World Superbike Champs - Ducati fights back

Neukirchner, who rode all weekend with his right wrist in a lightweight plastic cast, qualified tenth in Superpole, fifth after the regular session, and had to take painkillers to allow him to race to the level he did on Sunday.

“For the races I only had a tablet from the doctor for the pain and yesterday I had a painkilling injection. Laconi crashed in front of me in race one, and also Cardoso. I went into Cardoso’s machine; my engine was still running so my bike was pushing his bike forward before I crashed. Then my engine died, so I had to bump start it. My position in race one was good, the second – well, that’s racing!”

Noriyuki Haga scored the first podium of the year for Yamaha at Silverstone, making it a stark contrast to the Superstock Series run in conjunction with the Superbike series. While superbikes are derived and very closely related to their roadgoing base machines, the superstock machines are meticulously prepared road bikes and Yamaha’s R1 is dominating that series and holds five of the top six placings. So Haga’s third place in race two was celebrated by Yamaha after a terrible start to the season. Even in race one, Haga was in contention for a rostrum spot until his bike began to go off song, eventually blowing and costing him any points and a certain sixth place on the standings.

Haga said after the race, “I am very happy to make a podium for Yamaha, relatively early in the season. It was a tough race for the first few laps with the other riders and I was losing the front a lot on the last few laps. But I have to be happy with a podium after our bad luck in race one.”

Race one was a tough contest for Andrew Pitt, who rode through the pain barrier after highsiding in the morning warm-up session and was further handicapped by having to complete a ride through penalty in the opener. Despite this he finished 13th in race one, backing it up in race two with a fighting ninth at a circuit he has little love for. “Abe shoved it into me in the last chicane, we both ran wide and he got me over the line”, said Pitt, adding, “there’s nothing you can do about that. “In race one the stop-and-go ruined things of course, but I carried on. It’s worth doing 28 laps to get even three points. I still don’t like the track, and I’m glad I don’t have to come back here for another year.”

A Silverstone rookie on any layout of the flat ex-airfield circuit, Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) had a clutch problem in race one but took eighth in race two after a tough pass on Pitt in the final chicane. “It was my first time racing on this track so I could not go as fast as everyone else on day one. But we improved all weekend and we changed our settings again from yesterday. They worked well, and gave me quite good feel. The rear grip was not so good in race one, I don’t know why, but then the clutch went and I retired. In the first lap a lot of riders crashed in front of me in race two so all the guys at the front were gone, but I still got eighth. Not so bad, but Haga was third on an R1, so I must try harder.”

His team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France was involved in a multi-rider crash, and chipped his left tibia, ruling him out of race two. “My ankle is broken after the crash, a chip on my tibia, which showed up on the X-ray,” said Gimbert. “It’s a chip, not a break right through, so I hope to be ready to race at Misano.”

The sixth rounds of the WSS and SBK championships take place at Misano Adriatico, on 26th June.

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