The Nurburgring has to be one of the best circuits to be on the World Superbikes calendar. It’s well organised, friendly, convenient and brilliant to watch at. Ignore the name and just take the circuit as it is - it'll never be the same as the magnificent original Nordschleife, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that, as a rider or as a spectator, it is a truly wonderful circuit. The sun shone for us all weekend and everybody was in high spirits.

As is so often the case, Qualifying went well for some but not for others...whilst lots of fast laps were made, there were also a few crashes...mainly from the guys who were under the most pressure.  However, the usual suspects qualified for Superpole, that being Checa, Corser, Haga, Rea, Fabrizio, Byrne, Crutchlow, Xaus, Haslam, Biaggi, Neukirchner, Smrz, Toseland, Lanzi, Guintoli, Sykes and Scassa. Newcomer Ian Lowry, filling in for the injured Chris Vermeulen and Roger Lee Hayden were both welcome additions to the Superpole bunfight.  

Sadly, Leon Camier crashed hard in Friday's qualifying, breaking his scaphoid and damaging his knee which left him unable to take any further part in the weekend, but we hope he recovers soon to join us again at Imola. He was scehduled to have surgery on Monday, and we wish him all the best.

In what rapidly appeared to be a trend for the rest of the weekend, Superpole one saw Corser crash but remount and set a fast time on his second machine, whilst Shane Byrne crashed and retired to the pits, not qualifying for superpole 2 along with Lowry and Hayden. Corser crashed again in superpole two after setting a brilliant time, but this time it sadly meant that he didn’t qualify for superpole three along with Xaus, who also crashed. Joining them in an early bath were Fabrizio, Crutchlow, Lanzi, Smrz, Neukirchner and Scassa. This left the final eight to battle it out in the third and final superpole for the front two rows of the grid.

After superpole three the grid looked like this: Biaggi, Checa, Toseland and Guintoli making up the front row with Rea, Haslam, Haga and Sykes in the second row. However, due to going out on track on a red light Xaus and Toseland were both penalised, which was no different to Xaus as he was already far down the grid, but moved Toseland to eighth on the grid and hugely affected his chances for the race the next day.

Race one started with Johnny Rea taking the lead from the first corner shortly followed by Checa and, surprisingly, Haga. However, the race was shortly red flagged as Haslam and Corser had a huge crash on lap one , getting oil and debris everywhere, but luckily they were both OK after spending a few moments collecting themselves. Haslam had highsided the Suzuki as he tried just a little too hard to make up for his poor grid position, leaving the luckless Australian nowhere to go apart from straight into the sliding bike.

So, the race re-started and Biaggi took the lead, but Checa took it straight from him and Rea took the lot of them into first place. Corser seemed to have some problems as he rode into Guintoli, knocking both the bikes into the gravel but luckily both riders stayed on and were able to continue with little ill effect.. Haga soon overtook Biaggi to come into third place with Sykes fourth after Biaggi ran wide. Unluckily for Toseland, he fell off at turn eleven on the second lap as he also pushed to make up for his poor grid position, ending his race.

Cal Crutchlow proved he’s got the pace by setting a new lap record on lap three, moving into fourth. Michel Fabrizio decided to join the parade of crashes and lost his bike on the first turn of lap five, however he managed to re-start and get back into the race. Max Neukirchner then crashed at turn eight and re-joined but entered the pits soon afterwards, disappointing for him at this, his only home round of the season.

Max Biaggi seemed to be all over the place, as he tried to overtake Tom Sykes but then immediately ran wide, allowing Sykes to get straight past again, putting the championship leader further down the track. Sykes, it must be said, was having a fantastic race as he put the Kawasaki further up the leaderboard than it has ever been, certainly this season.

Troy Corser had to enter the pits and retire from the race on lap seven, while Smrz joined list of crashes. Sadly, Haga also crashed on lap eight, which meant he had to pit in and ultimately retire due to damage caused. However, Haga crashing meant that Crutchlow moved up into third place, bringing Biaggi into fourth and the current runner up in the championship, Leon Haslam, sixth.

And that was pretty much the story for race one, leaving the end results as Jonathan Rea, Carlos Checa, and Cal Crutchlow on the podium, followed by Biaggi, Sykes, Haslam, Xaus, Guintoli, Byrne and Scassa. That's seven different makes in the first seven places, which says a lot about the way the rules are currently working.

Race two didn’t start with the drama of race one but did hold a surprise, as after Biaggi had a good start and was about to take the lead, Haga seemed to get his mojo back and overtake him in style.  Johnny Rea then flew through the inside to also overtake Biaggi, managing to keep second place.

By lap four Haga was still in the lead, with Crutchlow overtaking Biaggi on lap five and Biaggi running wide on lap six, allowing Haslam to overtake him and then go on to overtake Crutchlow. It seems that the only person who could take the championship from him being in front of him in the race put Biaggi off a little, as he then proceeded to run out of track and ride into the gravel. Corser ended the weekend on another bad note as he ran wide and let his position go, slipping further down the pack while Checa ended worse still by crashing on lap ten. Ian Lowry soon followed Checa and crashed out on lap eleven.

Ducati soon started being thankful for Haga’s very welcome return to form as Fabrizio had a mechanical failure and entered the pits, and the race ended with Haga still in the lead...one thing’s for certain, he knows he’s got something to prove – and he’s damn well proving it. Let’s hope he keeps it going and gets some offers rolling in for next season.

That left the end result as Haga in first followed by Johnny Rea, who rode brilliantly all weekend, with Haslam in third, allowing him to gain those precious points to start to catch up with Biaggi. Crutchlow finished in fourth followed by Biaggi, Guintoli, Sykes, Toseland, Xaus and Byrne.

Imola next, and with the season coming to an end there will be a lot of riders proving what they’re worth to keep their rides...let’s hope Camier’s healed and ready to race with them.

Race One

1 Jonathan Rea(Honda)
2 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
3 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
4 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
5 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
6 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
7 Ruben Xaus (BMW)
8 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
9 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
10 Luca Scassa (Ducati)

Race Two

1 Nori Haga (Ducati)
2 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
3 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
4 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
5 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
6 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
7 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
8 James Toseland (Yamaha)
9 Ruben Xaus (BMW)
10 Shane Byrne (Ducati)

Championship Standing after ten rounds:

1 Max Biaggi 397
2 Leon Haslam 339
3 Jonathan Rea 288
4 Carlos Checa 224
5 Cal Crutchlow 217
6 Nori Haga 202
7 James Toseland 187
8 Sylvain Guintoli 169
9 Leon Camier 164
10 Michel Fabrizio 160

LB