2011 Hannspree World SuperBike Championship Round 8, Brno, Czech Republic, July 10th Race Report

  MELANDRI AND BIAGGI TAKE A WIN APIECE AT A SUNNY BRNO

Infront of a 45,000 strong crowd, Marco Melandri (Yamaha WSBK Team) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) took a win each at the eighth round of the World Superbike Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic. In the opening race it was Biaggi who took to the front for the duration of the 20-lap race, until Marco Melandri made his move on the penultimate lap after the world champion ran wide allowing his arch rival to dive underneath him where he then rode a defencesive last lap to record his third win of the year. Although championship points leader Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) could match the times up at the front, he was unable to pass the Italian's resulting in him taking third. The second race of the day was a replica of race one, but this time it was Max Biaggi who would take the win ahead of Melandri and Checa, cutting the Spaniard's lead at the top to just thirty points.

Race One. It was an all Italian afffair in the first race of the day under the hot sun of Brno as arch rivals Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri fought tooth and nail for 20-laps, where the reigning world champion frequently swapped paint with Melandri's Yamaha on more than one occasion. It was on the pentultimate lap that Melandri bravely made his move on the Aprilia man, diving underneath him to take the lead where he held his composer to take win number three of the year. Biaggi bravely held on to second with Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa in third ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Alstare Suzuki) and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha WSBK Team) a ditant fourth and fifth. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Italia) was the fastest of the BMWs home in sixth while Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) overcame a poor start to lift himself up to seventh ahead of fellow countryman Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad) with the two factory Kawasaki's of Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes completing the top ten.

Race Two. The second race of the day saw world champion Max Biaggi deny Marco Melandri his first double win of the season with Carlos Checa a distant third. Michel Fabrizio took his second fourth place of the day ahead of Eugene Laverty and Ayrton Badovini who again beat the factory BMW of Leon Haslam for a second time today. A three way battle for eighth between Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing), Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati) and PATA Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga went all the way down to the wire where Lascorz and Guintoli would clash, but the result remained the same with Haga rounding out the top ten.

SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Gino Rea (Step Racing Honda) took his first win in the World Supersport Championship after a frustrating start to the season. The young brit fought a hard race at Brno at the teams home circuit where the race was red flagged on lap sixteen due to a crash. None the less Rea was well ahead of the rest of the field at the time of the incident as second place rider Fabien Foret (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) who started from pole position was some way off Rea. It was a double celebration for all the British fans who made the long journey to Brno as Chaz Davies (Yamaha ParkinGO) just managed to hold off Davide Salom (Kawasaki Motocard.com) for third.