol Honda – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 1’06.
21319- Eugene Laverty – Yamaha World Superbike Team – Yamaha YZF R1 – 2 laps20- Santiago Barragan – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – 3 laps21- Josh Waters – Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 –4 laps