German WSBK: Vermeulen wins, Corser falters, Lanzi stars

Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Chris Vermeulen won one race and finished second in another at Lausitz in Germany on the weekend, with Troy Corser’s championship point lead being cut to just 60 points with two rounds (four races) of the championship remaining. The race meeting will be remembered though for the birth of a new star in superbike ranks. Although he has featured in cameo appearances at the pointy end of major events a few times, Lorenzo Lanzi completed a sensational weekend for the Ducati Xerox Team as he stormed to the win in race two after being penalized with a ride-through in the first race. The 23-year-old Italian rider, made his debut for the factory team at the weekend in place of the injured Régis Laconi, took superpole in a blaze of glory and might even had a double win today, but for a mistake in the opening corner of the first race. Lanzi becomes the first Italian rider to win on a Ducati factory machine since Pierfrancesco Chili at Assen in 1998.

Lanzi missed a gear as the field went into Turn 1 just after the start and had to pass through the circuit banking, specially created by the organisers as the run-off area. The Italian rider re-joined the race in third position, thus not infringing any sporting regulation, but failed to negotiate the slow-down chicane in the run-off, judging it to be impossibly tight. For the penalty Lanzi had to go through the pit-lane at regulation 60 km/h speed limit and he re-joined the race at the required point, but this time in eleventh place. As Chris Vermeulen took the win, Lanzi eventually finished eighth.

One of the gutsiest performances of the day was that of championship leader Corser. Corser ran at the front of race one, happy to take third place and retain an enormous championship lead, but in the second race, the bike slid down while he was leading. He remounted, fired the bike up and carried on, dead last by a considerable margin. But he put his head down and managed to pick off 15 riders before finishing in 13th place, adding three valuable points to his tally, and with lanzi taking the 25 point haul for first place, Vermeulen only cut 17 points from Corser’s lead when it could very easily have been the full 25 points.

For Vermeulen, the meeting saw him take his third consecutive win – he is now the only rider with a mathematical chance of taking the title away from Corser.

Chris Vermeulen, Winston Ten Kate Honda: “We tested here in July and that’s maybe given us an advantage over the others. That said, conditions in the last few laps of race one were pretty dicey, so It was a good thing that they stopped the race. We did all our practice here in 35 °C track temperatures and now it’s at least 10 degrees cooler, so tyre choice was always a bit of a concern. In race two I got off OK but then it bogged down a bit. I pulled the clutch back in but then the bike’s front end came up and I ended up about eighth. It was a big job passing everyone, especially at this track. By the time I had to chase Lanzi down he had a big lead and my tyres were pretty shot.”

Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati Corse: “Vermeulen went a bit wide and as I was trying to take the turn I missed a gear and selected first instead of second, got the bike a bit crossed and went straight on. But I did what the regulations say for this track – I came back into the race in third place. The chicane should be made suitable for bikes, and it was impossible to get through due to its tight layout. I was also given the drive-through quite late after five or six laps, I wasn’t expecting it any more. I’m disappointed because my race pace was capable of taking me to the win”.

“A dream race and a dream weekend. I clearly tried to go at maximum pace throughout the race but also to have a race pace sufficient not to make any mistakes and keep the others behind. I saved my tyres until four laps from the end and then I pushed as hard as possible in the final laps to keep Vermeulen behind me. We showed in race 2 that we could win, and that we could even have won race 1 as well. I am so happy, it’s been a fantastic weekend. It’s the dream of every Italian rider to win a race on a Ducati and this weekend I was able to express all of my potential”.

James Toseland, Ducati Corse: “It was a difficult weekend, the second race was disappointing because I was catching them and then I lost the front at the first turn. I wasn’t doing anything particularly wrong and it was a pity because I felt I could have got closer to the guys at the front. We had a decent set-up but it wasn’t perfect and were unable to improve as much as we should have. We would have been racing at the front if I had stayed on but that’s racing. Congratulations for Lorenzo, it’s a dream come true. I feel sure we could have both been on the podium and it was certainly possible in that second race.”

Troy Corser, Alstare Corona Suzuki: “I was happy to take third spot in the first race after the problems with chattering during the race. We had changed our rear tyre on the start line and were running the same as Chris and Nori, but the tyre affected the set-up and along came the chatter. I also ran in a bit hot going into turn one early on and then had to get my rhythm settled again. That little mistake allowed Chris and Nori to pull out a small gap and it was impossible to catch them again, so I settled for third and a podium.

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