Superbikes Australia 2012: victory for Carlos Checa and comeback for Max Biaggi

After the victory of Max Biaggi and the fall of Carlos Checa in the first race, we were all still in front of the television waiting for the Second race of the Australian appointment of Superbike World Championship on Phillip Island.

After the traffic lights went out, Tom Sykes and Max Biaggi, who started first and second, reached the first corner locked. Max Biaggi went straight thus avoiding ramming the Kawasaki but losing all options when rejoining in last position, specifically the twenty-fourth. Are you sure you had lost all options? Well not because the Roman was in store for us a comeback of the good ones.

Thus, Tom Sykes passed the finish line first followed by Jonathan Rea, Carlos Checa, Leon Haslam, Sylvain Guintoli and Joan Lascorz, also from Spain. A couple of laps later, Jonathan Rea and Joan Lascorz took the lead and took first and fourth positions with Carlos Checa and Tom Sykes among them. Leon Haslam and Sylvain Gintoli were losing a bit and would go on to join a second platoon along with Marco Melandri, Maxime Berfer, Eugene Laverty, Hiroshi Aoyama.

On the fifth lap, Carlos Checa, with a better rhythm, went on to attack and occupied the first position, slowly beginning to distance himself from Jonathan Rea who was unable to keep up with the Spanish. A little later, on the ninth lap, Sylvain Gintoli did a straight and when it seemed that he had saved, he went to the ground and had to retire. A couple of times before it had been David Salom the one who had to retire.

This favored Max Biaggi because where was the Aprilia? Then I was already rolling sixth, incredible, on the tenth lap. He had just reached the second group just as a little ahead he was going also to the ground the Spanish Joan Lascorz that until then he was having a magnificent career.

Followed by the cameras, we were able to start enjoying the power of the Aprilia in the area of ​​the Gardner straight, where he literally had a snack (or for us he had breakfast) the rest of the bikes on the grill. It even had the audacity to overtake the BMW S1000RR, perhaps the other most powerful bike, for performance. In this case it was Marco Melandri who was outmatched, giving fourth position to the corsair.

On lap sixteen we witnessed the only time when someone on the grid managed to stand up to Max Biaggi in his comeback. Tom Sykes and his Kawasaki were going to sell their position on the podium dearly. And so it was because they were advancing and reviewing throughout the return, even touching between the fairing of the Japanese motorcycle and the brake lever of the Aprilia. Max Biaggi finally managed to overtake him and put his target on Jonathan Rea, who was rolling a couple of seconds ahead. In spite of all this, Carlos Checa was still first, standing out and riding relatively calmly, even allowing himself to slow down a bit.

On lap 18, Max Biaggi finally contacted Jonathan Rea and passed him without difficulty. ANDhe Roman culminated his comeback from the twenty-fourth position to the second and entered the finish line behind Carlos Checa, which was done with this second race while the Italian leaves Phillip Island as the leader of the general classification.

But behind it was not over. Tom sykes he had managed to hunt down Jonathan Rea with enough tire problems judging by the skidding he made and after a last lap in which the Honda one looked like a handball goalkeeper covering all the gaps, Kawasaki's He gambled everything on a card in the very fast turn into the finish line and got the third position. Jonathan Rea was fourth followed by Leon Haslam (operated on Thursday for a fractured tibia, WOW!), Marco Melandri, Maxime Berger and Eugene Laverty.