MISANO FRUSTRATION FOR HASLAM
LEON HASLAM battled to 12th and eighth place finishes in Sunday’s two races of round eight of the World Superbike Championship at the Misano circuit in Italy.
Haslam was as high as fourth place in the opening race - started in wet conditions - prior to him making his pit stop to change to his second machine, once the 2.62-mile circuit had dried out. He rejoined in 15th place with four laps of the 24 to go and fought his way into 12th.
An intermittent electrical problem in the second race led to Haslam climbing as high as sixth place before being relegated to as low as 10th due to the fault and he eventually was pipped for seventh place on the final lap.
"Overall it was a day to forget," said Haslam. "In the first race I was recording the same lap times as the podium finishers - both in the wet and dry parts of the race - but problems with the machine ultimately determined where I would finish.
"In the second race I had a problem with the throttle and I only really got five or six laps with any sort of consistency - one of them was as good as Johnny Rea's best lap and he went on to win.
"All in all it feels like a bit of a disastrous day but at least we got back to finishing races again and there's only a few days until the next round and it's a bonus being at my home track of Donington Park.
"We had a really good team meeting on Sunday night and made a plan which should improve our performance and the race results by the time we get to round nine at Donington next Sunday."
World Superbike Championship, round eight, Misano, San Marino.
Race results (both races 24 laps - 101.424km/62.984 miles):
Race one: 1 Ben Spies, USA (Yamaha) 45m 02.773s - 135.093kmh/83.893mph, 2 Shane Byrne, GB (Ducati) +7.931, 3 Michel Fabrizio, Italy (Ducati) +11.836s, 4 Jakub Smrz, Czech Rep. (Ducati) +11.886s, 5 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Ducati) +31.670s, 6 Yukio Kagayama, Japan (Suzuki) +33.241s, 7 Jonathan Rea, GB (Honda) +35.772s, 8 Tom Sykes, GB (Yamaha) +41.931s, 9 Shinya Nakano, Japan (Aprilia) +51.507s, 10 Matthieu Lagrive, France (Honda) +59.921s. 12 Leon Haslam, GB (Stiggy Racing Honda) +1m 04.313s.
Race two: 1 Jonathan Rea, GB (Honda) 39m 11.204s - 155.293kmh/96.437mph, 2 Michel Fabrizio, Italy (Ducati) +0.063s, 3 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Ducati) +0.457s, 4 Jakub Smrz, Czech Rep. (Ducati) +3.635s, 5 Carlos Checa, Spain (Honda) +4.460s, 6 Shane Byrne, GB (Ducati) +4.538s, 7 Tom Sykes, GB (Yamaha) +12.679s, 8 Leon Haslam, GB (Stiggy Racing Honda) +12.763s, 9 Ben Spies, USA (Yamaha) +13.237s, 10 Max Biaggi, Italy (Aprilia) +14.412s.
World Championship points after eight of 14 rounds: 1 Haga 292, 2 Spies 244, 3 Fabrizio 237, 4 Rea 167, 5 Biaggi 135, 6 Haslam 134, 7 Sykes 130, 8 Checa 109, 9 Smrz 108, 10 Kiyonari 98.
Manufacturers points: 1 Ducati 351, 2 Yamaha 287, 3 Honda 240, 4 Aprilia 142, 5 Suzuki 128, 6 BMW 62, 7 Kawasaki 41.
Next round: Donington Park, GB - June 28 2009.
Ends.
2009 World Superbike Championship: 1. March 1 - Phillip Island, Australia; 2. March 14 - Losail, Qatar; 3. April 5 - Valencia, Spain; 4. April 26 - Assen, Holland; 5. May 10 - Monza, Italy; 6. May 17 - Kyalami, South Africa; 7. May 31 - Salt Lake City, USA; 8. June 21 - Misano, San Marino; 9. June 28 - Donington Park, GB; 10. July 26 - Brno, Czech Republic; 11. September 6 - Nurburgring, Germany; 12. September 27 - Imola, Italy; 13. October 4 - Magny-Cours, France; 14. October 25 - Portimao, Portugal.