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Paul Bird Motorsport rider Gregorio
Lavilla bounced back to form with a superb eighth place finish in
the opening leg of today's Hannspree World Superbike Championship
held in the heat of the Italian Adriatic coast at
Misano.
Aboard the Vent Axia VK Honda, qualifying had
not gone according to plan for the team as Lavilla missed out on
Superpole and was placed 19th on the grid, making for a fifth row
start but in the opening leg, the Spaniard got a good start and
pushed hard into the first three corners to come out of the first
lap in 13th position.
Max Biaggi and Michel Fabrizio crashed on lap
eleven which elevated Greg into the top ten whereby he held off
Nakatomi, Haga and Kagayama to remain in this position until the end
of the race.
In the second race, stopped after a major oil
spill on two laps and restarted over its full 24-lap duration,
Lavilla got a bad start and also experienced problems with the front
tyre, having to eventually settle for 14th and two more championship
points.
His 75 points total leaves him 13th overall,
with six rounds of the championship remaining to run and still the
top Honda privateer in the World Championship.
Gregorio Lavilla: "We are still having some difficulties and we need to
improve the bike's feeling during qualifying. In race one I had a
good start which allowed me into a good position and I was lucky
that some riders crashed. I was happy with 8th. In race two, I
didn't get such a good start and I also had some problems with the
front tyre and nearly lost the bike a few times so my main focus was
to bring the bike home in one piece as I knew that I didn't have a
chance to improve my position. We now need to get to the next level
and keep working hard."
Paul Bird: "In race one; we had a reasonably good result after a
frustrating and disappointing qualifying session once again. It was
good to see Greg get stuck in on the first lap which pushed him to
the middle of the pack rather than at the back which is what we've
been looking for all year. Greg knows he must improve his qualifying
to make it easier for him on race day so he has to stick his neck
out a bit. We now look forward to the race in Brno which is
hopefully a track better suited to the Hondas."
The next round is at Brno in the Czech Republic
on July 20th.
Superbike Race One
Result
1, M Neukirchner (Suzuki) 39m27.918s, 2, T
Corser (Yamaha) +0.542s, 3, T Bayliss (Ducati) +2.249s, 4, R Xaus
(Ducati) +3.028s, 5, C Checa (Honda) +5.408s, 6, L Lanzi (Ducati)
+5.518s, 7, J Smrz (Ducati) +6.202s, 8, G Lavilla (Vent Axia
VK Honda) +18.279s, 9, S Nakatomi (Yamaha) +19.072s, 10, N
Haga (Yamaha) +19.132s.
Superbike Race Two
Result
1, R Xaus (Ducati) 39m19.710s, 2, M Biaggi
(Ducati) +1.035s, 3, T Bayliss (Ducati) +4.158s, 4, N Haga (Yamaha)
+5.466s, 5, T Corser (Yamaha) +6.759s, 6, L Lanzi (Ducati) +13.468s,
7, M Neukirchner (Suzuki) +15.221s, 8, C Checa (Honda) +16.687s, 9,
J Smrz (Ducati) +17.030s, 10, F Nieto (Suzuki) +17.681s. 14,
G Lavilla (Vent Axia VK Honda) +32.339s.
2008 World Superbike
Championship Standings after Round 8
1, Troy Bayliss
(AUS) 259pts
2, Max Neukirchner (GER) 210pts
3, Carlos Checa
(ESP) 207pts
4, Noriyuki Haga (JPN) 191pts
5, Troy Corser
(AUS) 185pts
6, Fonsi Nieto (ESP) 151pts
7, Ruben Xaus (ESP)
148pts
8, Max Biaggi (ITA) 117pts
9, Michel Fabrizio (ITA)
111pts
10, Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) 94pts
13, Gregorio
Lavilla (ESP) 75pts
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