World Superbike 2008 - Round Five

World Superbike 2008 - Round Five - Monza

Superstock

Team Alstare Suzuki rider Xavier Simeon won the third round of the 2008 Superstock 1000 FIM Cup at Monza today after leading the race from start to finish.

He started from the third row of the grid, but made a superb start and was third going into the first corner. It was just as well that he was so far up the field, for behind him a rider had crashed braking for the turn and then skittled ten riders and their bikes! Despite there being bikes and riders all over the first chicane, by the time Simeon and the rest of the depleted field came round again, the track was clear. He then controlled the race from the front and ran out the winner by over two seconds with Matej Smrz (Honda) second and Alessandro Polita (Ducati) third.

His victory moves him into first place in the championship, with a 15-point lead over Polita.

Xavi Simeon - 1st:
"I made a very good start and was either second or third going into the first chicane. While I was on the brakes, I heard a strange noise, so I made the bike a bit more upright. I was lucky that I wasn't taken out by any of the falling bikes. I did the first two laps cautiously to make sure there wasn't any oil on the track before forcing the pace. After that it was a pretty easy race really. I was lucky that I didn't get tangled up in the crash, but sometimes you are lucky and sometimes not. Today was my day! It was great to win and great to be leading the championship."

Czech Matej Smrz (Honda) and Italian Alessandro Polita (Ducati) rounded out the podium ahead of Brendan Roberts (Ducati)

Having avoided the collision of lap one, Roberts was in the leading group from the offset. In the fight for podium places, the young Australian battled hard against Smrz and Polita but then an error at the end of the straight from Polita meant that Roberts had to slow in taking the curve in order to avoid colliding with his rivals. Realising that he could not make up the lost time, Roberts preferred to ride the sensible race and take home precious points from his fourth place finish.

World Superstock Monza

Brendan Roberts - 4th:
“The first curve is incredibly slow and there are too many riders that push too hard, as happened today, resulting in falls that could have serious consequences for all of us. I managed to avoid getting caught up in what happened at the start and ended up in a battle with Smrz and Polita. I pushed hard on the first laps but the further into the race we got, the worse the rear tyre grip became. A couple of small mistakes and the fact I couldn’t open the gas as much as I hoped to, meant that I had to make a decision and so chose to stay safe and take a solid fourth place. I could be happier but I hope to pick it up again in Germany, a new track for everyone where I am sure we can do well.”

The race for the Yamaha contenders ended at the first chicane where 11 riders were caught up in a huge melee.

Claudio Corti (DNF - Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team)
"I'm very depressed about this result because we were set for a good race until I got taken out. After a no score at Assen as well, the championship has become very difficult. We will try our best to get back into contention from Germany onwards."

Michelle Pirro (DNF - Yamaha Motor Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)
"After the first corner crash behind me I thought I had got away with it at the front, but then a Ducati came across the grass and knocked me off. The bike bashed into my groin and stomach very hard and that was it finished."

KTM's World Superstock baptism of fire continued with rider Rene Mahr retiring to pitlane only three laps into the race due to clutch problems.

Rene Maehr: "Even if we did have a tough job ahead of us at Monza, at the end of the day I am most disappointed that we weren't able to solve the problem during training. Being unable to finish the race is doubly disappointing because I wasn't able to test out the improvements we made during the warm-up at race speed. Nevertheless our experience in Monza continues the learning process and this is the task we set ourselves for the 2008 racing season."

The next race in the FIM Superstock 1000 World Cup is from June 13-15 on the Grand Prix circuit at Germany's Nurburgring.