Haslam and Fabrizio battle in Turkey

[totalmotorcycle]

#Haslam and Fabrizio battle in #Turkey


Pata Honda riders Leon Haslam and Michel Fabrizio each took two top ten finishes in today’s 11th-round World Superbike championship races at Istanbul Park in Turkey, where Irishman Eugene Laverty grabbed both race wins.



After a positive warm-up this morning, Halsam was surprised to find little grip from the rear of his CBR machine from the very first lap of race one and struggled to get within two seconds of his warm-up times. Attention was focused on his rear tyre in the post-race analysis and the 30-year-old was certainly able to improve his lap times in race two as he battled for eighth place at the flag.



His team-mate Michel Fabrizio continued his familiarisation with the Honda CBR1000RR and took two tenth place finishes, just missing out in a close finish (0.032s) with his team-mate in race one and continuing the improvement in his lap times in race two.



Leon Haslam – 9th and 8th



I just got a bad tyre in race one – simple as that - and there was nothing I could do. The boys tried to get me to box for a few laps and, with hindsight, I should probably have come in and changed the tyre to go and do some faster lap times. But the racer’s instinct kept me out and I got a ninth out of it, just beating Michel [Fabrizio]. I’m happy with my lap times in race two, even though I had a little less grip than we expected. That was down to some chassis changes that didn’t really work because we didn’t get the data from race one. My consistency was good though and my pace at the end was matching the top five, we just lacked a little bit of pace at the beginning.



Michel Fabrizio – 10th and 10th



It has not been an easy weekend but it was very important for me to finish both the races to find out as much as possible about the bike and how it works. For me, that was a positive and I really enjoyed riding the bike for the first time here. It has been a great experience to work with the team and I think we have made some progress but maybe not as much as we wanted. I look forward to riding again at Laguna Seca where I hope we can be closer to the front.



Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator



We hoped to see a little more from Michel in both races, but he is still new to the bike and learning how to get the best out of it. Hopefully, we can find some things to make this easier for him at the next race. Leon had a bad rear tyre from the start of race one, without any grip or any chance for a result. There’s not much more to say about that. He lost a little bit too much time at the start of race two but, from the middle of the race, Leon was doing some decent lap times, which was promising. We also found out some more interesting things which we will take to the next race.



2012 World Superbike championship, round 11

Istanbul Park, Turkey – 5.340km

Race 1 result (18 laps):

1 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia

2 Marco Melandri (ITA) BMW

3 Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki

4 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Aprilia

5 Davide Giugliano (ITA) Aprilia

6 Toni Elias (ESP) Aprilia

7 Jules Cluzel (FRA) Suzuki

8 Chaz Davies (GBR) BMW

9 Leon Haslam (GBR) Pata Honda

10 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Pata Honda

Race 2 result (18 laps):

1 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia

2 Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki

3 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Aprilia

4 Marco Melandri (ITA) BMW

5 Toni Elias (ESP) Aprilia

6 Chaz Davies (GBR) BMW

7 Jules Cluzel (FRA) Suzuki

8 Leon Haslam (GBR) Pata Honda

9 Davide Giugliano (ITA) Aprilia

10 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Pata Honda

Championship points after 11 of 15 rounds:

1 Sykes 323, 2 Guintoli 315, 3 Laverty 297, 4 Melandri 290, 5 Davies 239, 6 Loris Baz (FRA) Kawasaki180, 7 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Pata Honda 176, 8 Fabrizio 168, 15 Haslam 78

Next round: Laguna Seca, USA – 27-29 September