Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) scored his fourth win in five races this season, to extend his championship lead to 40 points. His start-to-finish win came after a period of pressure from Yamaha riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes, but Charpentier was a clear winner by
2.8 seconds in the final analysis, having started from pole and led every single lap.

Katsuaki Fujiwara (Megabike Honda CBR600RR) was the next best supported Honda rider home, in eighth place, despite re-breaking a bone in his already injured hand. His team-mate Yoann Tiberio (Megabike Honda CBR600RR), the Monza race winner, was down in 14th, after experiencing tyre choice problems mid-race, dropping from the top six position to the second last point scorer.

Charpentier’s team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) was only 20th overall, having started from a lowly 18th after a difficult first day in qualifying, which proved to be the only dry one. All the riders suffered from a lack of dry testing time, such was the pre-raceday weather. Raceday itself dawned dry, if windy.

Charpentier knew that he had been in a tough race, but his will to win saw him overcome the lack of testing time, and some tough competition at periods in the race.

“It was not an easy race for sure, even if it looked that way,” said Charpentier after his latest triumph. “It was hard because this is a very bumpy, short track, and very physical. So I am happy because yesterday it was difficult to practice, because there was so much rain. It turned out that the bike was not bad at all and for the championship I got more good points, so thanks to Ten Kate and Honda.”

Fujiwara had to grin and bear the pain throughout the race, which was delayed due to a crash in the first Superbike event.

"I have great pain in the hand that I broke in Qatar at the beginning of the season,” affirmed Fujiwara. “On Friday, during practice, I crashed and broke another little part of the same hand, and so Silverstone was a really difficult race for me. I made the best of it but the pain was very big. I hope to arrive in the best condition for the Misano race.”

Tiberio, tenth in qualifying, gambled on tyre choice and it did not turn out the way he wanted, despite the cool ambient temperatures.

"What a hard race,” said Tiberio simply. “I had a different choice of tyre from the other leading riders, too soft, and so I paid for it after five laps of the race. I'm not satisfied because I had no time to set the bike in the best way, because of the rain in practice.”

Sofuoglu complained of a lack of feel from his machine at Silverstone, and suffered a crisis of confidence.

“Things were not so good all weekend, luck was not with me and it was difficult,” said the young Turkish rider. “I started in 18th position and that was far less than what I wanted to do; normally I want to be in the top five. But in the race it did not work out, I couldn’t go away from the others, and I was overtaken. I don’t know what the problem was exactly, so I am looking to the Brno test to get my feeling back for the Italian race at Misano.”

World Superbike Round 5 of 12

TOSELAND TAKES STRONG DOUBLE PODIUM AT HIS HOME RACE

After a disappointing wet Superpole session, in which he finished only 14th, James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) rode to a brace of third places at his home circuit of Silverstone, in the dry conditions, which remained throughout raceday. Despite the lack of dry practice time, Toseland made up many places in the early laps, and finished within touching distance of the leaders in race one, but was held back for too long in the midfield in race two.

Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda CBR1000RR) made bad starts in both races, and after being involved in a horrific-looking first lap pile up, shortly before a second crash finally brought out the red flags. He had to race the first 28-lapper on his spare machine, finishing eighth. In race two he had his machine set-up more like his number one bike, and he scored a battling fifth, having been 11th on lap one.

Karl Muggeridge (Winston Honda Ten Kate CBR1000RR) suffered more than most from the lack of dry set-up time, but nonetheless took eighth and ninth place finishes.

The DFX Honda squad had tough outings at the tight and twisty short Silverstone circuit, with Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda CBR1000RR) retiring from race one and battling hard for a single point in the second leg, while Gianluca Nannelli (DFX Treme Honda CBR1000RR) scored his first point of the year in race one, but none for 17th place in race two.

Both podiums were identical, with Troy Bayliss twice the winner and Noriyuki Haga twice runner up, ahead of Toseland.

Bayliss now sits on 225 points, with Troy Corser on 149, Haga on 133 and Toseland 129. Barros is fifth, with 113, Muggeridge 13th on 45 and Fabrizio 15th, with 37.

Toseland was understandably happy to have scored what looked like two unlikely podiums at the beginning of each race, and earned good championship points.

“I was really disappointed with myself yesterday and I knew I had made it difficult for myself today,” said Toseland. “It was just a shame that Troy and Haga got into their rhythm so quickly, because it took me a bit of time to get through the field, and other riders were riding very well, which made it even harder. When Corser and Walker were battling, it was the hardest part. From 14th to two podium places, I have to be happy. I wasn’t aware of the crowd on race one but in race two I knew I had earned a good podium place and good points, so thanks to everyone for the support. It was just a shame about the weather this weekend.”

Barros was made to pay for the race one crash, in which he was an innocent victim, but had a better outing in race two.

“The first race was a disaster,” stated Barros, who had to leap over his own burning machine after the opening race multiple rider fall. “I had to use my second bike and the clutch is different on that bike. So my start was not so good. Between race one and two we changed the clutch and suspension settings and it was better, but not perfect. I lost positions because of my start. I thought I could catch Pitt in race two but it was not possible. We only had one hour of dry testing here so this was a difficult weekend for me.”

Muggeridge made changes for the better between races and knows that he notched up points after missing several races this year through injury.

“I actually had a good ride but the settings were not so good in race one,”
said Muggeridge. “I couldn’t hold the line in the faster corners, so we changed the bike between races and improved it. We gained about half a second a lap but we needed the next step up. We needed just another few tenths to let us run up there, certainly to run closer to my team-mate. I almost caught up with the riders in front in race two, I really thought I would get them, but I just ran out of laps.”

Fabrizio had great difficulties with chatter at Silverstone, and felt lucky to finish at all in race two.

“The chatter was really incredible in the first race,” said Fabrizio. “It got so bad I pulled out of the race. In the second running we changed the rear spring and all that happened was the chatter went from the rear, to both front and rear. I just gritted my teeth and got a point.”

Nannelli had two bad starts, and had to use up his tyre too much to be in contention for a top ten finish.

“I had a bad start in the first and used up my tyre a lot to get back into appoints scoring position,” said Nannelli. “In race two my start was even worse and that finished my day off.”

Misano is the venue for the sixth rounds of the WSS and SBK championships, and takes place between 23 and 25 June.