Race one’s highside may have left Carlos Checa in the gravel, physically bruised and with a Ducati to rebuild, but for the reigning World champion it was a question of honour to return to the podium and the Spaniard did just that in race 2 at Phillip Island taking a very comfortable victory with six second margin over the rest of the field.
Taking off from third on the grid, the Althea rider took the lead on the fifth lap after disposing of early leaders Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea and just cruised to the finish line uncontested, but the star of the race was with no doubt, Aprilia’s Max Biaggi.
The winner of race one was hot on Sykes tail, but just at the first turn of lap one, ran highspeed into the gravel trap to avoid hitting Sykes rear tire and had to rejoin dead last with an big eight second gap to recover from.
The Italian didn’t loose hope and became a man on a mission as he began to carve through the field picking off and slipstreaming on the straight everyone in his path to take the second spot with still four laps to go, leaving Tom Sykes to take a distant third place.
Tom Sykes bagged the third spot at the finish line after battling with Honda’s Jonathan Rea whose rear tire was completely shot towards the end of the race.
Injured Leon Haslam impressed with his heroc fifth place, battling with his BMW team mate Marco Melandri who had chatterings issues with the higher track temperatures.
Maxime Berger was the first of the Effenbert Liberty Ducati riders in sixth, after Jakub Smrz ran off track early in the race to finish in 11th, while Sylvain Guintoli ran as high up as fourth before he too ran off track and dropped his Ducati against the tire fence trying to return.
Injured Eugene Laverty made a valiant run to seventh giving several riders a run for their money, while Honda’s Hiroshi Aoyama once again made into the top ten, but this time in 9th.
Other Superbike rookie Niccolò Canepa for Red Devils Roma brought his Ducati into tenth.
WSBK Phillip Island 2012 Race 2 results:1.
Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 34′26.
7282.
Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 34′32.
4353.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 34′39.
2494.
Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 34′39.
3835.
Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 34′44.
9076.
Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 34′45.
5597.
Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 34′45.
6678.
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 34′46.
2069.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 34′46.
28210.
Niccolò Canepa (Red Devils Roma) Ducati 1098R 34′53.
01711.
Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) Ducati 1098R 34′53.
20712.
Leon Camier (Crescent Fixi Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 34′55.
87313.
Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 35′03.
21014.
Lorenzo Zanetti (PATA Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 35′04.
84115.
Joshua Brookes (Crescent Fixi Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 35′09.
96216.
Bryan Staring (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35′10.
25417.
Raffaele De Rosa (Team Pro Ride Real Game Honda) Honda CBR1000RR 35′20.
657RT.
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 17′35.
557RT.
Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 15′42.
247RT.
Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 14′11.
367RT.
David Salom (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 12′50.
634RT.
Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 6′22.
268RT.
David Johnson (Rossair AEP Racing) BMW S1000 RR 6′32.
856RT.
Mark Aitchison (Grillini Progea Superbike Team) BMW S1000 RR 1′42.
222
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