Submitted by Mike Lewis on
Results Below
For the second Superbike race in a row at the Nurburgring curcuit, a red-flagged race handed a premature victory to a lead rider. For Race Two, it was BMW's Chaz Davies who ended up the beneficiary after a race-long fight with Aprilia's Eugene Laverty and Marco Meandri, Davies' temmate at BMW. Laverty finished second, a tenth of a second back with Melandri in third another two-tenths behind.
The race was red-flagged near the end of the race after a crash left a small oil spill in Turn One. It was also an oil spill in Race One that handed victory to Kawasaki's Tom Sykes at lap 18. Championship leader Sykes finished Race Two in fourth place, just in front of championship contender Sylvain Guintolli.
During the race, the three top finishers swapped the lead with Davies spending most of the time out front but always under pressure from the other two. The red flag came after Matej Smrz went down at Turn One. Race officials appeared to red flag the race unusually quickly. But it was a similar oil slick in Race One that led to crashes and injuries to Jonathan Rea and Leon Camier. Rea suffered a broken femur and Camier a neck injury as a result.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Diff |
| 1 | 19 | C. DAVIES | BMW S1000 RR | |
| 2 | 58 | E. LAVERTY | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 0.132 |
| 3 | 33 | M. MELANDRI | BMW S1000 RR | 0.366 |
| 4 | 66 | T. SYKES | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1.189 |
| 5 | 50 | S. GUINTOLI | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 1.621 |
| 6 | 34 | D. GIUGLIANO | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 3.233 |
| 7 | 86 | A. BADOVINI | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | 14.677 |
| 8 | 84 | M. FABRIZIO | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 18.859 |
| 9 | 27 | M. NEUKIRCHNER | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | 22.125 |
| 10 | 7 | C. CHECA | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | 23.828 |
| 11 | 8 | M. AITCHISON | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 30.444 |
| 12 | 121 | M. REITERBERGER | BMW S1000 RR | 36.419 |
| 13 | 91 | L. HASLAM | Honda CBR1000RR | 59.787 |
| 14 | 16 | J. CLUZEL | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1'05.331 |
| 15 | 31 | V. IANNUZZO | BMW S1000 RR | 1'27.381 |
| Not classified | ||||
| RET | 96 | M. SMRZ | Yamaha YZF R1 | 53.782 |
| RET | 23 | F. SANDI | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 17 Laps |
Comments
apathy
I can't help wondering at the absence of comments here. Does it indicate a low level of interest in wsbk in general or just from users of this site? I'll freely admit that I follow wsbk much less than motogp, often miss races, and couldnt tell you now who the top riders are. Yet it wasn't always so. Back in the days of foggy and bayliss I cared much more about watching wsbk than motogp, because it was a much more exciting series, plus you got two races per event. However, that was also back in the days when I could receive Eurosport as part of the NFL cable package, and had full coverage of each race. These days I only only have freesat, can't get cable and couldn't bear to put money into the murdochs pockets. For that matter I'd struggle in any case to justify £40 a month just to watch wsbk.
So, i only get the wsbk highlights on channel 4, with the cringe-making commentary. Watching last weekends races I feel it's still a better series for fans, much less predictable than motogp, and still has hell-for-leather, 3 or 4 at the front battles, but...... It's less enjoyable because highlights-only coverage takes away the suspense.
There may be a (rather obvious I'm sure) lesson here for dorna; if a series isn't easily accessible to viewers, even the most interested can lose interest and look elsewhere for entertainment. Once motogp goes to BT next year, I wonder will that herald a sharp decline in followers of the series?