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:- Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda
- Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda
- Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati
- Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia
- Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki
- Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia
- Gregorio Lavilla – Airwaves Ducati
Race Two Result:
- Jonathan Rea – HM Plant Honda
- Leon Haslam – Airwaves Ducati
- Ryuichi Kiyonari – HM Plant Honda
- Tom Sykes – Stobart Vent Axia
- Shane Byrne – Stobart Vent Axia
- Chris Walker – Rizla Suzuki
- Leon Camier – Bike Animal Honda
Championship Points:- Ryuichi Kiyonari – 248
- Jonathan Rea – 237
- Gregorio Lavilla – 220
- Leon Haslam – 205
- Shane Byrne – 151
- Leon Camier - 145
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