Silverstone always used to be, frankly, a pretty boring circuit. Featureless and rather flat, as you might expect from an airfield, it was actually rather easy to get lost on because of the lack of reference points. And as a photographer it was a massive walk to get anywhere, as well as difficult to get into good positions because of the limitations inherent wth an older layout. More important for you, the reader, it was a bit expensive and again a bit restrictive as to where you could go. Well the owners have done something about all of these things. The circuit has been redesigned and an interesting new arena section has been added. Though much of the rest of the circuit has stayed the same, the actual course used has changed and it's a change very much for the better, I have to say. Yes, it's still a long walk to get anywhere, but at least there are good spots to get to for both photographers and the public. There are more stands in better positions and the overall viewing experience seems, to my jaded eyes anyway, to be much better.

Now with Donington's current woes ruling it out and Brands Hatch (or MSV anyway) having some sort of spat with InFront, the organisers of SBK, Silverstone is currently the only British round on the calendar. with the magnificent seven all hoping to rule the roost and sixty-five thousand people turning up to watch them do so. For once it stayed dry for the racing and wasn’t too windy, in fact it has been perfect for the heavy racing that these guys did.

Qualifying went well for Crutchlow, who qualified fastest, followed by Rea, Corser and Camier. Toseland qualified in fifth, Haslam eighth. Camier managed to end up in the gravel in the second session, and there were various other dramas around the circuit as the riders got to learn the layout. But no injuries, which is always good.

Superpole one saw Crutchlow go fastest while wildcard British Superbike rider Josh Brookes, Neukirchner, Parkes and Scassa failed to qualify for superpole two. Crutchlow was fastest again through the second session and Byrne, Checa, Guintoli, Sykes, Lanzi and Haga didn’t make the cut. Also not to qualify were Camier, whose best lap was discounted due to him running ‘too wide’ on a corner, and Toseland, who crashed out on one of his fastest laps and made his frustration and annoyance with himself very obvious. Understandable, perhaps, but something we'd more expect to have seen from John McEnroe or some premier league primadonna than one of the most professional riders in the paddock..

So, no surprises, Crutchlow was fastest through the final superpole, taking pole position. He was followed by Rea, Fabrizio and Smrz to make up the front row, with Haslam, Biaggi, Corser and Xaus making up the second row. This was to be the start of the weekend that is bound to have made Silverstone Cal Crutchlow’s favourite race track.

Race One problems started pretty quickly, as Xaus couldn’t get his bike started on the warm-up lap, but that drama soon passed and he joined the others to make his way back to the starting grid. Lap one saw Johnny Rea take the lead, closely followed by Crutchlow. On turn nine Parkes and Hayden crashed out, but both of them were fine. Haslam overtook Corser to start chasing Fabrizio, who then overtook Biaggi. Haslam then started to get on Biaggi’s tail in lap three, with Crutchlow waiting for the chance to overtake Rea. Biaggi ran wide on lap four, allowing everybody to go past him and ending up in fifth and Haslam set himself the task of overtaking Fabrizio into third place.

On lap six it seemed like Crutchlow had taken first from Rea, but with a good and clean overtake, Rea managed to take the top of the podium straight back later on in the lap. It then started to become clear that, for the first time since Assen, we were going to see an all British podium as Haslam overtook Fabrizio into third place.

Now, I’d quickly like to focus on somebody who was a little bit further down the pack than the top three, and that’s Leon Camier. Starting from sixteenth on the grid, he had immediately fought his way up and was, by lap nine, in front of Toseland and in sixth place, which is a pretty good achievement, considering how difficult it can be to work your way through the pack. He later went on to battle with Biaggi, sadly finishing after him but still showing a huge effort.

Back to the sharp end. Crutchlow overtook Rea on lap twelve and made it stick. On lap fifteen Checa and Toseland started to battle for seventh, but the battle was won by Checa on lap seventeen, leaving the final results to be, after a fantastic ride, Crutchlow first, Johnny Rea second and Haslam third, three British boys on the podium at the only British round this season. The rest of the results followed as so: Fabrizio fourth followed by Biaggi, Camier, Checa, Toseland, Byrne and Corser.

Race Two started with Johnny Rea taking the lead on the first corner with Crutchlow following in second, Biaggi third and Haslam fourth. Haslam soon overtook Biaggi but was overtaken straight back and Corser also decided to overtake Haslam at this point. Unfortunately, on lap two Corser crashed out on the first corner despite doing so well in the first lap. This left the top five by lap five as Rea, Crutchlow, Haslam, Biaggi and Toseland. Crutchlow kept trying to overtake Rea but didn’t seem to be succeeding, whilst Camier slowly crept up on them by catching up with Toseland and overtaking him.

Sadly Neukirchner retired from the race after having technical problems on turn three of lap seven, shortly followed on lap nine by Parkes after he crashed on turn seventeen. On a lighter note, Camier managed to overtake his team mate at this point as well. Camier then proceeded to stick his bike to the back of Haslam’s and overtook him on lap eleven. Fabrizio soon also had to retire due to mechanical problems on lap twelve, and on lap thirteen Biaggi ran wide letting Toseland and Byrne overtake him and giving us a British top six!

Sadly for Johnny Rea, Crutchlow finally managed to overtake him on lap sixteen and, despite overtaking him again, he ran wide and allowed Crutchlow to make it stick. Toseland briefly saw a glimpse of the podium as he got into fourth and started to chase Camier, but Haslam soon took him back and they battled until the very end, where Toseland narrowly lost it by running onto the grass. This left the end results as Crutchlow doing the double and having an all round top scoring weekend. Rea did the double in second, with Camier in third making lots of people very happy. They were followed by Haslam, Toseland, Biaggi, Guintoli, Byrne, Smrz, Checa and Xaus.

So, Crutchlow showed what he’s worth this weekend and will be celebrating tonight.

We’d also just like to congratulate team BMW and Ayrton Badovini for their championship win in Superstock 1000 and also Sam Lowes, who was the top private team rider in World Supersport, despite being a wild card rider! Also Luke Mossey, who won Superstock 600 as a wild card...I think there may be a few offers being made next year!!!

Nurburgring next...see you there!

Race One

1 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
2 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
3 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
4 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
5 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
6 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
7 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
8 James Toseland (Yamaha)
9 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
10 Troy Corser (BMW)

Race Two

1 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
2 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
3 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
4 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
5 James Toseland (Yamaha)
6 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
7 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
8 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
9 Jakub Smrz (Aprilia)
10 Carlos Checa (Ducati)

Championship Standing after ten rounds:

1 Max Biaggi 373
2 Leon Haslam 313
3 Jonathan Rea 243
4 Carlos Checa 204
5 Cal Crutchlow 188
6 James Toseland 179
7 Nori Haga 177
8 Leon Camier 164
9 Michel Fabrizio 160
10 Troy Corser 155

SB