Results World Superbike-supersport, Valencia, Spain

[Andy]

Spanish World Superbike at Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Sunday April 11 2010 World Superbike and World Supersport race report Round Three

Weather: Dry

Temperature: 20 to 25 ambient, 29 to 46 track

REA TOP FIVE AGAIN AFTER TWO SOLID FINISHES

Championship leader Leon Haslam (Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) took the wins at the third round of the Superbike World Championship but two gritty rides from Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) put the Northern Ireland rider fifth in the points.

Jonathan went sixth in race one, fighting a lack of front-end grip on the notoriously fickle Valencia tarmac. The next best Honda finisher, Max Neukirchner (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR), was 13th. Both riders improved on their qualifying performances, with Rea seventh in Superpole on Saturday and Max 16th.

Race two only lasted for three laps before a crash involving two riders on the main straight stopped the contest, leading to a second leg over 20-laps and an aggregate final result. Rea had been second in the first race and restarted from that place on the grid.

Vittorio Iannuzzo (Squadra Corse Italia Garvie Image CBR1000RR) was involved in the crash that stopped the first running of race two, and hurt his right hand and ribs in the crash, ruling him out of the restart. He also crashed at post 2 on lap 13 of race one, losing the chance of scoring points today.

It was a hard day for another Honda rider, as Sheridan Morais (ECHO CRS Honda CBR1000RR) did not start the races, having had a painful crash in warm-up this morning to add to his big fall in Superpole 1 on Saturday. He was declared unfit by medical staff after hitting his head on the tarmac, but he did not suffer any serious injury.

Sheridan had been 20th in qualifying, the last rider to make it into Superpole.

Sofuoglu Second In Race and Championship At Valencia

In finishing second behind race winner Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) today front row qualifier Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda

CBR600RR) has put himself second in the championship, after 23-laps of changing fortunes for the leading riders at Valencia.

There have now been three different race winners this year, but for Phillip Island race winner Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) there was to be no chance to turn his pole position here into a win on raceday. Laverty was fifth, not having made the best tyre choice and slowly dropping off the pace after leading the race for the first five laps. The current top three in the ranking are Lascorz on 65 points, Sofuoglu on 61 and Laverty in 41. Chaz Davies (Triumph) was third today, and now sits fourth overall, on 33 points.

Gino Rea (Intermoto Czech Honda CBR600RR) overcame some serious issues in qualifying to take sixth in only his third Supersport World Championship race. He had been 12th on the grid, and overtook one last rider on the final corner to earn ten points.

Eighth on the grid, Michele Pirro (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) could not find good grip at the front and fell on lap three, remounting to finish 11th and score some points.

Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) rode bravely despite a heavy fall in practice, losing feeling in his left hand through the race. He recovered from 14th on the grid to 12th, the last finisher in a race that returned many no-scores.

Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Czech Honda CBR600RR) was one such rider, who fell heavily when he encountered a technical problem. He was taken to Clinica Mobile for medical checks but is not thought to have suffered any serious injury.

SBK Rider Quotes

Jonathan Rea, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: 6th and 5th - 5th overall.