2012 Philip Island WSBK FP2: Checa Shows His Pace, Podium Battle Developing

Submitted by Austin Lindberg on Sat, 2012-02-25 02:45

Max Biaggi may have finished Saturday's final free practice session atop the timing screens, but the man on the move is, you guessed it, Carlos Checa. Checa put in 12 laps in the 1'32 range, while Biaggi managed just three. If Saturday's final free practice session is anything to go on, the field will struggle to hold on to the back of Checa for more than a handful of laps.

Marco Melandri jumped to third place in the session aboard his BMW, followed by Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes rounding out the top five. All three had very similar race paces to that of Biaggi, which should make this afternoon's Superpole session all the more important.

Results:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff
1	3	M. BIAGGI	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1'32.222
2	7	C. CHECA	Ducati 1098R	1'32.246	0.024
3	33	M. MELANDRI	BMW S1000 RR	1'32.585	0.363
4	65	J. REA	Honda CBR1000RR	1'32.631	0.409
5	66	T. SYKES	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1'32.785	0.563
6	50	S. GUINTOLI	Ducati 1098R	1'32.850	0.628
7	91	L. HASLAM	BMW S1000 RR	1'32.971	0.749
8	59	N. CANEPA	Ducati 1098R	1'33.037	0.815
9	84	M. FABRIZIO	BMW S1000 RR	1'33.210	0.988
10	96	J. SMRZ	Ducati 1098R	1'33.223	1.001
11	2	L. CAMIER	Suzuki GSX-R1000	1'33.290	1.068
12	34	D. GIUGLIANO	Ducati 1098R	1'33.487	1.265
13	4	H. AOYAMA	Honda CBR1000RR	1'33.568	1.346
14	121	M. BERGER	Ducati 1098R	1'33.579	1.357
15	17	J. LASCORZ	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1'33.622	1.400
16	58	E. LAVERTY	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1'33.706	1.484
17	67	B. STARING	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1'33.709	1.487
18	25	J. BROOKES	Suzuki GSX-R1000	1'33.885	1.663
19	86	A. BADOVINI	BMW S1000 RR	1'33.889	1.667
20	87	L. ZANETTI	Ducati 1098R	1'33.952	1.730
21	18	M. AITCHISON	BMW S1000 RR	1'34.419	2.197
22	20	D. JOHNSON	BMW S1000 RR	1'35.269	3.047
23	35	R. DE ROSA	Honda CBR1000RR	1'35.318	3.096