WSBK: Phillip Island 2012 (SPOILER)

[vtrandall]

Max's come from behind reminded me of the 2003 PI race where Rossi got a 10 sec penalty for passing under a yellow and then just proceeded to win the race with more than a 15 sec lead.

I'd like to see what Rea's rear tire looked like after that 2nd race...


oh and the video feed looked like proper HD this time compared to last year's blurfest

[Motopsycho]

unbelievable ! congrats to Max and Aprilia, it doesn't get much better than that.

[JC120]

Wow, what a race. Just what I wanted to see

[igotyofire]

Wow, what a race. Just what I wanted to see

Makes me more happy with my RSV4 purchase....very few riders are capable of what max did today. Just for shits in giggles I think he should get a wild card CRT ride on one of the Aprilias at the end of the season

[hank]

My personal impressions:

The Kawi's are very impressive relative to their previous efforts.

The Honda's are also much improved, but not as much as one would expect from HRC.

Carlos has lost some weight and will do well again this season. I don't care what anyone says, Ducati's 'non-development' development budget would make a nice retirement nest egg for anyone on the planet.

Damn the BMW's have legs, too bad they still need some more work on handling. Marco's girlfriend is a hottie!!!

A determined Max is a very capable Max - good to see him recover so spectacularly... very impressive.

It might be a 2 horse race this year - yeah, Max and Carlos are just that good, proving (yet again) OLD DUDES ROCK!

[potere]

Carlos proved last year he has the superior attitude and can be awesomely consistent. These are not traits Biaggi showed last year nor has shown since 2001 when Monsieur le Docteur came into his own during his 2nd year in MotoGP (wins: R-11, B-3) and whupped Biaggi into submission as he seemed to do also to Senor Gibernau. Biaggi's obvious talent takes back seat to his volatile and sometimes childish level of control over his emotions. Now, if he learns to control that like he can control a back tire, we are in for a great season.

[zvez]

well don't you think Biaggi is off to a good start? Both his rides were superb and to recover as he did in race 2 instead of being rattled like the old biaggi might have been.

Carlos proved last year he has the superior attitude and can be awesomely consistent. These are not traits Biaggi showed last year nor has shown since 2001 when Monsieur le Docteur came into his own during his 2nd year in MotoGP (wins: R-11, B-3) and whupped Biaggi into submission as he seemed to do also to Senor Gibernau. Biaggi's obvious talent takes back seat to his volatile and sometimes childish level of control over his emotions. Now, if he learns to control that like he can control a back tire, we are in for a great season.

[OZSLR]

I think he should get a wild card CRT ride on one of the Aprilias at the end of the season

Given he set a best of 1.31.8 in R1 and could bank them consistently at or under 1.33, even with a track temp in thew high 40C for race 2, I'd say he'd be running in the first half of the field.

Also broke the lap record in R1, beating Corsers time from 2007.

[rx7tt95]

Who was the blond hottie in the Aprilia outfit? Oh yeah, great second race by Max. Was like he was on a moto gp bike compared to the other WSBK spec machines. Hoping Laverty's getting similar gear and he heals nicely and gets on with the Ape.

[bramo]

Great riding by Biaggi but unfortunately he confirmed his reputation as a grade A cock. Didn't acknowledege the crowd once on either vicory lap and then apperently abused his team after race 2. Apparently it was there fault he ran off the track!

[Diablo1]

Apparently it was there fault he ran off the track!

Did his brakes fail causing him to run straight in the turn? Looked like he had no brakes to me.

[jpbits]

Must've been an imposter in biaggis leathers when he was waving at us after race one then

[ckruzel]

haters gonna hate, people that don't like biaggi will pick on him even when he has an amazing ride, biaggi loves his fans! he even admitted that he hit his brake lever on the kawi in his podium interview, it seemed when they showed the kawisaki traction control may have been dialed up a bit as the tc was always kicking in on the corners, it looked like that might have happened in T1

[quadracer]

I DVR'd the race, and I'm watching it right now. Biaggi looks sharp, hopefully he can keep it together. I'm waiting for the BMW front to pogo Melandri into the grandstands!! Holy Sh*t is that rough. Props to him for keeping at it on that buckin' bronc!!

[ckruzel]

Did not take long for Ducati to start whinning!
Phillip Island WSBK: Althea boss blasts weight rule
26/02/2012


Bevilacqua believes Biaggi will be hard to beat while carrying around a weight penalty

By WSB desk
Image by GeeBee Images

Althea Ducati boss Genesio Bevilacqua has blasted the weight penalty handed out to his team under the FIM's parity rules after Aprilia's Max Biaggi came through from dead last to take second spot on the podium in yesterday's second World Superbike race.

The Roman Emperor, who enjoys a 15km/h top speed advantage over Checa, took to the grass at 140mph going into Doohan's on lap one, re-joined the track and came back through the field to finish just seven seconds behind Checa. Bevilacqua is calling into question whether the penalty will hand Biaggi an unfair advantage.

“After the crash in race one, we were worried that Carlos may be hurt but thankfully he wasn’t and was able to concentrate on the second race. I was disappointed to see that there are riders that can start from last position and finish second, while we are penalized with six extra kilos of weight. It will be hard to overcome this difficulty this season, even with a rider, a champion, of Carlos’ calibre," he said.

Haven't we seen this somewhere before. Mr Wright?

bring out the holy grail panagale then, its supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread