2011 WSBK
The 2011 World Superbike Championship finished up round three this past weekend at Assen in the Netherlands.
Race 1 went to Castrol Honda’s Jonathan Rea, the Northern Irishman capturing his seventh World Superbike career victory. Joining Rea on the podium was the reigning World Superbike Champion, Max Biaggi aboard the Alitalia Aprilia RSV4, and Carlos Checa aboard the Althea Ducati 1198.
The same riders also made it to the podium in Race 2 at Assen WSBK, but in a different order. Taking the win was Checa, which was his fourth of sixth in 2011 World Superbike. Finishing second once again was Biaggi, with Rea in third.
Following are some post-race stats and facts from Assen WSBK:
- Another great WSBK weekend for Carlos Checa: the Spaniard scored his third straight pole, has won four of the six races run in 2011 and has been on the podium in every race this season. It was Checa’s 25th all-time WSBK podium and he is currently on a ten-race streak in the points
- Jonathan Rea obtained his seventh career win in World SBK, reaching Ben Bostrom in 25th place. Jonathan also scored his 20th podium with third place in race two. The British rider has won three of the last four races run at Assen. With him Honda won its 110th race, second in the all-time rankings behind Ducati (295)
- Max Biaggi with two second WSBK places in Assen became the tenth rider in history to have scored at least 50 podium finishes. At the top of the list is Troy Corser, with 130 podiums;
- First career fastest lap both for Leon Camier and Tom Sykes. A Kawasaki hasn’t set a fastest race lap since Sugo 2000, eleven years ago: at the time the fastest in the race was Hitoyasu Izutsu
- First career WSBK points for Maxime Berger, thirteenth in race two
- Noriyuki Haga with a fourth spot in qualifying gained his first placement on the front row since the Imola races of two years ago
- First front row spot for Eugene Laverty
Supersport and Superstock
- First win for Chaz Davies in Supersport, in his nineteenth race and first fastest lap for Luca Scassa
- First Superstock 1000 pole for Sylvain Barrier, first win for Davide Giugliano in his 30th race and first podium for Danilo Petrucci. Ducati hasn’t won in Superstock 1000 since the Portimao round back in 2009
- First podium, pole and fastest lap for Jed Metcher in Superstock 600, first Australian to score pole in this category
- First win for Michael van der Mark: a Dutch rider hasn’t won in Superstock 600 since the 2007 Vallelunga race (Roy Ten Napel)
