Vermeulen And Lanzi Win at Eurospeedway WSB
Vermeulen And Lanzi Win at Eurospeedway WSB
An outstandingly unpredictable day of race action at EuroSpeedway Lausitz saw wins for championship challenger Chris Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda) and factory debutant, Lorenzo Lanzi (Xerox Ducati). Two of the youngest riders in the top echelons of Superbike, Vermeulen and Lanzi, both 23, were fast in practice and fast off the line, with Lanzi too quick into the first corner in race one. Vermeulen took that win from Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Championship leader, Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki). In the second race, Lanzi earned his first ever SBK race win; in his first ever race within a factory team, from Vermeulen and Haga. Championship leader Corser crashed out, but restarted to finish 13th.
For Vermeulen race one delivered him his third race win in a row, after a long fight with Noriyuki Haga, albeit in a race that was foreshortened artificially due the advent of a few spots of rain. Called a result at 20 of the 24 laps, Vermeulen won by 0.269 seconds from Haga, with Corser third. Lorenzo Lanzi, who had run on at the very first corner after his pole position start, rejoined the race 11th after a ride through penalty, yet worked his way up to eighth at the flag.
A Superpole winner at the first attempt in factory colours Lanzi became a race winner too, holding onto along term lead despite intense pressure from behind - from first Noriyuki Haga (who was third) and eventual second place man Vermeulen, who had to make his way through the pack from a slow start.
The end result of Corser?s lap two crash and eventual three points for 13th are that his championship lead has been slashed to a still impressive 60 points, with 100 up for grabs by Vermeulen if he wins all four remaining races.
James Toseland (Ducati Xerox) was a solid fourth in race one, albeit seven seconds behind the winner, but in race two he had an off track excursion and finished 11th, earning only five points. A better day was enjoyed by Qatar race winner Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki) who took fifth in race one and improved it to fourth in the second race. Karl Muggeridge was a faller in race one and restarted only to retire in the pits, but in race two he slowly faded from a good start as grip decreased, his imperfect machine set-up dropping him to fifth. A brace of sixth places, his pace affected by chatter, were the reward for Yamaha Motor Italia rider Andrew Pitt, who also had tyre choice issues to deal with, largely because the track temperature in race one was considerably cooler than in qualifying.
Feeling the pressure from his home race commitments, local SBK rookie Max Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda) took two seventh places, results he was not disappointed with. He won a personal battle with Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) in race two, and was three seconds clear of Lanzi?s race one charge. Ben Bostrom (Renegade Honda KOJI) took a tenth place in race one, but a malfunctioning clutch in race two dropped him to fifth. Pierfrancesco Chili (Klaffi Honda) had an engine failure in race one, recovering on his spare bike in the second race to take tenth, one place ahead of a recovering Toseland.
Once more the trend of Petronas riders having differing results in each race continued, as Steve Martin finished two laps down and 18th in race one but took an impressive ninth in race two. In the first race Garry McCoy had been the leading Petronas runner, taking 11th before he was forced to retire in the pits in race two.
http://www.superbike-news.co.uk/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=4384&z=4
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