It was an action packed day and one of mixed results for the Airwaves Ducati team at Snetterton today. Leon Haslam was looking for the elusive win from his pole position start but finished the day with two 2nd places, 2005 BSB Champion Gregorio Lavilla achieved a 3rd place in the first race but failed to finish a dramatic second race.
Race one looked set to be an exciting battle between the Airwaves Ducati team and the two Honda’s as they pulled away from the rest of the field. However on lap 5 Karl Harris spectacularly crashed out resulting in a safety car controlling the race for 3 laps. The safety car negated the 1 second deficit which Kiyo held over Haslam in 2nd position, when the race restarted Haslam’s assault on the lead began. Behind him Lavilla challenged his team mate for the second spot but fell off the pace towards the end of the race. The battle for the top podium spot continued all the way to the chequered flag but Haslam struggled to find an opportunity to overtake. The race finished with Kiyo in 1st, 0.461 seconds ahead of Haslam in 2nd and Lavilla 3rd.
At the start of the second race Haslam moved into 2nd behind Kiyo before taking the lead late in the first lap. Haslam held his lead, setting a new lap record of 1:05.054 on lap 11, and looked set for his first win of the season when the race was red flagged on lap 12. Kiyo took the lead from the re-start and Lavilla, on his spare Ducati 999F06, moved into 2nd with Leon in 3rd. The remaining 8 laps were set to be fast and hard fought at the front until Greg came off on the second lap resulting in a yellow flag and the safety car. Greg was fine and walked away from the crash unscathed. Haslam then battled to the finish but the speed of the Honda was too much on Snetterton’s long straights and the race finished Kiyo 1st, Haslam 2nd and Tommy Hill in 3rd.
After his fall Gregorio Lavilla commented, “Obviously I am hugely disappointed with the 2nd race result. I almost felt like we were fighting against ourselves this weekend with various problems. After coming off on Friday we were behind schedule and it caused us problems over the weekend. In the first race I used one bike and then I swapped to the other bike for the second race, but had a clutch problem. What can I say it has been a bad weekend for me. I think Kiyo would have been hard to beat anyway as his bike was very fast, as Leon found out, but I am very disappointed that I wasn’t up there competing with them and I am hugely disappointed with the weekend.”
With two 2nd places, Leon Haslam has built on his championship points this weekend but he was also frustrated with how the circumstances affected his results. “It has been a really frustrating day especially after the red flag in the second race. It was a hard race and I was working hard to be up front and keep Kiyo behind me. Although the final result is frustrating, as I was looking for my first win, I am happy enough with the points I have got from the weekend. I am confident going into the next round as I am feeling really happy on the Ducati 999F06 and hopefully luck will be more on my side next time.”
Colin Wright summed up the weekend by saying, “GSE Racing and the Airwaves Ducati team have been riding on the crest of a wave since the start of this year, we are aware that racing can turn from good to bad very quickly. However, we achieved 3 podium positions today and we are very pleased with that. The teams’ strength is to put the past behind us, learn from it and come back as strong and positive as we’ve always been.
We have now reached the halfway point of the year and both Greg and Leon have completed 14,000 kilometres on the 999F06 Ducatis, now is a good time to say a big thank you to our sponsors for supporting us, in particular Wrigleys Airwaves Q8, Oils, and Dunlop Tyres.”
Round 8 of the BSB Championship will be at Knockhill on July 16th. Please check our website in the next few weeks when we will be running special features and in depth news about Airwaves Ducati and GSE Racing.
Race One:1) Ryuichi Kiyonari HM Plant Honda
2) Leon Haslam Airwaves Ducati
3) Gregorio Lavilla Airwaves Ducati
4) Jonathan Rea Red Bull Honda
5) Michael Laverty Stobart Motorsport
6) Tommy Hill Virgin Mobile Yamaha
Race Two:1) Ryuichi Kiyonari HM Plant Honda
2) Leon Haslam Airwaves Ducati
3) Tommy Hill Virgin Mobile Yamaha
4) Michael Laverty Stobart Motorsport
5) Craig Coxhell Hawk Kawasaki
6) Chris Martin PR Branson Honda
Related Linkswww.airwaves-ducati.co.uk
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