TWO PODIUMS FOR AIRWAVES DUCATI
Leon Haslam achieved a 2nd and 3rd place finish in round
7 of the Bennetts British Superbike championship at Knockhill
today. Gregorio Lavilla had another tough day, coming 7th
in race one but failing to finish race two.
Race one was delayed by nearly an hour and was reduced in
distance to 24 laps due to torrential rain. Leon had dropped
to 4th place by the end of lap one but was battling with Leon
Camier for 3rd. He overtook on lap 8 and pushed hard to take
his fourth podium finish of the season. From 9th place on
the grid Greg had made up two places by lap 10; despite a
number of attempts to overtake Tom Sykes he could not improve
his position and passed the chequered flag in 7th.
Race two was also delayed and shortened to 26 laps. From
the start Leon moved into 3rd position behind the Honda’s
of Rea and Kiyonari. He worked hard to get back on terms with
2nd placed Kiyonari closing down a 4 second gap. The Honda
then had no response to the Airwaves Ducati’s move when
it came on lap 21, leaving Leon to pull away and take 2nd
place. Having dropped two places from the start Greg was working
his way up through the field when he slipped off on lap 3.
A clearly disappointed Greg commented afterwards, “I
knew this weekend would be hard but I was still hoping that
I could get two solid results here. In race one I tried my
hardest to overtake more people but this is such a tough track
to pass on that I was only able to make it up to 7th place.
Then in race two I touched the white line which caused me
to lose the front and I came off. I am really disappointed
as I think I could have worked my way through the field to
score some valuable points and maybe better my result from
race one but it was not to be. We will now go away and work
hard over the next couple of weeks and I will start to focus
on round 8 at Oulton Park.”
Leon was pleased with his result saying, “Today has
gone well considering how we were expecting to perform here.
It is not a great circuit for us, it is very difficult to
pass and the weather was pretty miserable too! Thanks to Dunlop
who gave me a tyre that worked really well and allowed me
to get two podium places. I want some more wins in the next
few rounds though; I can’t be letting Jonny Rea get
too many more than me! Oulton Park is one of my more favoured
circuits so I am looking forward to getting there in a couple
of weeks time and putting in a good performance to kick off
the second half of the season.”
Race One Result
1) Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda
2) Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda
3) Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati
4) Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia
5) Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki
6) Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia
7) Gregorio Lavilla – Airwaves Ducati
Race Two Result
1) Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda
2) Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati
3) Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda
4) Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia
5) Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia
6) Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki
7) Leon Camier – Bike Animal Honda
Championship Points
1) Ryuichi Kiyonari – 248
2) Jonathan Rea – 237
3) Gregorio Lavilla – 220
4) Leon Haslam – 205
5) Shane Byrne – 151
6) Leon Camier - 145
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