Silverstone WSB: Checa cruises to victory in race one

Carlos Checa cruised to a race one victory in today’s World Superbike round from Silverstone, claiming Ducati’s 300th win in the class for the Althea team.
 
Checa worked his way up from his fourth place on the grid before displacing Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty from the lead and winning by a margin of three seconds. But Checa was surprised with the result, saying that he expected Silverstone to be one of the toughest circuits of the season for him.
 
Checa said: “We’ve always been competitive but we know there are going to be some tracks that give us trouble and we expected that Silverstone would be difficult to be in front. Honestly, before the race I knew it wouldn’t be easy to win and it wasn’t easy at all. I had a little gap to the others, but I didn’t know this was going to happen.
 
“With Honda 500 I did their 100th victory, although I don’t remember so well because it was a long time ago. Then with Honda Superbike I did the 100th victory in America and now the 300th victory with Ducati. I didn’t expect it to be here, but it’s great to be apart of the history of Ducati.”
 
Laverty held onto second place after a late charge from Alitalia Aprilia’s Leon Camier was halted with three laps to go after a problem with his RSV4’s ride-by-wire sensor.
 
Laverty said: “Second place is enough for me today. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium, since I got the double victory at Monza. I didn’t want that to be a flash in the pan, I wanted to back it up with another brilliant finish here and second was all I could do today. Carlos had too much pace.”
 
Laverty’s Yamaha teammate Marco Melandri took the final place on the podium after Camier’s problem. But Melandri was less pleased with the result after experiencing a tyre problem and losing time fighting with Noriyuki Haga and John Hopkins.
 
Melandri said: “It’s been a very tough weekend for me, to get a podium is an awesome result. But I am a little bit disappointed because from the second lap I had big sliding and spinning on the left side of the tyre.
 
I spent a little too much time with Hopkins and Haga. Every time I was trying to pass them, they pushed very hard to pass me back so we lost a lot of time.”
 
Results of Silverstone World Superbike Race 1
 
1. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 38’06.477
2. Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) Yamaha YZF R1 38’09.781
3. Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) Yamaha YZF R1 38’11.259
4. Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 38’13.593
5. John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 38’17.534
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 38’28.376
7. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 38’28.785
8. Maxime Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 38’29.211
9. Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 38’31.968
10. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) BMW S1000 RR 38’32.202
11. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 38’32.321
12. James Toseland (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) BMW S1000 RR 38’52.055
13. Roberto Rolfo (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 38’58.127
14. Jon Kirkham (Samsung Crescent Racing) Suzuki GSX-R1000 39’03.787
15. Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 39’42.934
RT. Fabrizio Lai (Castrol Honda) Honda CBR1000RR 25’55.384
RT. Mark Aitchison (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 21’23.662
RT. Noriyuki Haga (PATA Racing Team Aprilia) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 19’05.488
RT. Jakub Smrz (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 13’49.436
RT. Alexander Lowes (Castrol Honda) Honda CBR1000RR 10’46.507
RT. Michel Fabrizio (Team Suzuki Alstare) Suzuki GSX-R1000 2’06.045