French World Superbike Results: Round 13 from Magny Cours
Haga Extends Points Lead Ahead of Portimao Showdown
Noriyuki Haga showed he could attack for the championship lead as well as defend it by taking a 2nd place and a win in the French round of the World Superbike Championship at Magny Cours today. Haga narrowly missed the double after spending too long behind double podium finisher Max Biaggi on the fast Aprilia in the first race but led the second race almost flag to flag.
Race 1
Haga made a reasonable start from the second row but quickly found himself in 3rd position behind Max Biaggi whilst Spies scampered away up at the front. Jonathan Rea was clearly going to be a player on the Ten Kate Honda but an engine failure took him out of the race. Haga spent far too long behind Biaggi’s Aprilia whilst the inch perfect Roman used the superior drive off the turns and top speed to keep Haga’s heart stopping late braking at bay.
Eventually he made a mistake and Haga set off after Spies with his head down. He so nearly took victory slowly closing up over the last 6 laps to finish just 0.2 seconds behind the Texan. In his post race interview he lamented that there wasn’t one more lap but promised a show in the 2nd race!
Ben Spies 1st:- “I had some good parts of the race and some bad ones. We made a lot of very small mistakes, but I was taking care to make it easy when I had the cushion. I didn’t take advantage of it and almost ruined the lead because they all came back to me. On the last lap I made another mistake and I knew that with me running wide, he probably went in a little bit tighter than normal and I would get him on the outside. It paid off!”
Noriyuki Haga 2nd:- “If only I had one more lap something would have happened for sure! I made a mistake at the start because there was some problem with the bike. I just gained in the middle of the race in the top 3 and tried to start pushing. On the last lap I was thinking that Ben would make a mistake somewhere for sure and then he did at one corner. I almost passed but we made a good race anyway.”
Max Biaggi 3rd:- “I give it my best but I saw that Ben could do high 38s in the warm-up and that was very difficult for us. During the first part of the race I pushed hard and had a good tyre, I was fast in some parts of the track but not in others. But overall I’m near maximum. Then I made a mistake when Nori came, I put a wrong gear and he overtook me, but overall Aprilia and myself made a very good race.”
Magny Cours Race One Results: 1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 37’57.110 (160,392 kph); 2. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 0.181; 3. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 5.009; 4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 16.347; 5. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 22.622; 6. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 24.948; 7. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 27.144; 8. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 27.578; 9. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 28.486; 10. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 28.716; 11. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 52.680; 12. Baiocco M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’01.372 ; 13. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’05.123; 14. Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’05.483; 15. Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1 1’05.672; 16. Resch R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’29.284
Race 2
Haga made a much better start and got into the lead quickly and was never headed. He showed his hunger for the championship as he resisted pressure from Rea and Biaggi but this time Spies stayed in 4th for the race and faded dramatically towards the end. Haga was happy to extend his lead to 10 points over Spies in the race for the championship which will now go down to the wire at Portimao, Portugal. Spies has only briefly held the championship lead despite winning 13 races but those victories will mean that Haga must beat Spies at Portimao as trading victories would give Haga and Spies equal points but Spies would be awarded the championship based on his higher number of wins.
Noriyuki Haga 1st:- “For sure this is an important win for me. Especially after Nurburgring I don’t sleep every night because I am always thinking about the position in the championship. I’m really happy with this second place and win, my chief engineer made a good setting for race 2 and the feeling was good for race pace distance. I couldn’t make an advantage from Max and Johnny but concentrated on the last laps to take this win, which gave the Manufacturers’ title to Ducati.”
Max Biaggi 2nd:- “I’m very happy and it was a very hard race. From the beginning everyone was fast, the top 4 or 5 were at a very similar pace. I had a good rhythm, I followed Nori, he looked very confident, I was wondering if he could keep the pace until the end and I got my answer because he was still lapping well. At the start of the race someone ran off the track and a big stone broke my window and I was worried that the radiator was broken. I started to push again and for me it was a good race.”
Jonathan Rea 3rd:- “All weekend we just haven’t been able to put it all together. The bad luck we had in race 1 certainly ruined my rhythm and I had a bit of arm pump at the end because it was hard to jump into a race distance straight away. I rode fantastic at the front and was with those guys until five laps to go but couldn’t hold onto the back of them. The package I had was as strong as in Imola, we’ll go back to the workshop and come back strong at Portimao.”
link: WorldSBK.com
Spies was philosophical about his poor result (for him) and consequent further loss of ground to Haga stating he knows he just needs to win both races at Portimao.
Ben Spies 4th:- “I tried as hard as I could in that second race, but just went backwards,” a disappointed Spies said. “It’s unfortunate, but we got some sort of faulty [front] tire in the second race. It was a bad time for that to happen, but it’s part of racing. It felt like I had a motorhome tire on the thing and there was nothing I could do. With the way I had to ride I was fortunate to be able to finish in the top-10, so I feel very lucky to get fourth. “This makes the equation very simple for me at Portimao. I’ve been in this position before where I needed to win to earn a championship, so it’s not new.”
link: Cycle News
Magny Cours Race Two Results: 1. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 38’00.282 (160,169 kph); 2. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1.480; 3. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 6.024; 4. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 18.135; 5. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 21.236; 6. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 23.647; 7. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 23.701; 8. Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 24.838; 9. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 31.455; 10. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 32.507; 11. Nieto F. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 37.594; 12. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 44.727; 13. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 49.782; 14. Baiocco M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 50.345; 15. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 56.209; 16. Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 58.796
The final round of the championship will be held at the spectacularly undulating circuit of Portimao, Portugal on October 25th.
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