Aprilia Max Biaggi leads World Superbike going into Misano Adriatico
World Superbike have completed six rounds: Phillip Island, Imola, Assen, Monza, Donington Park and Miller Motorsport. Looking back at Assen, Biaggi was leading the championship by just one point. Now with 6 rounds completed, Biaggi still leads but with 18 points advantage. Second position is still an open battle between Marco Melandri, Tom Sykes, Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa.
This is how World Superbike started (looking at Phillip Island, Imola and Assen):
Biaggi won Phillip Island race one and maintained Top 5 finishes in all 3 rounds while Checa won 3 races but had one DNF in Phillip Island. Sykes was in the championship fight but mixed results in a wet Assen dropped him far from the lead. After Assen, Melandri, Rea, Haslam and Guintoli were all very close in points with 66, 65, 58 and 66 respectively. Actually Sylvain Guintoli was the best scorer in Assen claiming 45 points over that weekend!
In the next 3 rounds: Monza, Donington Park and Miller Motorsports, Biaggi continued with Top 5 finishes in all races including a second place at Donington Park. Checa had 2 DNFs (Donington and Miller) while Sykes managed to score in all races including third place finishes in both races at Donington Park. Melandri and Rea scored the most points in these 3 rounds, 76 points each and catching up Sykes in the standings and relegating Checa to fourth:
So! Biaggi with a clear lead in the Superbike Championship and 4 riders in the chase: Sykes, Melandri, Rea and Checa. Unfortunately, Haslam and Guintoli had mix results in the last 2 rounds and they both need to evaluate their chances in the next race at Misano Adriatico.
Comparing the points system with the Superbike Grand Prix Rankings: Sykes comes first thanks to his pole position skills (4 poles out of 6), Biaggi comes second with 90.91% Top 5 finishes and 117.27% race performance (always gaining race positions), Melandri comes third with 123% race performance. Completing the top 8: Rea, Checa, Haslam, Laverty and Guintoli. Eugene Laverty ranks very well due to his race performances (on average Laverty has gained 3 race positions per race!)
| Rank | Rider | Poles | Wins | Podiums | Top5 | Performance | Finished | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Sykes | 66.67 | 9.09 | 54.55 | 72.73 | 76.00 | 90.91 | 369.95 |
| 2 | Max Biaggi | 9.09 | 45.45 | 90.91 | 117.27 | 100.00 | 362.72 | |
| 3 | Marco Melandri | 18.18 | 36.36 | 54.55 | 123.00 | 90.91 | 323.00 | |
| 4 | Jonathan Rea | 18.18 | 27.27 | 63.64 | 110.00 | 90.91 | 310.00 | |
| 5 | Carlos Checa | 36.36 | 45.45 | 45.45 | 90.00 | 72.73 | 289.99 | |
| 6 | Leon Haslam | 36.36 | 54.55 | 106.00 | 90.91 | 287.82 | ||
| 7 | Eugene Laverty | 18.18 | 45.45 | 130.00 | 81.82 | 275.45 | ||
| 8 | Sylvain Guintoli | 16.67 | 10.00 | 30.00 | 40.00 | 73.75 | 80.00 | 250.42 |
We have not even reached the mid-point in the championship, so there is definetely more to come! We hope you enjoy the graphics format (not rocket science... we made good use of our Microsoft Excel skills... but the exercise helped in putting forward the specs for our future graph generator).
Stay tuned!
Posted on June 08, 2012
